Biden administration sets 50 miles per gallon fuel economy standard for 2031
washingtonpost.com
The new standards are part of a broad push to get more Americans into electric vehicles, and reduce the environmental cost of driving.
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Don't worry, we'll just get even larger trucks that nobody actually wants to bypass these standards.
The larger truck exist b/c of the standards. It's more economical to change the weight class of a vehicle than it is to make the vehicle more environmentally friendly.
Edit: "more economical" -> "more environmentally friendly"
I'm 70% sure that the larger truck exists because exceptions have literally been made to the law on purpose due to lobbying, which is why every company pivoted to them.
As far as I am aware, current fuel economy standards are primarily determined by the size of the wheel base. Some years ago, the EPA went from a reasonably managed chart to a specific formula that gets a little extreme on the ends.
So you end up with craziness like a 95 ranger required to have 60mpg to meet the standard, and a 2024 f35 super mega ultra cab long bed to have like 3mpg to meet standards. (Numbers are made up, but that is the main idea as I understand it)
Yes. Basically someone made a formula years and years ago about what they believed new cars mpg would be based on very generous speculations. And it's never been adjusted. The formula is based on the a bunch of variables but ends up boiling down to altering the footprint.
Large trucks exist because of wheel base allowance. Small, slow, borderline useless cars exist to keep fleet average low.
People buy trucks for towing and hauling, and bigger is better and safer for towing.
The real problem is every other type of vehicle has become so useless and disposable (shittily made) to meet fuel economy standards that you can't tow anything with them and are forced to buy a raging-mega-huge truck to get a high enough GCWR/GVWR and big enough motor to safely and reliably haul stuff.
You may live somewhere where people constantly tow travel trailers or large boats, but this isn't the case everywhere. Loads of people buy trucks with the idea the bed will be used every other weekend, then they end up commuting to an office job and getting groceries. If they were primarily used for hauling things around, the average truck wouldn't have a larger passenger cabin than its cargo bed.
Station wagons can just as easily go to the hardware store and pick up full sheets of plywood, load up the lawn mower and trimmer, and as much sporting equipment as a family could wear. What wagons don't have is the aggressive design that pick up trucks have come to be.
Most cars could tow a single axle utility trailer if you needed to move what I mentioned - even appliances or furniture. I know a couple that tow a two person caravan with a Mini Cooper. Even when someone does need larger weight or volume capacity on a regular basis, a van has most of the benefits of a pick up truck with better fuel efficiency.
Just to bolster your point, I rented a U-Haul trailer for all my stuff last time I moved, including an enormous 3 piece solid oak entertainment center, and pulled it with a vw Jetta wagon.
Couldn't put it on the roof? I saw a wagon once with a chest freezer strapped to the roof and couldn't stop laughing.
U-Haul is a titan of the moving industry, but it's still surprising how few people would consider an occasional rental, be it a trailer like you used or even a truck, as part of owning a regular car. You spent around $100 to rent that trailer for a day? Imagine spending quadruple that - every month for a decade - just to ensure you have 24/7 access to 24 square feet of cargo space. Not to mention double in fuel compared to your Jetta.
Even ignoring the renting aspect, pretty well everyone knows a couple people that already have a pick up truck. Just borrow it for a day or two when you do a project or buy a new stove, fill the tank, and buy them their beverage of choice. It's not complicated.
More people should be like you.
Last time I moved I rented a U-Haul. It was uneventful. Reserved it, picked it up, used it, returned it.
These people spend a years salary on oversized crap that gets terrible efficiency, kills pedestrians, blocks views, just on the off chance they can move something once a decade.
There was this lazy shit that worked at a place I was at once, fairly confident he has antisocial personality disorder. Guy makes a dollar over minimum wage per hour and bought a F250. Yes the person who works maybe 45 minutes a day is going out there moving lumber on the weekend
I agree. A truck can be a good option for some, but as you point out, most people aren't doing a DIY project each weekend. The F150 can be optioned out to a six figure price tag. It's inconceivable to me.
I'm acquainted with the owner of a middle sized plumbing company, and he had a close call with a dog that got loose one day. Not his fault, and he was able to stop in time, but nonetheless it bothered him. Couple months go by and he switched all his service trucks out for transit vans.
The newer style vans with the slanted front end gives far more visibility, twice the cargo space without having to climb up into the bed, they don't weigh as much, and are more fuel efficient. All at the same price point.
An unfortunate side effect of modern life is that many people see purchases like a vehicle or a house as these monthly costs that, on the face of them, they can afford. The trouble is they don't consider the overall cost of the purchase, let alone the ongoing cost in terms of routine maintenance and unexpected repairs.
It's a shame, but when something is marketed as though it'll make you the toughest in town, who wouldn't pay $181.50 ~weekly~ at 0% APR ~for the first three months~.
I am just going to point out that my in-laws (who live in the developing world) run their rental properties, farm, and general store with two motorcycles and a tractor. That tractor btw I want to shot with a gun and put it out of its misery since I am pretty sure it's diesal ass should have died in the 1980s. I am pretty confident that if two people in their mid-60s can do it the vast vast vast majority of people don't need an oversized pickup.
Also I have been involved with construction since my uni days and just about every contractor I have dealt with has a van.
All the lifted duallies with caps and rubber band tires would say different.
I never ever see people towing and hauling with those machines. My Honda Civic is 16 years old and is fine, my car before that was a Nissan Sentra and died at 22 years old.
New cars are not shitty.
New cars are kinda shitty. They collect a ton of data, don’t let you actually drive, have a million unecessary features built in to try to reduce the stupidity of drivers who should be nowhere near a motor vehicle and are super ugly to boot.
I do know a lot of people who tow, but I’m in motor racing circles where people are regularly hauling race cars through multiple states every week.
New vehicles are like that.
If you think your new truck doesn't do all the same data collection shit, you're sorely mistaken. They're all made to make a profit. If they can collect data and profit off of it after the sale, they're going to. Trucks aren't exempt from this.
Well yes, I don’t have a truck. I have a performance sportscar from the early 2010s instead. They’re all bad past early 2010s tbh.
I love that new vehicles ae more efficient, but everything else sucks. The car market needs to be shaken up. There's no real competition anymore. A new company could probably make so much money by using modern technological advances, but including all the manual dials and things we used to get standard, and preferably without the data harvesting.
Yes, but they’d miss out on the long term revenue, which is what everyone is chasing nowadays. There’s be no investors.
Tbh as a car enthusiast there’s been a few advances I’ve been interested in, but nothing really game changing in the affordable range.
You don't have to buy a car with all that garbage. You can just get a base model economy car.
Those are the base models for the most part. I’ve yet to see a new car better than something from 20 years ago