2 For 1 EV Specials At CAFE

Look, I'm not a huge fan of CAFE (gas tax or emissions tax would be better), but there's another reason for the age of the CUV and the demise of the wagon. I posted this in the Verano thread, and it bears repeating in a CAFE-related thread -- slightly edited: I don’t completely understand the CUV hate here. I get that TTAC has a lot of: (a) people who want a manual diesel wagon; (b) “get off my lawn” types who want a car with crank windows and vinyl seats that was engineered in 1976. I fall in camp (a), but don’t hate CUVs. CUVs are much better for what people actually do vs. the BOF SUV that people used to get. Not that long ago, a Ford Expedition/Excursion or Suburban (Tahoe didn't have one in 1st gen) was the only choice if you wanted a non-minivan with a third row, although later BOF mid-sizes like the old Explorers and Pathfinders started adding third rows. CUVs have more space than BOF SUVs, better gas mileage, better handling, better acceleration. Most people need at best a roof-top carrier, and not massive amounts of towing. That third row is important for car seats. The reality is that wagons don’t quite meet the needs of a lot of people with kids any more. You need a 7-seater now for 3 kids or for 2 kids + friends because of car seats. Ye olde rear-facing third row seat (which I loved as a kid) doesn’t cut it for this purpose. I don’t know the laws in other states, but California says kids have to be in a car seat or booster (depending age/weight) until age 8 or 80 lbs. Many cars don’t have back seats wide enough for 3 car seats, and in other cars, only certain brands of car seats will fit 3-across. Minivans work too, and plenty of people who want to pay less money have minivans instead of CUVs/SUVs for this purpose. That said, minivans are still pretty expensive these days (someone said $44K for a loaded Odyssey and $46K for a loaded Sienna in another thread the other day). It used to be that no one cared if your baby was crawling across the dash while you drove. That’s not the case any more.

Any wonder why there is such hostility toward CAFE? If this was going to be the standard used to ensure a minimum efficiency standard, it should have been about two pages long. One for cars an SUVs and one for pickups. Period. No footprint bs, no credits for different fuels, etc. I'd still skip this method for a registration tax/surcharge based on EPA combined mileage but that would make too much sense..

Europe is not like the US. Going with their rules would kill the domestic truck industry. Don't act like that is the solution because we all know that it isn't. Now, I am not saying that CAFE is good either. Too many loopholes, what else do you expect from the gov't.

I must be extremely dense. TTAC thinks EVs are the devil and it turns out that CAFE regs have a loophole that lets automakers build half as many as they were originally supposed to, increasing the amount of internal-combustion-powered vehicles that they can build and sell. But somehow this is a bad thing. You'd think they renamed this site to complainabouteverything.com