Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The rapid-selling sport utility vehicle slips through a loophole in government fuel efficiency standards, an Indiana University-South Bend professor reports.
Corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards require auto producers to have an average fuel efficiency on their car line. If a company has three cars and the first, a luxury car, gets 15 miles per gallon and the second, the two door, gets 25 mpg and the last, the economy car, gets 41 mpg, the product line averages 27 mpg, which is the federal standard.
But CAFE standards apply only to passenger vehicles. Patrick J. Furlong, an automobile historian at IUSB, said a growing share of the market is going to vehicles that aren't cars classified as cars. That's where the SUV comes in.
Furlong pointed out that since the sport utilities are legally light trucks, they can get around standards that have been set by federal government to encourage corporations to produce smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.
Bruce Pingleton, a salesman at Petro Chrysler, said the federal government was trying to eliminate V-8 powered vehicles on the road in the '80s. The legislation came in the late '80s to combat the resurgence of gas guzzlers.
Pingleton said that when CAFE went into effect a lot of companies were coming out with smaller cars with better mileage that would bring their CAFE rating up.
Light truck sales statistics also include vans and SUVs. Two of the big three car companies, Chrysler and Ford, sold more trucks than cars in 1996.
Furlong points to the statistics for proof that the SUV is edging out the luxury car. He says a growing share of the market is going to vehicles that are not cars at a time when the federal government is pressing car makers and buyers to go with better mileage cars.
