“these new CAFE standards are unrealistic unless we are willing to let the government force us to drive tiny slow little bubble-cars and/or hybrids so expensive that the lower middle class will be priced out of driving.”
My 1991 VW Golf Diesel routinely gives me 45+ MPG. It’s not an SUV or a delivery van, but it’s also not tiny, slow, a bubble car, a hybrid, or expensive. Newer models are even more efficient and do things like turn off the engine at stop lights. A friend got back from England recently where he was riding in a friend’s slightly smaller VW Polo Diesel that routinely gives 70 MPG (U.S. gallon, not imperial) over the 2 years he has had it. The Golf is bigger/heavier and so reportedly gives a bit worse economy, somewhere around 60 MPG.