The feds (Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) are designing new fuel economy labels for cars, for the first time in 30 years, and they want you to help them with the design. (My two-cents worth, elaborated below, is cross-posted on Legal Planet.)
The draft design includes the following elements:
A big prominent letter grade for fuel economy and emissions performance, on a scale of A+ to D (with B- being more-or-less average) Five-year savings relative to an “average” vehicle (whatever that is) Fuel consumption and fuel economy (city and highway mpg; gallons per 100 miles) Emissions (CO2 grams per mile) Annual fuel costIf that’s not enough data for you, the label will also provide a web link with more detailed information.
What is missing in this short list is the one factor that is most important to someone making a long-term vehicle investment decision: How many dollars worth of fuel will the vehicle consume over its entire expected lifecycle? This should technically be a discounted present value, but looking at where the economy and fuel price inflation might be headed after 2012 (when th... Read more
