Quote:
Originally Posted by Tuckerfan
Conspiracy? No. Stupidity? Yes, yes, yes. Every time Congress tries to raise fuel economy standards, the car makers come out screaming that it's impossible for them to do this, and yet every time they're required to, they manage to meet those new requirements. (Not surprising since the US has some of the lowest standards in the world.) They make the claim that no one would ever want to buy such a thing, as it'd have to be incredibly weird looking or small. Right now, they can't build high mileage cars fast enough, and US dealers are charging a premium for hybrids because the demand is so high.
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it's that thing called "bargaining" -the law makers say they want a 35mpg average in x amount of years, but GM and Ford know that they can realistically pull off 30mpg, so they say that 25 is a mroe realistic number. so the lawmakers lower the offer to 30, and the car makers grudgingly say "ok, if you insist" and get it done.
but of course this is all just a show for the public- they actually agree on the new standards well before they have a hearing that is broadcast live on C Span to make it look like the leaders are doing their jobs.
the car makers know what they are capable of doing, and they know what the general public- including people like me that aren't refined and intelligent enough to live in major metropolitan areas- will buy in large enough numbers to justify them putting in all the $$$ and time to bring to to market.
that, and they don't want to make promises on what they can do until they know they are going to be able to do it.
all you people that think that the fact that some one off test car back in the 70's got 300mpg under a set of very tightly controlled circumstances means that GM and Ford could build a reliable 100mpg car that everyone would want to buy make about as much sense as the people that think that just because the Hubble telescope can see far away things in great detail it should be able to easily make out Neil Armstrong's footprints on the moon.
it just doesn't work that way.