Quote:
Originally Posted by Diver
That's what we have now, the noose is about to tighten. When the new EPA rules were approved the only cars in production today capable of meeting the 2025 rules were the Prius and a couple of plug ins. The price differential for high performance variants continues to climb.
Please educate me, what has a sub 4 second 0-60 and gets 30+ mpg. There is probably something with an out of sight price.
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The proverbial noose has been starting to tighten since about the 80's, starting with the push from carbureted engines to fuel injected engines and he's right, cars have only gotten faster and more efficient over time. Sure there's not much that can get 30+ mpg and do a sub 4 second 0-60 without costing an arm and a leg (any sub 4 second car will cost an arm and a leg though regardless of mileage, that's nothing new), but look at our cars. It'll do 0-60 in just over 4 seconds and get me an average of about 25 mpg. I don't know how anyone could see that as a bad thing. We can also still afford them.
You act like this is the first time the US government has unveiled ambitious plans to cut back emissions, every time automakers have managed to not only meet them, but make cars faster and more efficient through the use of turbocharging, light weight materials, 8-9 speed transmissions, etc etc.
Our cars can beat V8 powered muscle cars from just 10 years ago that were considered some of the fastest road going cars for folks that were reasonably priced. Our cars can embarrass them while at the same time getting significantly better gas mileage.
I'd argue that most of these restrictions are probably not even necessary, the auto market is moving in that direction anyway not because they want to "save the environment" but to hedge against the risk concerning the unpredictability of oil prices.
But don't kid yourself, even without these regulations, automakers would be doing this stuff at some point anyway, ones that want to stick around long term anyway.
This topic is sort of beating a dead horse anyway, I've heard this nonsense of the end of fast cars for over 10 years now meanwhile cars have gotten nothing but faster and more efficient over time.