Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Awesome
I was reading the story this morning and the number being tossed around is that this will add about $1300 to the cost of every new car.
I remember reading in the past that the guzzler tax is $1000 per car, so hopefully this means some smart auto maker will just ignore these draconian fuel economy standards and simply pay the "guzzler" tax and pass the $300 savings along to the consumers.
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The guzzler tax is separate from CAFE fines. CAFE fines are are $5.50 per tenth of a MPG per unit. So, if GM's domestic car fleet average is 3mpg too low, they would have to increase the price of every car by $165.
The fleet average, including high-mpg Impalas, Aveos, Cobalt XFEs, and V6 Camaros would have to be
24mpg too low for CAFE fines to add $1300 to the cost of the car. That's currently impossible since the current CAFE standard is 27.5mpg...all the cars in the fleet would have to average 3.5 mpg on the easy CAFE test (not the tougher EPA consumer mpg test).
If GM is currently meeting CAFE requirements but not exceeding, the requirements would have to jump to 51.5mpg before the CAFE fines would be $1300 per car.
Also, manufacturers get credit for exceeding CAFE which can be applied in years where they come in too low. So, if for 5 years they beat the CAFE requirements by 1mpg, they can then come in too low by 1mpg for 5 years (or 5mpg for one year).