Ford Motor Company practically abandons small passenger autos

[Another Xer]

(04-30-2018, 05:55 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(04-29-2018, 12:01 AM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(04-28-2018, 10:51 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(04-27-2018, 09:33 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: It was Obama's regulations that removed the need for companies to build small cars, and allowed them to concentrate on gas guzzling large SUVs - a failed attempt to recover the government's investment in GM.

Based on my reading of legislative history, you are simply wrong on this.  This was killed in 2013 and is still pending since 2017.  That means that only Presidential intervention has been employed, and not by Obama.

You're confusing regulation with legislation.  I'm talking about Obama era regulatory changes to the EPA fuel economy standards, not any changes to legislation.  Obama's EPA changed the rules to make fuel economy requirements a function of car size, with a formula that encouraged production of large SUVs.  Prior to Obama, there was a single fuel economy standard that was independent of car size, which provided an incentive to produce small vehicles; the Obama administration reversed that incentive to one for producing large vehicles.

This seems to argue otherwise:


It looks like cars were raised higher.  Trucks continued rising at the old rate -- but rising nonetheless.  Car standards adjusted to meet industry performance.

Obama allowed the market flexibility that comes with a standard for large and small vehicles (both standards rising). This is a good thing.

Some people just like to blame Obama for the impacts of free market choices.