Too little too late (CAFE)

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At this point, it is just window dressing::
although it might be interesting to see what has to change in SUVs from 8,500-10,000 pounds to get 24 MPG!
 
So now the biggest SUVs just need to haul 10,001 lbs.

"They" snuck the 3/4 ton suburbans up to 8500 for the previous exemption, what's to stop them from going to 10,000?

This is the same clean air vs economy idiocy that forces one into a 3/4 ton truck if they want diesel power b/c the engines are "too dirty" if they're in a lighter truck.

Since pickups are exempt, watch for Lincoln Blackwood type heaps with vestigial beds.
 
GM is tetering on the Chapter 11 cliff right now and all the future rides on the GMT900 program. (Yukon,Suburban platform) They are hooked on this profit drug as are the suppliers linked to them. Too bad it probably won't work. CAFE is a joke. I drive a 02 Suburban and will run it out to 125k on the clock but won't get another because it is a thing of the past. JMO
 
CAFE changes for trucks and SUVs:
Article

Barrel of oil is already at $60+ and they are tinkering with CAFE, making small adjustments over many years. By the time these changes are all implemented we will be at $150 barrel and sales of SUVs/Vans will long have collapsed, making the entire CAFE effort irrelvant. What a waste?!?
 
Looks like more 5w20 oil spec vehicles in 2008.
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^^^ Agree. We have a Durango but it won't be replaced with another one. We'll probably do the same thing. Run it a little over 100K and park it. Just use it for the winter in case it snows as the wife has to be at work regardless of the weather.
 
Well, I am going to keep driving my 2003 Durango until it reaches 300,000 miles! I have it and it is paid off. I am NOT going out to buy another vehicle anytime soon. If I get in the mood to drive something smaller i will use my Audi from time to time. This cafe stuff is C R A P !!! Why don't they just put in more diesel engines in the midsize and smaller trucks. This will save on oil consumption immediately!! Diesels use less fuel and it requires less processing than gasoline. Why don't these idiot politicians see this? The reports are right there for them to see!
 
quote:

Originally posted by eljefino:
So now the biggest SUVs just need to haul 10,001 lbs.

"They" snuck the 3/4 ton suburbans up to 8500 for the previous exemption, what's to stop them from going to 10,000?

This is the same clean air vs economy idiocy that forces one into a 3/4 ton truck if they want diesel power b/c the engines are "too dirty" if they're in a lighter truck.

Since pickups are exempt, watch for Lincoln Blackwood type heaps with vestigial beds.


Vestigial beds
lol.gif
Like an appendix or something. Don't forget the vestigial 'tail'...a little stump that in previous vehicles was a trailer hitch!
 
Why dont the pols just mind their own business.

If someone can afford or needs a large SUV or truck and doesnt mind paying the extra money for gas so be it.
 
This is just more feel-good activity by the government. Let's not forget what started the SUV craze in the first place. It started, in part, because of the first round of CAFE regulations for passenger vehicles. This forced automakers to either shrink cars, make them anemic with tiny engines, or sell econoboxes at a loss so CAFE numbers can be averaged.

Pickups and SUVs were exempt, because government didn't want to penalize the poor struggling farmers and contractors with more expensive vehicles. Unfortunately, the general public took advantage of this CAFE loophole and started buying these underregulated vehicles. The fact that SUVs were a cash cow to the auto manufacturers didn't hurt business.

So now the government wants to step in and help rectify this situation. I wonder what absurdities will develop from this. Can't they just let the market work itself out? All too often in life I see people making knee-jerk decisions to solve one problem with absolutely no thought on how their decisions will bring on new problems. Many times the new problems are worse than the original problem.

What we really need is $4 to $5 a gallon, structured in some way (taxes?) so the oil companies don't profit from this. This'll throw cold water on the SUV-crazed public and bring some sanity to car buyers. And they'll still have the choice to do whatever they want.
 
"What we really need is $4 to $5 a gallon, structured in some way (taxes?) so the oil companies don't profit from this. This'll throw cold water on the SUV-crazed public and bring some sanity to car buyers. And they'll still have the choice to do whatever they want."

I like driving my SUV. I Like Driving Trucks! I don't like small cars and will continue to drive my truck. Being an American means that you have the right to choose! The govt. is already too far up my *** more so than I would like! If you don't want to drive a truck then don't! I like them, I drive them! I work for my money and I will spend it how I like. I would prefer that they had diesels in them for the reasons I mentioned above, but until they do I will keep on rollin'!
 
At the risk of bringing politics into the picture, gas prices are artificially low. We're paying for it one way or another... either at the pump or subsidized by the taxpayers with the war in Iraq. I don't like the idea of my tax dollars being used to subsidize your preference.
 
