On the subject of new CAFE standards ...

this has been said:

"What the China situation, or the other countries' situation, shows is that these automakers, in all of these countries, build the automobile that the requirements for mileage state. And they don't fight it, they just do it."

Other than holding up Communist China as a "Golden Standard" to be emulated something else that is rather interesting is that one of those autos that are built to the requirements -- "the Brilliance BS6 sedan ? 'a car with which (China) wanted to conquer Europe's automobile market' ? failed a German crash test so miserably that it might be banned from Europe, reported the European news agency AFX News. 'It was the second time in less than two years that a Chinese-made car has failed the test, following the spectacular failure of the Landwind sport-utility vehicle made by Jiangling Motors 18 months ago.' "

Even that little safety factor for manufacturers who "just do it" doesn't get to the issue of inflated pricing because of the mandated "standards".

I am posting a link to the article but be aware that some of what is in the article could be used to turn this into a political issue rather than an issue of problems with mandating standards. With this in mind any attempt to imply politics will have to be seen as TROLLING and a purposeful effort to take the thread south because most of the article is politically neutral.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003768397_krauthammer02.html