Here's an interesting read that I just ran across...apparently, the 42mpg standard ain't as far off as we initially thought:
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/05/22/e...-enough-to-dr/
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Cliff notes:
There are miles per gallon... and then there are miles per gallon. How do you tell the difference? One is labeled "CAFE mpg" and the other is labeled "EPA mpg." What's the difference? Well, Edmunds is taking pains to illuminate the large discrepancy that exists between the two figures: the issue ....
The change meant that when a customer bought a car that listed 26 combined mpg (EPA) on the window sticker, the CAFE mpg rating for that car remained at around 35 mpg.
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""a vehicle that scores an EPA combined rating of 29 miles per gallon actually contributes 39 MPG to its manufacturer's CAFE average. There are 29 car models and 36 truck models that already achieve the new standard, and about a third of the cars and half of the trucks are produced by a domestic automaker.""
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