| No the real question is not "Why US automakers don't make competitive small cars". The real question is "Why is the government forcing a business into making products it is bad at making?" The US automakers turn a profit on the manufacture of trucks. They make great trucks and sell them at decent prices and competitive MPG ratings. It is a viable business on its own if they were just allowed to do that. Why can't the government just say an X # of pound vehicle must get over Y miles per gallon to be sold? THE PROBLEM WITH CAFE IS NOT THE ENVIRONMENTAL. The problem with CAFE is that it forces them into making cars they do not want to and are not good at making because the law is for some asinine reason based on the average MPG of all the things you sell totaled. My father was the CEO at a chemical company for a long time. He had to deal with the EPA everyday. They would constantly give them new regulations to follow and the company would go and reformulate everything and make it work. Never though did the EPA come in and say hey, we don't like the pesticides you guys are making can you start selling bird seed too? Just to even it out you know? That is what CAFE does. They are telling the businesses what products to make - not what constraints for a certain kind of products are. The issue of them making bad cars is totally moot because if they didn't have to make those cars then they would have just been killed as failing product lines are in any rational business. But faced with irrational legislation the companies had to continue making seemingly irrational decisions. |