How Washington, DC is trying to crack down on people owning large cars

[bcsizemo]

@Otherbrother

Also: one of the cheapest new cars available today is a hybrid truck from Ford that costs less and gets better MPG than a Honda Accord or a Kia Soul. That tells me that automakers still have plenty of room to step up their game on cheap, fuel-efficient cars if they were properly motivated to do so. If Ford can build a 5-passenger truck that gets 42 mpg in the city for $20k then why the hell aren’t other automakers offering small commuter cars that are cheaper and even more efficient? Because we haven’t provided enough incentives for either automakers or car buyers, is why.

That’s not really why. You can force their hand, which the government continually does by upping the fuel efficiency standards, but at the end of the day it’s the consumers choice in what they buy. A 2022 Corolla Hybrid is $24k and makes 52 mpg city AND highway. The Maverick is a basic FWD truck. In today’s market that only goes so far. People wanted the niceness of a loaded Camry and the functionality of a full size pickup, hence why you have +$60k trucks with leather interiors.

My 04 Corolla was spartan in comparison to a model almost 20 years newer. There are some power options missing from the lower models, but mine didn’t even have ABS, much less any active avoidance systems. The days of cheap and efficient are long dead.