CAFE? No CAFE?

Man, this fuel economy crap is confusing the hell out of us. And U.S "President" Bush is going to veto it anyway, so what's point? Here are the latest articles:

The Detroit News reports House OKs 35 mpg rule.

AutoWeek reports Big CAFE hike stalls--for now--in Senate.

AutoWeek reports Lutz says 35-mpg CAFE will scuttle GM product plans.

OK, it passed the House, stalled in the Senate and despite the "Automakers, in a historic about-face, support the higher CAFE standards." (from the "Senate" article above), GM VP Bob Lutz says that new standard will mess up GM's future gas guzzlin' machines.

Clearly the Unions are at fault here. Damned unions.

It's pretty insane that we'll have to wait until 2020 to get vehicles with decent mileage. By then the sweet Honda Clarity FCX will be rockin' out everywhere and it won't matter, but the point is that we should be far ahead in terms of fuel efficiency. It's a shame that horsepower and top speed are more important than lowering pollution and lessening our dependence on foreign oil. You'd think some egg-head engineer would get a kick out of the challenge of combining power with fuel efficiency...

Imagine, them walking down the street and bumping into each other: "You got your fuel efficiency in my high horsepower engine!" "No, you got your high horsepower engine in my fuel efficiency!" Hilarity ensues and we all fly up to Heaven to be with Jaysus.

Can you imagine if these two were the egghead engineers? It'd be like: "We have a crotch explosion in sector two! Of the sexiest kind!" Also, Alison.

Comments

[Jocelyn Plourde]

The technology isn't there yet? I'm sorry, but that is wrong. Fuel consumption depends on many things: vehicle mass, engine displacement, type of driving among others.

Take SUVs and other large vehicles out of any car maker's fleet, and you will see MPGs drop because those vehicles are very heavy and have proportionately large engines to move them.

Offer cars that are "bare-boned" (no A/C, reverse sensors, power-windows and locks, key-less entry, even carpets and upholstery) and, again MPGs will fall because all those things either add weight to a vehicle and/or use energy from the engine to function.

Offer diesel engines! Diesels are much more efficient than gasoline engines, yet we barely see them in passenger vehicles in North America. In Europe, more than HALF of the passenger vehicles are diesels.

Also, if car makers would stop this insane horsepower race and focus on fuel efficiency, again, MPGs would drop. Who needs 300 hp? 400? 500? And yet, those figures have become common-place. And not just in supercars. Take an engine that produces 300 hp and tune it so that it produces LESS horsepower and see what kind of mileage you get.

Finally, lighter materials need to become common place because a lighter vehicle is a more fuel efficient vehicle. More carbon fiber, more aluminum, more plastics.

[matt tori]

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[kps]

Well, the reason that its not until 2020 because the technology hasn't been invented yet. Of course if some car company could give us both they would have already - think how much money they would make off it. But we can't just ask why its not here yet, its the same as being mad we don't have flying cars either. I've done some work with the AAM and I think its good that Congress got new standards through and ones that even the auto industry is committed too as well.