On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:48:58 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:51:20 -0700, John Larkin
wrote:

If you want to stuff a huge V8 with 200 tons of air conditioning and
power-everything under the hood, you need a lot of hood.

But Cadillac and most things Chrysler are admittedly over the top.
They corner the ugly-car-lover market.

John

For good reason. In 1978, the congress critters passed the gas
guzzlers tax:
http://www.epa.gov/fueleconomy/guzzler/index.htm
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/info.shtml#guzzler
The typical land yacht, with about 15mpg, pays about $4,000 in gas
guzzlers tax.

The idea was to discourage big ugly oversized non-commercial vehicles.
However, they exempted anything over 6000 lbs GVW. So, in accordance
to the law of unintended consequences, the industry simply delivered
monstrous vehicles that officially weighted 6001 lbs and save a bundle
on the taxes.

Of course, the government derives substantial revenue from taxing what
are now economy and mid size cars, so don't expect the situation to
change in the foreseeable future.

If the politicoes had any guts+sense, they'd just up the taxes on
gasoline, and let the market take care of the rest.

John