Subject: by VetteUSA on 2009/2/25 1:17:07 I'm just going to copy and paste some previous posts I've had. I 'm too tired from work to rethink new thoughts.  Re: CAFE Standards ======================= People are trying to make a big deal out of this for no reason whatsoever. the "Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) is the sales weighted average fuel economy, expressed in miles per gallon (mpg), of a manufacturers fleet of passenger cars or light trucks. I don't see the problem either. The Corvette is only a blip within the entire equation. The only thing that happens is the manufacturer might pay a penalty for failing to meet CAFE standards. But note that "since 1983, manufacturers have paid more than $590 million in CAFE civil penalties. Most European manufacturers regularly pay CAFE civil penalties ranging from less than $1 million to more than $20 million annually. Asian and most of the big domestic manufacturers have never paid a civil penalty." ""The current penalty for failing to meet CAFE standards is $5.50 per tenth of a MPG under the target value times the total volume of those vehicles manufactured for a given model year." The public needs to do a little bit of reading on the subject before they start declaring that it's the "end of the muscle car era" as we know it and that the Corvette is doomed. ============================ Here's my take on it: The c7 will be slightly smaller, MAYBE 1 or 2" difference in width/length and/or wider wheelbase, it'll become lighter... 50... 100lbs...... and they'll make it E85 capable. That's it. They don't need to do anything else. .... and they'll pretty up the interior. :buhbye: =============================== A new corvette is 430hp, weighs 3200 lbs, and according to Chevrolet gets around 15/25 mpg. The LT1 C4 is 3300 lbs, 300 hp, and gets 17/25. They're not going to go back to 1990's hp when they have a 430 hp engine that gets the same kind of gas mileage. They'll keep the Corvette at 400+ hp, but they'll reduce the weight, they'll implement some sort of fuel management system (ie shut down half of the cylinders at cruising speed), and they'll make the Corvette a dual-fuel vehicle. Though everyone knows that E85 is currently less efficient than gasoline, it doesn't matter. According to CAFE standards, a vehicle that is a dual fuel vehicle is legally classified as being more fuel efficient. Even if they do these things and only get an increase of 2 MPG, it still doesn't matter, because CAFE standards are applied for a company's entire fleet of vehicles, not for every model. The Corvette is Chevy's flagship and it's one small piece of GM's entire fleet of vehicles. Even if GM doesn't meet the upcoming CAFE standards, it STILL doesn't matter, because no domestic car company has ever been fined for failing to meet CAFE standards.......the same cannot be said about foreign companies that do not meet U.S. CAFE standards. =============================== Actually, they do. What's the whole purpose of the CAFE standard? For the Govt. to make money. Direct from the horse's mouth, so you can try to debate the facts but it just won't work : "Most European manufacturers regularly pay CAFE civil penalties ranging from less than $1 million to more than $20 million annually. Asian and most of the big domestic manufacturers have never paid a civil penalty. " GM has never paid a civil penalty: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/Cars/rules/...D-SUMMARY.html Companies can also earn credits. "Manufacturers can earn CAFE credits to offset deficiencies in their CAFE performances. Specifically, when the average fuel economy of either the passenger car or light truck fleet for a particular model year exceeds the established standard, the manufacturer earns credits . . . These credits can be applied to any three consecutive model years immediately prior to or subsequent to the model year in which the credits are earned" So even if GM doesn't meet the standards, they can apply any earned credits to meet those standards. Next, GM doesn't even technically have to reduce weight/alter displacement, or do much of anything to increase mpg according to CAFE standards. GM can make the Corvette a dual fuel/alternative fuel vehicle and the car will legally be classified as having a higher mpg, even though technically, in the real world, it might actually have reduced fuel economy. Try to wrap your brain around that. "The CAFE law provides for special treatment of vehicle fuel economy calculations for dedicated alternative fuel vehicles and dual-fuel vehicles. The fuel economy of a dedicated alternative fuel vehicle is determined by dividing its fuel economy in equivalent miles per gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel by 0.15. Thus a 15 mpg dedicated alternative fuel vehicle would be rated as 100 mpg. For dual-fuel vehicles (vehicles that can use the alternative fuel and gasoline or diesel interchangeably), the rating is the average of the fuel economy on gasoline or diesel and the fuel economy on the alternative fuel vehicle divided by .15" These are the facts, and they are not debatable. Sorry, I'm just tired of everyone saying the muscle car wars are over and that the Corvette is on its last breath. ========================== They will not make the C7, or the C8, C9, the size of a Solstice, and they will not bump the engine down to a V6. There's no point and there's no need to. GM has 12 years to have their domestic passenger car fleet obtain the 35mpg avg for CAFE. Even if they don't, it doesn't matter. the point of enforcing CAFE is for 2 reasons, and 2 reasons only.... 1) To become more "energy conscious", and 2) for the U.S. Govt to make money. The Govt. fines corporations for failing to meet CAFE standards, but the Govt. has also never fined Domestic or Asian manufacturers for their failure in meeting CAFE standards. Who are the ones that get fined? That's right, The European manufacturers. GM's North American passenger car production volume for 2007 was 1.526 million, the Corvette accounted for 2.6% of total production, or 40,561 vehicles. .... 2.6%. GM will not screw with a flagship model like the Corvette, especially when it has such an insignificant impact on the domestic passenger car fleet average fuel economy. Light trucks and foreign passenger cars have different CAFE standards than domestic passenger cars. I've said my piece.... again (I have to because it doesn't seem to get through people's heads no matter how often I say it). =========================================      :dontget:   |
