Quote:
Originally Posted by Pilot2519j
? I understand that manufacturers have to work harder and build a better, more innovative product to meet the standards, but is that necessarily a bad thing?
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All I am saying is the following that the EPA agency is now dictating where the car industry is going rather than the consumer. I know no one is a saint including car makers but now the EPA is mandating standards that will change cars radically by going double the gas mileage, that is a huge leap of technology, can it be done ? Positively yes but only god knows the pricing for such a lightweight and diminutive car. The market should decide which companies will survive and which won't. I will bet that some other President will hopefully soon after Nov will deal with reigning back the EPA and modify the targets. There is plenty of oil and gas out there that could be used in the cars if only we apply ourselves to extract it instead of being at the mercy of OPEC and seeing our wallets fleeced by speculators, hedge funds and the like. I don't see how this is an upsetting issue since it goes down the consumer deciding rather than some bureaucrat deciding what is good for you.[/QUOTE]
Consumers do not dictate what type of cars the auto companies will manufacture. Automobile manufacturers would never leave something as important as consumer choice to the consumer. The auto manufacturers dictate what consumers want by paying billions of dollars a year on advertising.
Why do you think starting in the 80s that all of a sudden trucks and SUVs became popular? Was it because consumers wanted them? No. That was the time that the EPA started putting the screws on auto manufacturers to raise gas mileage. But guess what, trucks and SUVs are not cars so the auto manufacturers had a free pass on the auto EPA restrictions, which meant that they could realize more profits on trucks and SUVs. Exploiting that loophole, auto manufacturers spent billions of dollars on advertising, showing macho guys in jeeps and SUVs, with hot chicks on their arms and the consumers fell in lockstep and bought trucks.
So don't think that the EPA causes consumers to give up their right to choose. That right has always been taken away from them by the auto companies.