You have probably heard about CAFE – Corporate Average Fuel Economy – which is the argot for the federal government’s mandatory miles-per-gallon decrees. Every vehicle manufacturer is forced to comply with these decrees – and we’re all forced to pay for them.
CAFE is based on a bizarre premise.
It is that were it not for the federal government decreeing that vehicle manufacturers build and offer for sale “fuel efficient” vehicles, they would not build and offer such vehicles for sale. This is as absurd as asserting that there would not be inexpensive restaurants were it not for the government decreeing that there be inexpensive restaurants. Of course, eating at any restaurant has gotten expensive because of the government, but that is a subject for another time. The point is that there are – well, there were – inexpensive as well as expensive places to eat because there was a market for both kinds of restaurants.
Just the same, there is a market – a natural one – for fuel efficient vehicles. The latter didn’t manifest into existence as a result of CAFE, which was imposed on vehicle manufacturers (and so, on us) back in the mid-1970s.
They existed prior to CAFE.
Examples include efficient little cars such as the original VW Beetle and the numerous Japanese small cars such as the early Datsuns and Hondas that were available before the advent of CAFE. They were offered – and were sold – because there enough people who wanted to buy them. It is a lie, in other words, that the market for such cars was – somehow – stymied by the machinations of the vehicle industry as well as an idiocy in that why would the vehicle manufacturers not want to sell what people wanted to buy? VW only sold Beetles and Beetle-based fuel-efficient small cars long before the government decreed that every manufacturer must also sell fuel-efficient cars. And sold millions of them.
Italics added.
It was not enough that fuel-efficient cars were available. That some manufacturers – such as VW and Datsun and Honda – offered them. Every manufacturer had to be forced to focus on “gas mileage” to the detriment of their business, because other brands touted other virtues besides “gas mileage.”
In other words, it had nothing to do with making sure the industry refused to sell “gas guzzlers” only. Rather, it had everything to do with using the lie that “fuel efficient” vehicles were being withheld as the excuse for using the power of the government to force everyone to pay for “efficient” vehicles, no matter what it cost them.
There was a market for “gas guzzlers” and “fuel efficient” cars. People used to have the choice.
Some people cared less about gas mileage than they did about size, roominess and power. And that was the market that had to be suppressed.
Prior to CAFE, Americans who wanted a car like the original Beetle or a Japanese-made similar kind of car were free to buy them and manufacturers such as VW and Datsun (Nissan today) and Honda and Subaru, et al were free to manufacture and offer them for sale. But Americans who wanted something bigger – a full-sized sedan or wagon, for instance – were equally free to buy a Chevy Impala or Ford Country Squire. These had big V8s that weren’t “efficient” but they had other virtues that mattered more to those who bought them than how many MPGs they got. No one who bought one of these big vehicles was forced to buy one, being the key point. The people who did buy them wanted them – and didn’t mind paying more for gas because they got other attributes of more value to them instead.
This affronted the Weevils who hold government office and pretend to be benefactors of humanity. The truth is they have contempt for humanity – expressed by their contempt for the free market and the choices (which are synonymous with alternatives) it affords. The Weevils cannot stand it that some people care more about owning a big car with a big engine than a small car with a small engine. Ergo, they used the lie about it being necessary for the government to decree mandatory MPG minimums – which is what CAFE is all about. Not to assure that all vehicles became more “efficient.” To assure that all vehicles got more expensive.
Especially big vehicles – which are now rich people’s vehicles as the handful that remain are all extremely expensive because of CAFE compliance costs, which are folded into the MSRP – and most of these vehicles are trucks and SUVs. These typically start around $50,000 and go up from there.
That is what CAFE has accomplished – rather than “saving” anything. Including gas. The most “efficient” cars today are not quite as efficient as the cars that were available 40 years ago, when it was common for efficient small cars to deliver 40-plus MPG. Today, just a small handful do – and they are all much more expensive than the small, efficient cars of 40 years ago. Today’s CAFE-compliant cars have direct-injected, usually turbocharged engines and transmissions with two or even three overdrive gears and they still only just barely achieve the mileage figures of early ’80s economy cars. It’s as embarrassing as it is obnoxious.
If it weren’t for CAFE, working and middle class Americans would still be able to afford to buy full-size vehicles with V8 engines, if they wanted to buy them. And Americans who wanted extremely fuel-efficient vehicles would be able to buy those, too – especially if the government “safety” regulations that have made even small cars as heavy as big cars were done away with. A current “efficient” car that manages 40 MPG would be able to get 50 or more if it were 1,000 pounds lighter, which would be possible if the government didn’t decree so much “safety” be added to the scales (as in the form of a car designed around six air bags). 
