[coolman]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

No. You're missing my point.

The CAFE law is an attempt to "make our cars efficient" by regulating technological development. The assumption is that we can have our cake and eat it, too...auto engineers just need to work a little harder...(I hope you can sense the dripping sarcasm, there...). WE know what's going to really happen. Our cars will change; some may say for the better. I'm not addressing any of this at the moment, though.

Fact is, CAFE standards are a broken concept. A poor attempt at an honest idea.

The government's ultimate goal is to lower fuel consumption across our society. That's why there are energy tax credits for special windows/insulation, etc...we're just very very very close to the auto sector. If their goal is to be reached -- and I'm not saying it should be...there are plenty of alternative ideas out there --- but if the goal of reduced consumption is to be achieved, the only logical way to do it is by raising gas prices. We saw, unequivocally, our oil consumption DROP several points in 2008-2009 thanks to the gas hike. CAFE has produced no such results in its history.

I DON'T WANT to see laws and regs created to manipulate the driver, let alone the car companies and the consumer. But guess what?...nobody's complaining to the right people...and the auto companies best bet is to deflect the issue away from them. Lobbying for the repeal of CAFE would be bad voodoo...

So...

Would you rather buy not-so-fun cars at the drastically inflated prices necessary to reach ridiculous fuel economy standards of CAFE, or have direct control of your spending in the car you want, via higher gas taxes?

I'm just being realistic. I've written my representatives. I've told them what I think of CAFE, and how I expect them to approach the legislation, and I periodically restate my case. I've done my part, and I'm waiting for everyone else to do theirs. Until then, this is a call-it-as-I-see-it topic for me...

I completely agree with you on CAFE. It's worthless and impractical. I guess my rant is a totally different thread that would probably get closed pretty quickly. It's just that I'm getting tired of different people coming up with new ways to falsely inflate cost for their benefit in the name of some cause.