So if I understand the new legislation, as signed by GW, car manufacturers will have to average 35 miles/gallon for all vehicles they produce (combined). Is that right?

Yup. Expect to see fewer pickups and SUVs offered and no discounts. The OEMs are going to start pushing the more fuel efficient vehicles and trucks with smaller engines.

Dang that means the one I lost my butt on last year is going to crank back up in value.

"Average", meaning that if you build MANY of the itty bitty engines with good mileage ,they can build a few 'muscle cars'....
I read it that way too...luckily it doesnt impact Our cars (yet)

just read what EU is doing 'over there" and they will require a pretty stiff penalty for cars that dont meet new re`qts...and the Germans are upset , b/c Porsche , BMW and MB all have bad mileage...there its not just cars, its a "country" problem the whole car industry...

I believe the new standards must be met by 2020 so it's not going to happen overnight.

It's not safe to drive an underpowered gutless vehicle on the road. ALL the cars on the road would have to have the same performance specs, or forget it. Did you ever drive past a semi while in one of the little subcompacts? Not exactly comforting. But a lot can happen with technology in 12 years.

We had an '86 Cavalier that, with passengers, could barely make it to a marginal merge speed at full throttle. I never felt safe without the option to accelerate out of an impending traffic situation.

And, of course, cars that are responsive are a whole lot more enjoyable to drive.

My Neon, with its 30 mpg 2.0 liter and 5 speed manual, is fun to drive. But if the engine output was any less, the car would be gutless. I can get 35 mpg out of it if I drive it gently, but that's no fun.

If the roads are filled with small gutless cars, I'll go back to riding a motorcycle. I'd have better odds and more fun.

Just grateful that they haven't banned our muscle-cars yet. They are certainly those who would given the chance.

Hopefully the man-made global warming scam will get exposed and development of our available natural resources is implemented before that happens. Regardless, they won't get my '68 while I'm alive. The way they might get us is by increasing the corn squeezins in all fuel until we cannot run it. They got close when they eliminated lead but we got around it.

I may have to keep my 303HP GP for a looooog time.

Europe is sooo far on convincing everybody on that (GW) subject , they even discuss how to eat "enviro friendly"...."eat less meat to save the planet" etc...drink enviro friendly drinks....its going way too far...
yes , we DO contribute, but its miniscule...even cars produce such a small part , vs lots of other "normal" things...volcanoes etc, they spew constantly...more at times, less at times...
lets just put a cap on that!

I've been hearing that some stuff called Shiner is a major contributor to global warming.

It doesn't how many and what kind of cars they sell. What matters is that the average gas mileage of all of the cars they offer must be 35 MPG or more.

GM is coming out and saying that their new Corvette ZR1 is gonna be the last modern muscle car. BS!!! It's just a sales tactic, but is a very sharp car.

Could be, but since so many Swedes drink the "enviro friendly" stuff , I think we are within avg. tolerances....lol

I'm with you on that idea. Nothing like riding something that runs low 11's in the QM and still gets over 40 MPG

Looks like GM thinks the musclecar era is about over: Tougher Emissions Regulations Could Bring End to Muscle Cars, Says GM

But the Corvette's chief engineer says the 2009 Corvette ZR1 may be the last in a long tradition of Detroit performance cars, endangered by stronger federal fuel economy regulations and limits on carbon dioxide emissions.

http://www.reuters.com/article/governmen...lBrandChannel=0

Best case is that doubling the fuel economy standard will save 8% of the daily consumption of fuel? What a waste.

And there are so many loopholes, like E-85, that I think it will be more of an excuse to raise prices and sell plastic cars than a real technological breakthrough.

Probably does not matter for me. With today's vehicle prices and what they will be in the future - I'm going to be owning my current vehicle fleet for a looooooooooooog time.

E85 is the biggest crock out there. It does virtually nothing for our overall fuel needs and greatly drives up the prices of food worldwide unnecessarily. The only way it could become viable is if the feds quit with the subsidies for farmers and grow either sugar cane or hemp. Neither of which will happen.

It gets worse. The White House is mandating that all new Gov Vehicles MUST be Flex Fuel and that all those vehicles MUST be run on E-85. I'm glad I'm no longer responsible for the fleet at my station because the nearest E-85 is 250 miles away.