The whole false premise that props up CAFE – and “safety” – must be challenged and done away with. If you’re not free to buy an efficient car – or a “gas guzzling” car then you aren’t very free, are you?
And wasn’t American supposed to be a free country?
. . .
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Eric,
You know, now that you mention it, it occurred to me that we don’t hear that expression anymore. People used to say, “You can do X. It’s a free country.” How often do we hear that expression anymore? I can’t remember the last time I heard anyone say it…
Yup – exactly – because it’s understood that America is not a free country anymore. It is silly – embarrassing – to say so. We are free to do as we are told.
Eric,
OT, but is your email and “Ask Eric” thing working? I’ve sent two or three messages asking about getting EZPass now that the local bridge has eliminated cash payments in favor of toll by mail.
Things which need to disappear immediately:
CAFE
CARB
Carbon Credits.
“It’s as embarrassing as it is obnoxious”
This describes America today!
The once greatest nation on earth – due to Liberty and Free Markets.. has been reduced to a pathetic panty waist of a country.
All because we allow the most discusting pathetic losers to control our once gold and silver backed currency.
Until we wise up.. we deserve everything we have and will continue to get.
Look at who the losers are now!
I think the idea is to force the consumer side to use as little oil as possible, so that the MIC has as much left over as possible for its own use.
Kinda like how the SPR is mostly for just in case the Soviets attack & cut off our oil supply.
Cafe just made vehicles taller. The best selling car at the start of cafe 1977 was the 18 foot v8, rwd caprice. Today it’s the 18 foot v8, rwd/ 4×4 crew f150. At their core they are basically the same vehicle
Ralph Nader needs to be strung up by his balls with a long rope and have sand poured up his ass until the rope breaks.
It can be done. Regulate Ralph! The phony got to skate through life, piece of cake. A waste of a human mind, really.
Maybe a sackcloth with a rooster, a monkey, a snake and a dog in it with Ralph inside the sackcloth too, throw the sackcloth with the bum in it into the river.
A Roman punishment, more said than done. Ralph can handle it.
After that, it will be the guillotine treatment.
The same for all of the rest of them, kind of like Mussolini Time.
Make a movie of it all, what the heck. He even ran for president!
A restored Ford Fairlane is 29,000 dollars, mint state, maybe even has new disc brakes.
It’ll be a nice car more new than old.
Amen, Drump –
Nader is one of those miserable people who can’t stand it that others are happy – and seeks to make everyone miserable. The kind of nag who scolds the parents of kids allowed to play in the cul-de-sac without the parents hovering around.
He spent a lifetime nagging the American people. I will dance a jig when he finally takes that eternal dirt nap.
[…] has been used for decades to dwindle down the size of vehicles and of engines available in mass-market vehicles that working […]
[…] has been used for decades to dwindle down the size of vehicles and of engines available in mass-market vehicles that working […]
CAFE standards were a reaction to Oil Shock I in 1973/74, when crude oil popped from $3 to $12 a barrel.
On its own, the resulting hike in gasoline prices encouraged buyers to seek fuel efficient cars. But just letting the market work could not be abided by the 535 leprous dwarves of Clowngress. Heaven forbid! To prove they were in charge, they had to ‘do something.’ So they passed a CAFE law to pile on to what higher gas prices already were accomplishing.
Reminds me of the natural-born politician who ran for student council president in 7th grade. Above every water fountain he affixed a campaign sign: FREE WATER, COURTESY OF GERRY BOYNTON.
And so it goes — FUEL SIPPING VEHICLES, COURTESY OF YOUR RUM-SOAKED, SYPHILITIC CONGRESS CLOWN. He’s the guy who will break your legs, then get his photo on the front page as he magnanimously hands you a free crutch. Gratitude, bitchez!
Hi Jim.
When you take into account how money printing devalued the currency you realize that the hike in oil prices was a lot lower than $9.00 in real terms. Spending money you don’t have always has consequences, people today are experiencing what our parents did in the 70s’.
Exporting all the industry and jobs to third world countries just hid the currency devaluation for a few years.
Thank you. If Clowngress had REALLY wanted to do something about the oil shock, they could have abolished the Federal Reserve. Problem solved; stroke of a pen!
Instead, they singled out the auto industry as their ritual whipping boy, in a familiar ‘punish the victims’ passion play. Now we all drive two-liter fours. Everybody happy!
I’d just like to reiterate, just like the mpg/emissions mandates fight each other, and BEVs move their emissions from the tailpipe to the power plant stack, so does 1000 additional pounds of safety move the “risk” from the occupant to the outside world in a wreck.
None of it is the business of lawyers and politicians.
One of the “justifications” for EVs is that the pollution is moved away from the city center to the rural areas where coal power plants pollute. This helps explain some of the European cities outlawing ICE vehicles in certain areas.
