I am posting this from my Caprice mailing list as we have a member that
works for GM in this area. Our hobby and to some of us, our lives are
threatened by these actions. Please read and send along to everyone you
know. Thank you. I will send the 2nd part of his post when I receive
it.
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Casey Aldridge
Tempe, AZ
'97 Dakota S/C V6 Hotchkiss'd (GOT BOOST?)
'94 Caprice 9C1 4DR Hot Rod (GOT TORQUE?)
www.users.qwest.net/~caldridge
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========================IMPORTANT: READ
BELOW============================
Message: 16
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 19:06:46 -0500
From: michael.kaczmar@gm.com
Subject: upcoming legislation
Cross-replied to on NAISSO, and MISSL, feel free to post this to the SS
forum, I will tomorrow when I get to work.. I will also forward this to
Fordnatics. Spread this as much as you want.
"I don't think CAFE applies to trucks/SUVs. That's why all the big
powerful motors go into those things now instead of cars, with the
exception of things like Corvettes and Vipers, due to relatively low
production numbers of those cars."
Actually, CAFE applies to all light trucks with a GVW (curb weight + max
payload) of less than 8500 pounds. This means (in GM terms) all light
trucks up to 3/4 ton trucks, and some Suburbans. Avalanches, Escalades,
TRailblazers, Silverados, S-10's Minivans, etc. all have to meet the
light truck CAFE regulation. There are different fleets. Domestic Car,
Import Car, and Light truck... Currently, trucks have to meet a lower
standard (20.7 mpg)than cars (27.5 mpg) but that is under threat... read
below, this is no joke.
"If GM did bring the hot LS1/6 speed Holden cars here, they'd probably
be limited to a certain number of cars a year to keep meeting their CAFE
#'s and I'm sure the price would be higher than the reasonable over seas
prices that the cars currently sell for."
Yep, they are relatively low fuel economy, certainly lower than the
average, so they would in fact be bringing the CAFE average down, but if
the sales volume is kept low the impact is smaller.... but Congress is
trying to raise the required average.. read below..
"I think one of the reasons that trucks became more popular than big
cars was CAFE. It gave the auto makers incentive to put more power and
creature comforts into trucks, and the market followed."
For those of you who know me, you know I work at GM, and am heavily
involved in the CAFE arena, and have spent the majority of the last two
years working with CAFE. TRucks became more popular than cars becasue
people were tired of being forced into smaller and smaller cars with
weaker and weaker engines. Auto manufacturers did not want to drive
their market this way, but the federal government had imposed this
regulation for them to meet a Corporate average fuel economy. Hence, we
had to make cars that were smaller, lighter, and less powerful to
improve the efficiency. That is all well and good from an environmental
perspective, we have come a long way in making more efficient
powertrains, cleaner emissions, and cars that pollute less than what
your house puts out of your woodburning stove (yes this is true).
People still want a big vehicle, something they can stretch out in,
something with towing utility, cargo utility, something they are not
cramped in.. Well the feds said we can't build big cars, but big trucks
were still allowed.. hence the boom in light trucks... and the death of
full sized RWD cars... we can't build the cars that big, so we startedto
build trucks.. it really is that simple, but it is a seldom heard
arguement, becasue the big manufacturers are these big bad fat head
republicans that only care about making money and screwing the
environment... you know, becasue the odea of being in business is to
lose money..
Vehicle costs have gone up as a result of regulations, technology costs
money it's that simple. We are using palladium in our catalytic
converters (did you know that palladium mining operations have to move
13 cubic YARDS of earth to get enough palladium for ONE catalytic
converter... that's environmental)and we have more than reched a point
of diminishing returns for CAFE and emissions, but the governemtn wants
more. Right now there are several bills in the proposal stage in
Congress. All of them are related to increasing CAFE regulations to the
point that we will NEVER see a car like the Impala SS again, we will get
sucked into buying cars that make the Cavalier look like a limo... I am
not joking.
I have no idea who is telling these politcians some of these things, but
they have gone out of control. " Auto manufaturer, raise your CAFE by 5
miles per gallon, your AVERAGE, you should be able to do it with ZERO
cost to the customer"... If we had 0 dollar solutions, don't you think
we would be using them already?? .. It's time to let your voice be
heard..
BTW, these regulations will have serious repercussions to the american
workforce, did you knwo that something like 1 person in 6 has some link
to the auto industry.
Tomorrow, I will be sending out part two of this, and I will be
including information on how to contact your Senators and Congressmen.
This is not urban legend, this is happening RIGHT now. They have been
working on proposals since last spring, and the only thing that stopped
their forward progress was, sadly, Sept. 11th.
You can also contact me at michael.kaczmar@gm.com
Sincerely,
=====
Michael Kaczmar
Creator 91/94 Caprice a.k.a. Frankenstein LT1, T56 3.73....
95 BBB Impala... stock 4 Now.....
53 F-100 5.0, Mustang II, T-bird IRS.....
70 F-100 302, Edelbrock, MSD....
65 F-100 289
see http://www.geocities.com/abbynrml94 project pics!!
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