Ferrari and Mileage Requirements

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Don't tell them. They will eliminate our marque!
MB

 

I think automakers that produce an X amount of cars have to abide by these laws.

I don't think Ferrari's production numbers are high enough to meet these requirements.

 

You can have none of your company's cars pass EPA mileage standards if you like. There is just a gas guzzler tax on every one you sell. The Corvette ZR-1 is the first Corvette to require a gas guzzler tax, for instance. All current Ferraris come with a gas guzzler tax due.

No big deal. It just costs your customer more.

The Obama administration has no clue on cars. Their new gas mileage standards only about one development cycle in the future are completely arbitrary and will be nearly impossible to meet. If they stick to them, however, they will generate a bunch of taxes consumers will be forced to pay for new cars.

Generate taxes? You can see the gleam in their eyes now for the fresh money this will generate.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I recall reading that BMW & Mercedes were able to sneak under the radar in the US for these requirements due to the lesser # of vehicles sold here. I think it was more of a mandate for US vehicles. If BMW & Merc could slip by, it's a shoe-in for a marque like Ferrari.

 

i agree

 

Every car sold in the US is subject to these regulations.

Currently the Tax for failing to meet these standards is:

Combined fuel economy of:
at least 22.5 mpg No tax
at least 21.5, but less than 22.5 mpg $1000
at least 20.5, but less than 21.5 mpg $1300
at least 19.5, but less than 20.5 mpg $1700
at least 18.5, but less than 19.5 mpg $2100
at least 17.5, but less than 18.5 mpg $2600
at least 16.5, but less than 17.5 mpg $3000
at least 15.5, but less than 16.5 mpg $3700
at least 14.5, but less than 15.5 mpg $4500
at least 13.5, but less than 14.5 mpg $5400
at least 12.5, but less than 13.5 mpg $6400
less than 12.5 mpg $7700

It's possible that this Tax may be raised substantially in coming years.

 

They pay the fines/taxes, just another cost of ownership.
At 13 mpg combined the 82 Mondial 8 paid $950 in gas guzzler tax
Enzo was $7700.

 

Just about the money. New taxes. 2016? How many terms does he plan
to have to 'see this through'? P&R I suppose. <sigh>

 

This law has always bugged the crap out of me. You want to see the SUV and truck market dry up and blow away in heart beat apply the Gas Guzzler Tax to these vehicles. The soccer moms would **** if they saw a 4500.00 added charge to the window sticker.

 

The gas guzzler tax is completely different than the fleet average (CAFE) the OP is talking about. Even if your fleet average meets the EPA standard, any car you sell which gets too low of a gas mileage still incurs the gas guzzler tax.

I don't think the reason Ferrari (and others) get around this is as ferrari_envy stated. Yes, you have to produce a certain number of cars to even fall within the requirement, but I believe that number is rather small, 1000 cars or something. If you don't meet the mileage you "simply" pay a penalty for EVERY car sold. This of course is just passed on to the buyer (and again, this is NOT the gas guzzler tax).

Some more popular manufacturers also don't meet CAFE standards, e.g. I think BMW is one of them. They simply pay the penalty (meaning, the car buyer pays it).

 

Those type of heavy vehicles should also have a hefty surcharge for their increased wear and tear on the roads, and their increased severity of damage in accidents.

 

I'm no SUV apologist, but they don't wear the roads out any faster than a car does. It's changed in the last couple of years, but pavement designs used to be based on Equivalent Single Axle Loads. 1 ESAL is equivalent to weight of 18,000 lbs over a single axle crossing a point on the road once. Highways are designed in the 1 million+ ESAL range.

As the relationship between vehicle weight and ESAL is exponential, the ESAL of an SUV is about 10 times larger than a car, but it's about 300 times smaller than a fully loaded box truck and 1000 times smaller than a fully loaded semi.

Road wear from loading is caused solely by heavy trucks. And by heavy, we're talking 40 tons.

 

So if all a company has to do is pay a gas guzzler tax, why do the car companies spend so much money to design a more efficient engine, that may be cheaper to pay the tax instead of designing? I wish they just taxed a car based on the weight instead.

Highways are supposed to be designed for truck loads as a highway is meant for military traffic. At least this is what I always understood. Kind of like the internet being originally for military.

 

Correct.

Most manufacturers have never met any existing CAFE standard, ever. (currently 27.5 mpg for cars, 22.2 for light trucks)

Here are the fines that the European automakers paid for 2007:
Daimler-Chrysler, $30 million
BMW, $5.1 million
Porsche, $4.6 million
Maserati, $1.4 million
Volkswagen, $1 million
Ferrari, $842,000

Diamler Chrysler's fine was a record but not by much. In 2001 BMW paid $28 million and that amounted to about $128 per car that was simply passed on to the consumer.

Sorry, I couldn't find the 2008 numbers.

 

Then maybe they consider buying reasonably sized vehicles that didn't belch out so much CO2. It's one thing to drive a car like a Ferrari a couple of thousand miles per year, it's another to have a vehicle that gets 15 MPG and make it your every day vehicle. Either way, you pollute, you pay, that's the way it should be or there would be zero incentive to stop polluting...

 

These are all pathetically low....

 

Is the gaz guzzler tax revenue spent on carbon sequestration? In that case I'm all for it. The thing is, it shouldn't be a levy of a one-time nature, but rather be included in the fuel prices, so all who burn fuel pay for their emissions. No exceptions.

 

[QUOTE The soccer moms would **** if they saw a 4500.00 added charge to the window sticker.[/QUOTE]

Just the soccer moms who cant afford the car in the first place because they are so overextended on credit to keep up with the Jonses....

4.5k in additional taxes so My wife can drive a Yukon Denali XL to protect my 4 kids.. I'll pay it anyday! BTW, 13.5 mpg city and lovin it....

Tony........

 

Perhaps you didn't read the entire thread before posting. The OP is not discussing the gas guzzler tax.

But to answer the question, the reason is simple competitiveness. This applies to both CAFE and gas guzzlers. A cheaper car will sell better vs the competition (all else being equal). One of the great things about the z06 corvette is that it doesn't incur the guzzler tax!

Not sure why you want a tax based on the weight. (What does it accomplish?) I know in CA there is a graduated tax (maybe it's a registration fee) surcharge for heavy vehicles. I think it starts at around 6k pounds. But that is in addition to other taxes and fees, not in lieu of.

 

Interesting. About another $421 of CAFE Tax added per US Ferrari sold.

842,000 divided by
2000

 

I think Mini now greatly reduces BMW's tax liability.

 

They might actually have to drive cars.

How can anyone actually go grocery shopping with anything smaller than an Escalade? They'd have to make two trips or something.

Yup, brilliant move.

 

I think there has been a traditional exempton from Gas Guzzler (don't know if also to CAFE) for "Trucks" so that no gas Guzzler tax for all the SUVs out there.

Just another example of political expediency and human hypocrisy.

Also, until everyone is willing to drive smaller vehicles, it will be hard to achieve big fuel economy increases, It just takes more energy to move around 6K pounds.

I'd love to see a change in focus from surviving the "inevitable" accident to meaningful efforts to rigorously train drivers and eliminate distractions.

 

CAFE and the guzzler tax with truck exemption is why station wagons vanished.

People have always needed people haulers, and especially now that kids have to be foam-encased with HANS units.

Don't hate the SUV, hate the fact there's not many alternatives.