Your Car's Report Card
The Obama administration is trying to guilt-trip you into buying a hybrid. According to Heritage's The Foundry, the EPA is going to start giving your car a report card--"A" for electric cars and hybrids, "C" for pick-up trucks, and probably "F minus" for Humvees.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The government proposed labeling each new passenger vehicle with a letter grade from A to D based on its fuel efficiency and emissions, part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to promote electric cars and other advanced-technology vehicles....
Currently, the labels must show how many miles per gallon a car gets and its estimated annual fuel cost. Under the proposed changes, a new label design would carry a large letter grade assigned by regulators.
Under the system, the only cars that would receive an A-plus, A or A-minus would be electrics and plug-in hybrids, the government said. Many compact and midsize vehicles would get Bs, while bigger and more powerful models such as sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks would get Cs or C-minuses because they burn more petroleum and pump out more carbon dioxide, officials said.
What grade would your car get?
Or, a more fun question to ask: how would you grade the EPA?
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
It begins as a recommendation. It ends as a mandate.
Vehicle regulations are the clearest example of Democrats spitting on the poor who vote for them. Who are most likely to buy used vehicles that fail emissions standards and get poor gas mileage?
May '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
My pick-up earns a "c" which is right in line with my college GPA. EPA gets rolled behind the gym after class by me and some other guys who won't tolerate a snitchy little suck-up.
Re: Your Car's Report Card
Would these cars just have letter grade stickers in the lot before they were sold, or is it a scarlet-letter like fixture meant to shame people who drive "C-" cars?
May '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
How about "U" for Unbelievable.
Jun '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
Nailed it! It is like virtually all laws with noble intentions. The rhetoric used to get them passed is very different than the power politics they enable once they are passed. The old letter grade for "loser" was SUV. Now, they have SUV's with better mileage than most cars, so they need a new "I'm better than you" moniker for the "green police."
Jul '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
I feel pretty confident in saying people who are driving SUVs/pickups/Jeeps that would get lower grades wouldn't care a heck of a lot, and might even sport them as a badge of honor in thumbing their nose at the green police.
Re: Your Car's Report Card
Diane -- YES, if I understand the WSJ article correctly, I think there IS a sticker that goes on the car with a scarlet-letter grade:
As Trace says -- Unbelievable!
May '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
I like that it takes a government official-- nay, a whole top-level government department-- to design this "system", which appears to boil down to:
"A bigger car will get a lower grade."
This on top of the fact that they already label the gas mileage numbers the grade is based on right on the car!
It's a brilliant system, one that we citizens of this great republic could never pick up on for ourselves if not for our betters in the EPA.
Jul '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
You see where this is heading, don't you?
Tax credits for the "A" cars, excise taxes for the rest.
Aug '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
A B C D..... EPA.... all this alphabet soup. You want to know when the scoring starts in the real world ? At the IPO !
That's when the real world is going to tell BHO how well he's done with GM. When they cast their vote for or against the UAW. Then we'll know the score, PDQ.
LOL
May '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
I drive a Wrangler (V6, 5-speed manual transmission) and my husband has a Grand Cherokee Overland (V8 Hemi). His 'n' hers 4-wheel-drives. Can anyone show me a Prius that can go up and down my driveway in the winter? No. I'm not especially fond of getting 20 mph or less, but I am rather fond of being able to get around in the New England winter. So, for us, our Jeeps get an A+. And I'll even pull you out of the snowbank out of the goodness of my heart.
Aug '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
If it's not permanent, pretty soon harassed citizens like me will make it permanent. I foresee a fortune to be made in bumper stickers:
"My car is a 'D'; deal with it!"
"A+ body in a B- car"
"My D+ truck beat up your A+ hybrid"
"My other car gets better grades than your honor student"
Jul '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
PJS
I drive a Wrangler (V6, 5-speed manual transmission) and my husband has a Grand Cherokee Overland (V8 Hemi). His 'n' hers 4-wheel-drives. Can anyone show me a Prius that can go up and down my driveway in the winter? No. I'm not especially fond of getting 20 mph or less, but I am rather fond of being able to get around in the New England winter. So, for us, our Jeeps get an A+. And I'll even pull you out of the snowbank out of the goodness of my heart. · Sep 2 at 6:47pm
I drive a Wrangler, too, and I'm laughing at the idea the EPA thinks they could shame me into driving a little car.
Jul '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
How does the grading system deal with hybrids that aren't really green at all? For example, the Honda Accord Hybrid just used its electric motor to make it go faster, and the Honda CR-Z is technically a hybrid, but gets worse mileage than some gasoline-driven cars (and still manages to be as slow, but that's for another discussion). I won't even go into the number of hybrid luxury vehicles and hybrid large trucks that are making it onto market that are getting better mileage than their gas-driven versions, but, again, not nearly as good mileage as a base-model Chevy Cobalt or Ford Focus. Why do those cars (the majority of which are built abroad) deserve As while cars that get better mileage with traditional drivetrains get Bs? Sounds like an extension of affirmative action to me.
Edited on Sep. 2 at 8:04pmJun '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
I'm a tiny bit conspiracy-minded, so I'm positive that this has something to do with China controlling most of the world's lithium battery components, but that's just me.
I drive a VW Jetta Powerwagen (yes, that's how it's spelled) TDI. Now that the engine's broken in I get between 44 and 48 mpg, depending on how I drive. But then, clean-diesel technology doesn't count with the EPA.
May '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
My car might get an "A," but I would hope that this system will be shortly phased out like those crazy letter grades in schools and keeping score in youth sports. I might feel sad if my car doesn't get an "A," and my neighbors’ car does.
Jun '10
Re: Your Car's Report Card
Kenneth: You see where this is heading, don't you?
Tax credits for the "A" cars, excise taxes for the rest. · Sep 2 at 2:06pm
Irony - the hybrids used to get free carpool in San Francisco bridges...Now we will have a variable scale - with A cars free, B cars $5, C cars $10, and D and below $20. It will happen, mark my words.
As I drove into the city last night on the Bay Bridge, they had a sign that said (paraphrase) "Obey speed limit: spare the air."
The speed limit on the bridge is 50mph. it averages 65-70mph most other freeways in the area. So, by slowing down to 50mph on the bridge, we're supposed to save on pollution. Where is the logic in that? Why not 50mph on all freeways? Why not 30 mph?
Because there is a cost. Speed limits are a trade-off. slower speeds, more traffic, less productive/play time. Every choice has a cost. This is the central "missing" calculation in so many governmental schemes to save the world. What are the costs involved with the actions we take to save it? Liberal answer? Pretend they don't exist.
Re: Your Car's Report Card
BlueAnt
If it's not permanent, pretty soon harassed citizens like me will make it permanent. I foresee a fortune to be made in bumper stickers:
"My car is a 'D'; deal with it!"
"A+ body in a B- car"
"My D+ truck beat up your A+ hybrid"
"My other car gets better grades than your honor student" · Sep 2 at 7:14pm
Genius, Blue Ant. We can sell these with the spiked tea slurpees. I give my car a solid B+.