Autoblog reports: Thomas Friedman of NYT talks back to GM. We actually don't know if Mr. Friedman is kickin' ass or taking any names—the frickin NY Times has his article behind the wall of money so we can't read it*. But based on what a friend told Autoblog, we hear-tell Mr. Friedman gave the ol' smackdown on GM.
the automakers produced flex-fuel capable vehicles in order to take advantage of a federal loophole that increased the overall mileage of each company's fleet to within federally mandated limits. Friedman cites the 2006 GMC Yukon 2WD that actually gets 15 mpg city and 20 mpg highway, though is rated at 33 mpg in order to meet the government's CAFÉ standards. Only by producing these vehicles as flex-fuel capable were the automakers able to take advantage of this loophole.If that's true, it's pretty lame. If it's not true... well, it would still be lame.
*While we could have taken the paper off of Hobo Joe, we figure it won't be too long before we're in the same boat (er, bench) and that the whole "what goes around, comes around" thing comes back to haunt us. Sleep well, friend.
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