The Trumpian Two Step

One step forward – one step back.

Maybe both – posssibly, neither.

There is a rumor that Trump is considering “action” to at least delay the imposition of the catastrophic federal fatwa requiring all new cars – and all new trucks –  average at least 46.6 miles-per-gallon beginning with the 2025 models. This fatwa was hurled during the final months of the Obama Ayatollahship and remains in effect and on schedule.

This was – and still is – touted as a boon to the buying public. As if that public were somehow oppressed by the free choice to buy either a very fuel efficient car or one less fuel-efficient. As if the car companies were forcing them to buy “gas guzzlers.”

Does anyone get a sad chuckle out of the irony?

It’s the Ayatollahs who comprise the (not “our,” speak for yourself) government who are the ones forcing people to buy a certain kind of car, not the car companies – who would rather sell you what you’d like to buy. The government has guns. The car industry has marketing people.    

And these cars the government intends to force us to buy will be expensive cars. Because there is no such thing as a free lunch – another concept the Ayatollas hope you don’t understand. They fatwa – we pay for it. In the case of the fuel economy fatwa, payment comes in the form of the technology necessary to achieve an average of 45-plus MPG.

Have a look at the roster of cars you can buy today. Not one achieves an average of 45 MPG or even close to it except for the hybrid Toyota Prius. A few non-hybrids can manage 40 or so – but only on the highway. When their (always lower) city mileage is factored in, the average lowers.

The best are around 30 MPG overall.

This leaves hybrid gas-electrics, which get over the 40 MPG hump by running on battery power as often as possible. And, naturally, entirely electric cars – which don’t have to sweat miles-per-gallon at all, because they use no gallons – just kilowatts.

But hybrids cost extra. Electrics a lot extra.

A new Prius has a starting price of $23,475. A Toyota Corolla – which is actually a larger and much roomier car – stickers for $18,600 to start. This is a difference of just under $4,900.

It’s the price you pay to “save gas.”

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