So the entire explosion of the popularity of SUV’s was an unintended consequence of the gas guzzler tax?
I do not understand your statement about guzzler tax, from the DMV
" DMV charges the following license plate fees: New standard plates AND renewal: Passenger car: $75 for 1 year. Trucks up to 4500 lbs.: $75 for 1 year"
The gas guzzler tax is an up front, federal charge if your car gets less than about 21 mpg, EPA average. It only applies to vehicles registered as cars, not trucks. In 2003 when we bought our minivan, I asked about registering it as a car instead of a truck. The dealer said they would collect the guzzler tank if I did I so. It’s a truck, for registration purposes, anyway.
@B.L.E, that’s an interesting question. I can’t say for sure, but avoiding the gas guzzler tax certainly hasn’t hurt SUV sales. I think the reason trucks avoided the tax is that many (most?) are work vehicles, and the tax was meant as a luxury tax, not a tax on working people. Determining whether a truck is a work vehicle or not is a lot harder than just eliminating trucks from the tax entirely. I do believe that the manufacturers recognized the tax gap and took advantage of it in bringing out new vehicles that customers liked a bought in big numbers.
1 Like
I think the great majority of SUVs are registered as cars, and I think the regs were changed so that SUV/CUV mpgs are treated pretty much the same as car mpgs now. The initial huge jump in big SUV sales occurred the last time gas prices were really low.
1 Like
The Trailblazer is classified as a truck for the reasons stated above.
https://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/trailblazer/
After the TrailBlazer’s debut, Chevy slowly phased out the Blazer and let the TrailBlazer become its main truck-based midsize SUV
The first-generation 2002–2005 model years TrailBlazer is based on a truck platform called GMT360,
The TrailBlazer won the North American Truck of the Year award in 2002. T
It’s on a truck platform, like the Tahoe and Suburban. But my Suburban was registered as a car.
Around here it’s either a passenger vehicle or truck. The DMV can issue passenger plates to a truck that is not used for business and weighs less than 6k pounds. So even a pickup truck can have passenger plates and most do because it’s cheaper…
I looked it up. The EPA assesses the tax on passenger cars. In MD, trucks, SUVs, and minivans are registered as trucks. This is how the state differentiates them for tax purposes, even though the guzzler fee is federally mandated. Other states may handle it differently.
The EPA says that minivans and SUVs did not exist in large numbers in 1978 when the law was passed and are therefore not included in the program.
It sounds like we’re talking about two different things, CAFE and gas guzzler tax. Light trucks have always been covered by CAFE. with a different standard:
The standard is now ‘footprint’ based:
When we bought our Venza in 2009, it was classified as an SUV.
I don’t know if it got changed to station wagon in later years.
Jem-bay is how it’s pronounced.
I think this woman might get an Element.
Ja wohl! If you say so.
Ja, richtig.
I ended up getting a 2004 Honda Element EX, manual transmission. It’s big enough for the drums but it is so stripped down, I don’t like it. I didn’t realize how much I would miss a outside temperature gauge, controls on the steering wheel, a mirror on the driver’s side visor, variable windshield wiper speeds (there are only three), remote control sunroof and side windows…those are the ones that come to mind. There may be even more features that I had on my 2001 Aztek–3 years older! So, now I no longer need a car this big, but I still really like to be up higher than a coupe. What’s a smaller SUV that is fuel efficient and sits up high? I want to be able to strap my kayak on top, too.
The Element was mechanically pretty much a CRV. The current CRV will have all those goodies and more. Only downside is downtime while you read and digest all the info in the owners manual.
2 Likes