Much like when the airports are sited miles from the city center to help combat noise pollution. The example of IAD being far enough away from DC proper to warrant a dedicated highway. But then there’s the demand to keep DCA open because Dulles is inconvenient for Congress and staffers.
You can have your cake and eat it too, as long as you’re ok with a few deaths on your hands once in a while.
Part of the blame lies with the auto manufacturers for not pushing back from the get go. They should have run full page ads saying “your car will cost an extra $XX dollars due to government regulations, call your Congressional representatives to put a stop to this”. Might have worked back then, before every Clowngress critter got owned by the lobbyists.
It limited competition, which they were fond of.
Instead they are doing this:
“Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co. has told its dealers that they will no longer be allowed to sell electric vehicles unless they agree to invest in regular training, install charging infrastructure, improve their physical and digital sales experiences, and publish non-negotiable pricing online.
Ford would like to eliminate dealerships entirely but must wait until their lobbyists can overturn state laws that require vehicle sales to be through dealers.”
“While General Motors’ Cadillac and Buick divisions will be offering buyouts to dealers unwilling or unable to spend the money necessary to fully service electric vehicles, those dealers will do take the buyouts will only be allowed to sell Chevrolets. [We still miss Pontiac and Oldsmobile.]”
https://slaynews.com/opinion/banning-internal-combustion-vehicles-shows-contempt-rural-america/
You are free, free to do what GovCo allows…for now.
CAFE has to go. It’s beyond time. This article was a perfect illustration of how people will buy fuel-efficient cars when the market is free.
But the commie-scolds can’t have that. They keep using CAFE as a billy club not to force using less fuel, but to advance its agenda of control. Proof is what some of you cited. A V8 truck that gets 20 mpg (my F150 could do that) without forced induction is evil, but a turbocharged 4 that gets the exact same mileage is A-Ok.
If Trump can destroy this and CARB, he deserves to be on Mt Rushmore.
Proof the American economy is fascist.
But hey, “land of the free” and all.
Absolutely Dan. Problem is,,, Americans are so corrupt they can not even do that well.
The people who thought up CAFE are the same sort of people who believe advertising works. Yes, advertising can be an effective way to boost sales. But no amount of ad spend can help the Edsel’s sales figures. And banning ads didn’t stop kids from smoking cigarettes.
According to these types, CAFE edicts aren’t going to make one bit of difference to customers. All things being equal, a customer may choose the vehicle with better fuel economy, or maybe not. At some point logic ends and “animal spirits” take over. Keynes, and those like him, didn’t understand how you stupid animals continue to make the wrong decisions, so it must be because you’re being influenced by advertising. But if the wise elders in Washington control the production line (and advertising), well then the correct choice will be required.
Up until the 1970s the energy markets were about convincing you to use more energy. My parent’s house had a little fiberglass batt insulation in the attic, but not much of anything in the walls. Heated by natural gas, it was basically like every other house in town. No one cared about efficiency (other than dad, commander of the thermostat) until the OPEC shocks. Then all of the sudden there wasn’t enough power to go around. Then they killed nuclear power because it was too good and threatened coal producers. They figured out how to market scarcity. Made fortunes for futures traders, but left us with engineers trying to build tiny lean burn racing engines that last 100,000 miles instead of building great cars.
My first vehicle, a ’73 Vega station wagon (aka “the raped ape”) got about 28 mpg with an inline 4-banger.
My favorite vehicle, a ’01 Sierra gets about 22 mpg even with a boss 5.3 V8 and 3:10 rear end.
My daily mover, a ’20 BMW x3 gets about 27 mpg with a euroweenie 4 cylinder.
All things being equal, there ain’t a whole lotta difference over nearly 50 model years of various cars/trucks I’ve owned over time.
One thing to remember is you could buy a full size car or truck with a six cylinder engine. Dodge offered them and my Ram came with a 225 and a 4 speed, it wasn’t fast but could carry a load of firewood without squawking about it either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Polara
Makes you wonder if a 80’s size and style truck with a straight six and manual tranny at an affordable price would sell. It just might. When a new truck costs more than my first house, well you know….
Big difference was that slant 6 could breathe. We inherited grandad’s ’73 Coronet with a 318 and no “smog controls.” We also had a ’76 Charger with that same 318 block, but this time with cats and lean burn and all that jazz. The Coronet got about 15 MPG, the Charger about 10, at least in the summer. And that Coronet would get off the line without any drama. The Charger would hesitate and buck until it was warmed up.
If modern 4s and 6s didn’t have a platinum potato in the tailpipe they’d probably run better too.
Hi RK,
A platinum potato in the tailpipe – gold!