Marchionne: V8 Muscle Cars To Be "Rare As White Flies" Under CAFE

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

I’m still making my way through the tome that is the CAFE regulations, but Sergio Marchionne already know what’s up – maybe all that time he saves by not picking out his outfit each day has something to do with it.

The Chrysler CEO was characteristically blunt with his assessment of CAFE. Going forward, V8 engines (erroneously described as “supercharged Hemis” in certain major outlets) will be “rare as white flies”. Marchionne also delivered more prophetic broad strokes, stating CAFE will “will change the way this industry operates” and that “Everything is on the table…” when it comes to the next generation of cars.

I’m not entirely convinced. Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics put it best when describing to NBC how he envisioned the changes that CAFE will bring. According to him, the automobile

“…will change less than anybody imagines – but more than anyone wants…They will find a lot of new ways to do things.”

At the height of the oil-crisis, when muscle cars were thought to be dinosaurs on the verge of extinction, who would have thought that the 2012 Corvette Z06, with a big-block V8 would retun 15/24 mpg city highway, or that today’s crop of V6-powered pickups would lose nothing to their 8-cylinder brethren in terms of power or towing? There are multiple arguments for or against CAFE – like many of life’s important issues, it’s not entirely black and white.

As far as I’m concerned, more efficient engines, in the abstract, are always a good thing. I take a cornucopian view with respect to automotive technology – whether it’s more efficient powertrains or lighter vehicles (which needs to be the next breakthrough if we’re going to make any gains) will allow us to enjoy a future of motoring that will, like Jim Hall says, change less than anybody will imagine – and hopefully less than any of us want.

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • Mike Kelley Mike Kelley on Sep 01, 2012

    Any government that can crank out 1900 pages of CAFE regulations and 2000+ page healthcare bills is badly in need of pruning. $20 trillion of debt and 6% interest rates will force big cuts soon, I am betting.

  • DenverMike DenverMike on Sep 01, 2012

    Forget it. The DOHC V8 is as good as it ever got. And it's not just about V8 rumble either. Yes, you can boost a V6, but you've also added complexity, heat and premium fuel to the mix. Never mind the increased price and all this for what, a marginal bump in mpg over a V8? No thank's. The SVO and GNX have their place in history, but they had pretty light weight bodies in a time when we were starved for power and performance.

  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
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