At 02:30 PM 5/7/06 -0700, Karen wrote:
>Also, they could add a really big tax on them (I think
>they are exempt from CAFE?).
I *believe* this dates back to the mid-late 1970s when they first started
tightening fuel economy standards. According to Detroit, it was impossible
to meet the new standards. Even more impossible was to apply them to
trucks. At the time, there weren't nearly as many trucks on the road, and
the concept of the SUV was practically nonexistent, so I guess that's where
the exemption started. I'm pretty sure this exemption was also for
emissions requirements as well.
I'm not sure how it stands today, but I believe that SUVs still are not
classified as "passenger vehicles" and therefore don't have to meet CAFE
standards. There *is* as I understand it a different CAFE threshold for
non-passenger vehicles, but I'm not entirely sure what vehicles this
entails; particularly, I'm a bit confused as to what the typical, full-size
van is considered.
Interestingly, because they're not passenger vehicles, trucks and SUVs
didn't have to meet bumper safety standards, either. Some time back (I
want to say early or mid 1990s), Consumer Reports made mention of this,
pointing out how trucks were sold on the "toughness" image, and yet had
what they described as "tin-foil bumpers".
I don't know the current state of things . . either whether the government
requires tougher bumpers in SUVs/trucks or not, or if not, whether the
vehicle manufacturers comply with the passenger-car bumper crash standards.
- Joe Vahabzadeh
