The US House and Senate is working on increasing CAFE standards. Just what are these CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards? And they have nothing to do with Starbucks. First off, it is a way to legislate more fuel efficient cars. And here is how it is done. Each car manufacturer has to sell cars that as a whole and on average meet or beat the MPG requirement. Some people think that minivans and SUVs were created to skirt the CAFE standards since after a vehicle gets bigger it is no longer required to meet the standards. Some of these same people think that smaller cars are more dangerous, and so higher CAFE standards would kill people.
I think that CAFE standards are the wrong way to go. If manufacturers are correct and people do not want fuel efficient cars why should they be forced to build and sell them? And if manufacturers are wrong and people will buy fuel efficient cars then manufacturers who build them will win out.
So why would I buy a fuel efficient car if my kids are going to die in an accident? This is the question asked. But it is the wrong question. The right question is “Why can’t my fuel efficient car be just as safe as my neighbor’s gas-guzzling SUV?”
And smaller cars can be safe (Read my blog and follow the links about the fortwo car.) Even the smallest Benz and Volvo are safe because they are engineered to be safe. Why can’t GM, or Ford, or anyone else take the time and expertise to design safety into the car? And yes, the easiest way to make a car safe is to make it so heavy and big that everything about it is by default safe. But that is not the only way to make a car safe to drive.
The most popular car in the world is the Toyota Corolla with 32/41 mpg city and highway. If all cars had that mpg rating, there would be a lot of cheap gas. But it would be hard to find your car in the parking lot at the mall. And the Corolla is highly rated for safety with 5 and 4 stars for all tests.
So it is up to us….what do we buy and what do we ask for?
