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Before long, it'll be all grill and drivers won't be able to see which direction they're going. (startrek.website)
submitted 2 years ago by [M] to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] 91 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

There is a law in the US that says trucks must meet a certain Miles per gallon fuel economy. But there is a loop hole that says trucks over a certain size are not included in that law. So as long as the trucks are ridiculously big they don't need to worry about their fuel economy.

Edit: it's the CAFE law.

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  • [–] [S] 32 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    This seems counterintuitive

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  • [–] 38 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Because car companies send lobbyists to Congress and pay to influence bills.

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  • [–] 28 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    At the time the law was passed, the carve out was for work trucks which made a minority of the market. Possibly less than 10%, but they also put tariffs on the light trucks imported from Asia, and so now almost 30 years later we have the situation we've got now.

    We need to revoke the tariffs on the light trucks for normal people.

    Also make it so you have to have a business licence to buy them, and a CDL to drive these "work trucks"

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Does anyone make light trucks anymore? Even Toyotas are 3x bigger than they used to be.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Isuzu still has a light truck division, and the Asian market still has loads of smaller vehicles, we just need to get off this "tank obsession" here in the US

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Someone must be. Every time I am in Asia I see mini pickups. Would love to have one for my work.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I looked everywhere for a truck of normal size when I was truck shopping. Midsized trucks are bigger now than full sized trucks were when I was younger. The only way to get a small one in the USA is to buy something that's old.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    because they didn't want to piss off the blue-collar demographic, they're a huge voting block and drive trucks for work.

    that's politics for you. creating nonsensical laws that aren't made to fix problems, but only to curry favor, be that with voters, lobbyists, whatever

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  • [+] 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    Yes. A lot of the people who drive trucks do so because "I'm a big boy! Listen to me make lots of noise in my big lifted truck! Vroom Vroom!!"

    If people are actually using it for a small business or whatever, sure, I'll live, but most of the people who buy them are just buying them because they want people to know their dicks are small.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Should be to work. I work in an office and about 25% drive trucks to work. Not one of then tow, off road or carry anything in the back, but will definitely pay 125k thanks to loans on their big boy diesel truck.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    holy hell. that's just idiotic. who has that much money to blow on gas?

    edit: i saw a post recently saying it costs some truck owner $80 to drive to and from work. i did the math and estimated 8 mpg, so i thought they were exaggerating. but nope, my estimate was pretty damn close to reality, and that's an absurd amount of money to just throw away every day

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It won't stop until we treat anything with the title "truck" as a real truck. CDL and weightstations.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I'm fully in favor of tiered and more rigorous licensing. Basic license should only clear you to drive a small, low-power sedan/wagon/hatchback. Vast majority of people won't ever need more than that.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Link or source?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    https://www.meche.engineering.cmu.edu/_files/images/research-groups/whitefoot-group/WS-FootprintFuelEconomy-EP.pdf?shem=sswnst

    https://me.engin.umich.edu/news-events/news/cafe-standards-could-mean-bigger-cars-not-smaller-ones/

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_average_fuel_economy

    https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/10/how-cafe-killed-compact-trucks-and-station-wagons/?shem=sswnst

    https://www.transportpolicy.net/standard/us-light-duty-fuel-economy-and-ghg/

    The footprint-based system means that selling more small vehicles does not necessarily help manufacturers meet the standards. Smaller vehicles are subject to more stringent requirements, such that a manufacturer of smaller vehicles has a lower CO2 standard while a manufacturer of larger vehicles has a higher CO2 standard. Footprint systems encourage improvements in efficiency, regardless of vehicles size, and have relatively little impact on vehicle size mix. Unlike a weight-based standard, a footprint-based standard encourages use of lightweight materials while maintaining the vehicle size, without subjecting the manufacturers to a higher CO2 requirement.

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