MPG mandates?

[Super_Dave]

Originally Posted by AK_Gandy

As best as I can tell, it is to try to inject a little middle ground around here to the "frothing at the mouth against anyone who is left of Attila the Hun" members.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Attila the Hun would have probably just plundered the EPA and those that stood in his way, don't you think? So, your contention is ridiculous.

Middle ground would be related to choice. Restriction of choice is totalitarianism. So, yeah, one should be ashamed to try to impose a force upon others to fit some kind of idea of control.

Sod houses could be in the future. Certainly incredible debt. But that might be Attila the Hun that would only operate his army on cash.

[drcampbell]

Originally Posted by 1991F250

... But, even just considering the weight of a vehicle... your Impala, my Grand Marquis weigh in very close to sedans produced today, even though they lack almost all the safety features mandated, so can it truly be a weight issue? Or is something more in play? ...

The reason it doesn't make sense is that you're trying to extract a logical explanation where there is none. Automobile design is much more like haute couture than engineering. Look back a little further and you'll see the size & weight of full-size Big 3 sedans going up & down like skirt hemlines.

Late 1940s, 1950s - cars got bigger & heavier, hemlines were calf-length
Early-mid 1960s - cars got smaller & lighter, hemlines went up.
1966 - Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Act enacted.
1966 - Front-wheel-drive Oldsmobile Toronado introduced.
Late 1960s, early-mid 1970s - cars got bigger & heavier, FWD Cadillac LD introduced, hemlines went above the knee.
(in 1977, GM dramatically reduced the weight of their full-size cars and quit offering big-block V8s)
Late 1970s, 1980s - cars got smaller & lighter, hemlines went first to the ankle, then back up. To confound matters, the sport-futility vehicle emerges, which the automakers certify as light trucks but market as family cars.
1990s - cars gradually got bigger & heavier, hemlines went up, then back down. GM begins building FWD Impala.

So don't read the the tea leaves looking for a correlation between weight and federal safety regulations. The fickle finger of fashion is actually in control.

[Super_Dave]

Originally Posted by drcampbell

The reason it doesn't make sense is that you're trying to extract a logical explanation where there is none.

That's because government is neither logical or rational when it gets outside of its job of providing justice, upholding contracts, protecting citizens, and otherwise leaving individuals alone for their own opportunities of success and or failure.

[drcampbell]

Originally Posted by Super_Dave

That's because government is neither logical or rational ...

Who ever said anything about government? Hearing the voices again? Bucking for your own chapter in the DSM-V?