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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ThirdEye who wrote (146360)	5/18/2001 7:34:13 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Question: Why do people drive SUV's today? Why were SUV's invented? Why did they become so popular? ANS: One of the main reasons was government regulation (pressed by environmental groups such as the Sierra Club)which forced car manufacturers to average a certain mile per gallon in their vehicles. Result: Car manufacturers found a loophole in the law which allowed them to sell SUV's as trucks, which was exempt from regulation. The public then fell in love with the heavier, stronger, (perceived safer) vehicles, and it basically replaced the old station wagon as family vehicle of choice. The Sierra club would now say, "well end the exemption and count them as cars". What they fail to realize is businesses will simply create another vehicle which meet the same value needs of the consumer and call it something else. Where a consumer need exists, businesses will find a way to meet it. The same sort of thing happened in the meat industry in the 70's. Price controls were put in place on beef and the industry simply responded with Beefalo and a bunch of other derivations which they could legally not call beef. Who knows, if no MPG laws would have been passed. Station wagons might be getting 30MPG today, and soccer moms would be driving them instead of 15MPG SUV's. Thank you Sierra Club for filling our highways with low MPG SUV's and trucks.