Some people are single issue voters; if a candidate is in line with them on guns, for instance, they’ll support that candidate even if on other topics they’re as far apart as a Chevette and a Corvette.
This brings us to Trump.
If you care about cars, he’s your guy. He may not be a Car Guy, per se – but he’s the only guy who isn’t an obvious enemy of Car Guys.
Like his predecessor, for instance.
Barack Obama – after his anointed successor lost the election – had his regulatory apparat fatwa a near-doubling of federal mandatory minimum gas mileage requirements (CAFE) out of pure spite, to punish the filthy deplorables who didn’t elect her – and who continued to express their lack of interest in high-mileage-uber-alles cars by not buying the ones which were – and still are – available.
Like the Toyota Prius hybrid, for instance.
Great gas mileage – but not much fun. Can’t do much with it – other than get good gas mileage. Many people want more than that.
So it’s not that high-mileage vehicles like the Prius aren’t being offered because the car companies want to deny Americans high-mileage cars in favor of “gas guzzlers” – the lie behind the CAFE reg.
The truth is people just aren’t buying them much. . . because they’re not much fun and can’t do very much, besides get good gas mileage. A Prius can’t tow . . . anything. It doesn’t go off-road or get to 60 in five seconds or even eight.
Toyota sells about 1,500 Priuii per month. Ford sells about 60,000 F-150 trucks per month.
Not a typo.
The purpose of nearly doubling the CAFE fatwa from about 35 MPG to nearly 50 MPG – and in just five years’ time; the fatwa goes into effect in 2025 – wasn’t to make the industry produce cars that get great gas mileage; the industry already does.
It was to regulate out of existence the ones that don’t – which are the cars most Americans (and all American Car Guys) are very much interested in buying despite their not averaging 50 MPG.
It’s exactly as if the government spewed a fatwa tripling the cost of cheeseburgers to “nudge” people toward soy burgers.
No outright ban on large cars, V8 SUVs and pick-ups. Too obvious – and much too clumsy. People might object such a direct approach. The coercive utopians are far more clever than they used to be.
So couch an effective ban in terms of “increased gas mileage” – What could be the harm? Doesn’t everyone want increased gas mileage”? Nevermind that it’s not possible – absent Mr. Fusion – for a big car, V8 SUV or pick-up to average even 30 MPG without being radically downsized, de-powered or otherwise gimped and becoming something very much like . . . a Prius.
The post The Orange Car Guy appeared first on LewRockwell.
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