RE: [comment] VWoA...WTF?

["Aaron Ness" <aaron@makuta.com>]

Oops.  Forgot to mention that.  I like the idea of raising CAFE to something
like 28mpg.  The technology exists to do that, although a lot of people
would stop buying SUVs because the performance would drop off (not that it's
really there to start with).

I realize that statement sounds hypocritical - I write this with my 20mpg
Cherokee listed in my sig.  If it were not for the fact that I'm house poor
(and school loan poor), we would replace it with a car.  My wife and I don't
really like driving our Jeep because it's a truck; I got rid of my Nissan
truck because it's a truck and drives as such.  We're about to sell our
house, and when we get out from under its financial burden, we may get into
the market for a newer Passat wagon.  I hear the automatics are really nice
in those.  ;-)

Aaron
'82 Scirocco
'70 Beetle
'87 Jeep Cherokee 4.0
'81 Honda CX500


> -----Original Message-----
> From: 16v Jason [mailto:jason@scirocco.org]
> Sent: Friday, December 15, 2000 1:01 PM
> To: aaron@makuta.com; 'Night Shadow'; 'Christian Els'
> Cc: VWMikeLVW@aol.com; scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> Subject: RE: [comment] VWoA...WTF?
>
>
> Agreed with one correction:
>
> The reason that the Big Three make small cars isn't actually
> for brand
> loyalty (although it's a nice side-benefit).  It's because of
> the CAFE
> Standards.
>
> Those of you who aren't familiar with CAFE, it stands for
> Corporate Average
> Fuel Economy.  It's currently at (I think) 24mpg.  This means
> that the
> average fuel economy of all cars that any manufacturer sells
> in the USA
> must lie under the 24mpg mark or the company will be fined
> heavily by the
> EPA.
>
> For every 42mpg Neon that Chrysler sells, it can sell *two* 18mpg
> Dakotas.  Chrysler doesn't care that it loses a few hundred
> bucks on the
> Neon, cause it more than makes up for it with the thousands
> that it earns
> on every Dakota.
>
> All of the big 3 have stated publicly that if it weren't for the CAFE
> standards, they would all abandon the small car market.  What
> does that
> tell you about the small car market in the States?  It's just
> not there.
>
> Jason
>
>


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