The CAFE system was conceived as a response to the 1970's Arab oil embargoes to help reduce American demand for imported oil and promote energy conservation. Technology improvements such as fuel injection and computer engine control systems allow modern cars to attain mileage unheard of thirty years ago, plus reliability levels that approach everyday appliances. Those improvements came at considerable cost, however. Crashworthiness is dependent upon vehicle weight and size. Brake rotors are made light and thin, causing warpage.
Fuel tanks are smaller.
Gas weighs approximately 7 pounds per gallon, so designers make fuel tanks as small as possible, limiting vehicle range. America s dependence upon foreign oil has increased every year since CAFE was enacted, contrary to what the standards were intended to achieve. During the past two decades nearly 50 percent of the buying public has shifted its purchase decisions to sport utility vehicles and light trucks. These vehicles, due to greater weight and higher wind resistance, get profoundly less mileage, averaging in the mid-teens per gallon. If nothing else, this large-scale switch in vehicle purchasing demographics illustrates the lack of concern for fuel mileage on the part of the public and, by extension, any desire to change the CAFE standards.