Click and Clack had a memorable rant on this issue at Subaru's expense when it (Subaru) consciously decided to circumvent EPA regs by tweaking the Outback design to change its classification from car to truck:
Quote:
When is a car not a car? When a company decides it can waste more fuel if it calls it a truck. Subaru recently decided to modify the new Outback wagon AND sedan so they would qualify as "trucks" under NHTSA fuel economy rules.
This is a sleazy little move, in our humble opinion, to get around the federal fuel economy guidelines—which are lower for trucks. By moving the big selling Outback into the "truck" column, Subaru instantly has permission from the feds to decrease its fuel economy. AND, because the Outback is no longer bringing down the average fuel economy of its cars, Subaru can also decrease the fuel economy of its other cars. Which is apparently what it hopes to do.
|
http://cartalk.com/content/features/...issue-one.html