GM has officially trademarked the term "SS"

[DaBears]

Originally Posted by TOMS1SS

So does SS even mean Super Sport anymore? Or is it just another silly trim acronym like LS and LT?

They didnt trademark it because they wanted it as a trim level. They wanted it as a name. So yes it'll mean Super Sport at least for this car.

[DaBears]

Is anyone else surprised they are doing this with CAFE standards? I mean a V8 only option sedan is going to be tough to get better than 23 or 24 MPG on the highway.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by DaBears

Is anyone else surprised they are doing this with CAFE standards? I mean a V8 only option sedan is going to be tough to get better than 23 or 24 MPG on the highway.

Some will be, I'm not. While CAFE is an average, there is far more going on than many people assume. You'd think its adding up how many cars you sell of each model, multiplied by their fuel economy, divided by the total sales volume. But its not.

A car's score depends on more than how efficient it is. One of the factors is the vehicles 'foot print' -wheel base x track width. If its greater than some value, the cars CAFE score is boosted by some amount (its a sliding scale). If its smaller, then it will incur a penalty. This is done to prevent an explosion of Smart FourTwos (which don't fill the needs of the average family) at the expense of large sedans or trucks (which are definitely needed by some).

Additionally, the calculation method is designed to place a greater emphasis on high volume vehicles. So it works out that if you've got 6 vehicles that get a final CAFE score of 30 mpg, and one sells 100k while the other 5 only sell 20k each, the better selling vehicle would hurt the overall CAFE score for the automaker more than the other 5 combined, even though conventional logic says that the net result should be the same. The reason behind this? To encourage automakers to make 'normal cars' more efficient rather than let a few niche vehicles get outrageously high scores to skew the average.

[jmyss]

My previous car was an 09 G8 GT, one of the best cars i've ever owned which I traded for my 2011 SS, would love to see the Commodore come back to the US as this...

[DaBears]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Some will be, I'm not. While CAFE is an average, there is far more going on than many people assume. You'd think its adding up how many cars you sell of each model, multiplied by their fuel economy, divided by the total sales volume. But its not.

A car's score depends on more than how efficient it is. One of the factors is the vehicles 'foot print' -wheel base x track width. If its greater than some value, the cars CAFE score is boosted by some amount (its a sliding scale). If its smaller, then it will incur a penalty. This is done to prevent an explosion of Smart FourTwos (which don't fill the needs of the average family) at the expense of large sedans or trucks (which are definitely needed by some).

Additionally, the calculation method is designed to place a greater emphasis on high volume vehicles. So it works out that if you've got 6 vehicles that get a final CAFE score of 30 mpg, and one sells 100k while the other 5 only sell 20k each, the better selling vehicle would hurt the overall CAFE score for the automaker more than the other 5 combined, even though conventional logic says that the net result should be the same. The reason behind this? To encourage automakers to make 'normal cars' more efficient rather than let a few niche vehicles get outrageously high scores to skew the average.

Interesting explanation. I guess I could see how one car isnt going to mean much but an Entire fleet of old fashioned body on frame SUV's can hurt CAFE average big time.

Thanks.