Winston, I agree. Just make the trucks/SUV's get better mileage! I know that they can do this. There engineering can work wonders! I will always believe that we are so close but the companies are so resistant to make these changes. I know it affectes thier bottom line but we need them to move on these things before the govt get's involved.
 
Gentlemen,
I'll not allow Kestas to take the flak all on his own body armor, so to speak. There is a relevant article today in navy times, which anybody interested in reading can find here, if they scroll down:
http://www.military.com/earlybrief
Headline is Pentagon seminars seek solutions to "oil addiction"

One speaker was former CIA Chief James Woolsey. Some remarks of his included:

“We must focus on short, quick moves that will give us alternatives, but they are not silver bullets,” Woolsey said.

He described a plan that could eventually get gas mileage of about 1,000 miles a gallon: Take hybrid gas-electric cars like the Toyota Prius and add a feature that will allow owners to plug their car into the electric grid overnight to top off the battery. By running the car off the battery for the first 20 miles of a day’s commute, the mileage per gallon of gasoline would rise from the average 45 miles the Prius offers today to about 135 miles a gallon.

In the plan’s second stage, he said, replace the standard gasoline engine in the Prius with one that can run on a combination of regular gas and cellulose-based ethanol made from switch grasses: The mileage per gallon of gasoline would reach about 500 miles.

Auto makers also could replace today’s steel and aluminum car bodies with carbon composites already used in Formula 1 race cars, making automobiles extremely lightweight yet crash-resistant, and boost the mileage to about 1,000 miles per gallon of gas.

“None of this requires brand new research,” Woolsey said. “All you need is improvements, no Manhattan Projects, no white [lab] coats needed.”

The major elements of his plan already are being tried out in different parts of the country, and with the right combination of short-duration subsidies, the United States could move toward oil independence, he said.

For example, Brazil, which began a switch to ethanol-based cars 30 years ago, now relies on oil for only 60 percent of its transportation needs, Woolsey said, and in another 10 years will be oil-independent.

In case people wondered how these ideas related to national security, Woolsey, who served as an undersecretary of the Navy before becoming CIA director from 1993-95, offered this: Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest producer of oil, makes about $160 billion in annual profits.

“A good chunk of that, and about $3 billion to $4 billion from the Saudi government and $1 billion from private citizens, goes to the Wahhabis, who build madrasas in Pakistan, which teach its students to hate a lot of people,” he said. “If you wonder who’s paying for this, you are, each time you fill the tank.”

Wahhabism is an austere form of Islam that prescribes a literal interpretation of the Koran and regards those who don’t practice such forms of Islam as heathens and enemies.

Woolsey said U.S. consumption of oil that goes toward paying for fringe Islamic groups is “like paying for both sides in a war. This is not a good plan.”

For those who say these adjustments are difficult, “we have done hard things before,” Woolsey said. “In the past, we have dismantled kaiser’s and Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, the Japanese imperial forces and the Soviet Union. All of them decided to take us on — they are all gone and we’re still here.”

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I guess it is your choice to drive whatever you can get your hands on. ****, you can go buy 20 gallons of gas and just give it away on a street corner, if you want to be charitable and just get a kick out of buying gas. A good chunk of change, however, makes it back to the pockets of some people with an avowed goal of blowing you up to kingdom come.

Just something to think about the next time you are at the pump watching your own wallet get thinner. There ARE consequences (national trade deficit anybody?), both economic and strategic, to what we are doing.

Blame it on "these dad-gum atheistic lib'rals" if it makes you feel better. The money isn't going to the coffers of the ACLU, though. But I'm sure Al-Qaeda gets a cut out of it.

Regards,
Jett Rink
 
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Own your home? - mortgage interest deduction on the backs of renters.

As a matter of fact, if someone renting out a property did not get the mortgage interest deduction, they would likely add the additional taxes they pay right into the monthly rent they collect.

Same goes for the property tax deduction, too.

(I won't sit here and talk about how renters don't have to pay property taxes, because I know it's not true).
 
Still a lot of people buy more house than they need to get the interest deduction. Where I live houses are cheap and I don't get a deduction because I don't pay enough in interest and property taxes to get me over the standard deduction anyway ($10k if you're married).

I don't think gas prices should be artificially low from subsidies or artificially high from taxes. Market price and let people drive what they want to drive and spend what they want to spend.
 
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Still a lot of people buy more house than they need to get the interest deduction.

A lot of people believe they shouldn't pay down their mortgage because they'll get less of a deduction.

Can't figure that one out.
 
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