I see all US Gov Installations having to have E-85 tanks on site soon.

E-85 is easy to get and artificially cheap here in Metro Detroit. But the Flex Fuel owners I know don't fill up with it. So what exactly is it saving?

E-85 lowers gas mileage to the point that you barely save anything using it.

I read that 100 leading scientists sent a letter to the UN (meeting next to the equator talking about global warming - while 60 % of the US in under Ice/Snow) telling them that human impact on GW was negligible and that they should not expend any of there human energy trying to change it.

Global warming is just another fear tactic they are using to try and control us.

I get the same results with E-10 (10% Ethenol.) Poorer milage, and around here they sell it for only a penny or two less than 100% gasoline.

Great Comic Jim. I'm copying it.

I have the bike for you Vikki.

I may be flipping it after I get it running.

They may have to bring back the old (1945-48) Fiat Topolino 500, it supposedly got 95 mpg! LOL

If only we could locate those patents that were said to have been bought up by the oil companies in the 60s. Do the long-in-the-tooth guys remember the 100 MPG carb rumor?

I remember those....time to bring them back out! lol

No more 200 mpg carbs please! Another one of those persistent myths! The logical location for those "patents" is the nearest garbage can!

Yah, I remember. They recently did a 'Myth Buster'(Mythbusters on TV) on that and also on the magnets that helped gas mileage, vegetable oil and other alternative fuels....I won't spoil it for you.

There's a guy running around the planet in a boat powered by liposuctioned human fat. I might be able to travel across the country myself with that one.

Eeeeew, yuck.

I thought it was a giant oil company conspiracy that keeps us from having 100 mpg carbs and other inventions.

Beer farts...

Corn juice is a joke because I cannot envision how the hell we can grow enough biomass to fuel our cars. The same idiot though about plugging a car into an electrical receptical as a cleaner car. (The car becomes coal power--the filthiest fuel we have; also, our electrical distribution is incredibally wasteful, with over 50% loss because of resistance in the power grid. In other words, a car that plugs in the wall is the filthiest vecile invented.)

As far as phasing out our muscle cars. They are already phased out. I can no longer afford to drive mine. No one else seems to be able to afford to drive them eigher becaue I never see any on the streets.

If you were to fish around in some of my earlier posts, back when fuel was a buck a gallon, I said the fuel would be 3 to 5 bucks a gallon in a few years. Although on the low side, it's there. In another few years gas will be 5 to 10 bucks a gallon. That means even less driving than the almost no driving of my car. And prices like that will start to affect some of the deeper pocket owners as well.

For me, I only put about 1000miles per year. I estimate that the difference between when I bought my car and now is about an extra $150 a year in fuel. Sucks, but it's not going to stop me from driving it. If it jumps about $5 a gallon, I'll think about installing a 5 speed. At that point it could pay itself off. My next daily driver however, is going to be a fuel miser, not an SUV.

Cheap entertainment at twice the price.

The conspiracy is by the "inventors" of the gadgets to keep people thinking that there is even a smidgen of reality in their claims so they can continue to make money selling this stuff!!!

Let me try one of the more popular lines:

"Everyone knows that the normal car only uses about one third of the energy that is available in the gas to drive the car. With our _____ carb (insert your word of choice: special, patented, secret, magic, fraudulent) you can get the rest of the energy that you are paying for! Oil companies have tried to get this invention suppressed but we have managed to find a loophole - but not for long! Get yours while you still can! Only $49.95 for the first one and $.95 for the next five! Great gifts for friends! Act now and we'll throw in a slicer/dicer that connects to your steering wheel so you can make salad while you drive! You too can have the ultimate green machine!"

Patents are only good for 17 years, then all the protected info becomes public knowledge. The rumour have been around a lot longer than that!

Why would the oil companies care, they'd just raise the price to compensate! They've been doing it for years! Think back to the eighties. Now the cars get double the gas mileage and we pay four times the price - hey, wait a second ...

Aw shucks, you mean those magic crystals you toss in the gas tank won't purify your fuel and make your car run better? LOL.

I still like the "science" behind the magnets "aligning" the fuel molecules and making the fuel more efficient.