HOW HE SEES IT Push for gas-sipping vehicles will fail

By ERIC PETERS
KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE
WASHINGTON -- With gas prices exceeding $3 per gallon in many urban areas, some once again are pushing the federal government to step in and force the automakers to build even more fuel-efficient vehicles.
The problem with that line of reasoning is that it's already been done -- and it doesn't work.
For more than 20 years, the federal government's Corporate Average Fuel Economy requirements -- better known as CAFE -- have forced automakers participating in the U.S. market to build cars capable of nearly 30 mpg or better.
Though you wouldn't know it from all the media buzz about "gas guzzlers," dozens of exceptionally fuel efficient vehicles are already available -- and from just about every manufacturer.
If you want a new car that sips instead of slurps gas, you could buy any one of the following cars:
Honda Civic with an Environmental Protection Agency rating 36 mile per gallon in the city and 44 mpg on the highway; a Scion xA with 31 city/38 highway; a Dodge Neon with 29 city/36 highway; a Chevy Aveo with 27 city/35 highway; a Chevy Cobalt with 25 city/34 highway; a Mini Cooper with 28/city/36 highway; and a Mazda 3 with 28 city/35 highway
That's just a quick sampling of currently available 2005 model year cars capable of fuel economy well into the 30 mpg range on the open road. For more information you want to check the EPA's complete rankings online at www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/FEG2000.htm.
Or if 30-plus mpg is not good enough, how about an even more efficient diesel-powered vehicle such as the VW New Beetle TDI with a 38 city/46 highway rating. VW also sells diesel versions of the Jetta and Passat sedans that get 40-plus miles per gallon on the highway. And there are half a dozen gas-electric hybrids like the Toyota Prius -- capable of 60 mpg in city-type driving -- and the Honda Insight coupe -- which can flirt with 70 mpg in highway driving.
Car-buying decisions
The simple fact is that with the current disruptions in oil supply fuel efficiency is not a major factor in the car-buying decisions of most American motorists and new laws aren't going to change that reality. Fuel-efficient cars are here -- and ready to go. Most people, for a myriad of reasons they consider valid, simply choose not to buy them.
Putting more fuel-sipping cars on the road by government fiat won't change that dynamic.
Within the industry, small cars that are designed to achieve high fuel economy often are known disparagingly as "loss leaders" because they are slow sellers with ultra-slim profit margins. Both foreign and domestics automakers build them not to satisfy consumer demand but to meet government's already-in-place fuel efficiency requirements.
There is no "conspiracy" between Big Oil and Big Autos to drown us in gas guzzlers and red ink. The only thing they really aspire to is to offer us a wide-range of quality products and grab additional market share in a fiercely competitive global marketplace.
Many of us, exercising our inalienable rights as free Americans, just prefer to drive 15 mpg Hummers and Cadillac Escalades over 44 mpg Civics because we value roominess, power and performance as much or more than we value fuel economy. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, either, despite the cries of the latter-day Puritans. Choice is empowering and, what's more, it's the American way.
These are the trade-offs we make daily, voluntarily, willingly. Few of us really need a V-8 engine or a seven passenger full-size SUV. But we sure want them.
If we were truly concerned about being economical, we simply could elect not to purchase $40,000 SUVs with leather interiors, GPS navigation, DVD players and 18-inch chrome wheels fitted with $200 tires.
If you're spending that kind of money on a vehicle, it's pretty clear you can handle paying $3 per at the pump. And if you can't, then maybe you should be driving something a bit less extravagant. Skip the leather, DVD player -- and the 300 horsepower V-8 -- and all of a sudden you've got an extra $10,000 in your pocket.
That buys a lot of gas -- even at $3 per gallon.
X Eric Peters is a contributing editor to Consumer Research magazine. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.