Shouldn't there be a law mandating fuel economy indicators in all new cars?

Are police cars currently pulling people over at random to see if their speedometer is working? Police around here don't even pull cars over that have no brake lights.. I wouldn't worry about the "MPG police".

 

These will be the same "police" who are currently pulling over existing cars at random to see if the car manufacturers installed all the other federally required equipment and complied with the many mandated performance standards.

 

Whoa, I feel the ground shifting all around me....

In point of fact, I have always thought that of people who drive compensator mobiles, even back in the 1970's. So there is no need to point the hate at a Prius owner... you could have hated me when I was driving an 87 Corolla.

Anyway, just because I spout my prejudices in a Prius forum, does not mean I accost every pick up truck driver and make accusations about their wedding tackle. I think they might think we think that on account of most people already do anyway. Even the people who make and market the dang things think that about the owners. Used to be Corvettes, though. So everyone thinks that about them. Why single us out?

In any event, there are many mandated components on vehicles these days, and no one is ever pulled over to randomly check compliance, only for externally facing apparent infractions (like a tail light out or a seat belt not being used). The only time the others are enforced are at state inspections, so why would this one be any different? There is no "enforcement arm" for any other automotive regulation of this nature.

The point was, it would be enlightening for motorists to see what their cars are actually doing, instead of pretending that they are getting their highway mileage all the time. I know a guy with a monster SUV who hauled a boat (motor, of course) and said he could get 38 mpg on the highway with cylinder deactivation, so he didn't need a hybrid. He seemed to think we was doing as well as my 2007 Camry Hybrid. Of course, I never even insinuated that he had a tiny old fella.

 

Also, *sniff*, it will not be time to beat ones's swords into plowshares until the prophesy of Isiah comes true about a time in the future when all mankind ceases the practice of war. This is what will happen AFTER there is no more war, not before. So your quote is prima facie inconsistent.

 

Given how many women drive SUVs and Pickup Trucks around here, you might find your radar and rhetoric are a bit juvenile and delusional. After buying a prius, I have found that most of the hate is not because of the car but because of some of the drivers. Its a free country but please stop trying so hard to make the rest of us look bad.

 

Actually...there are states that do this. You see....when there's a law that says you have to do something, there has to be an enforcement of the law to detect and punish the miscreants that break the law. Otherwise it's like mattress tags. Yeah....you can make them mandatory, and it'll make some people feel really good for a few minutes (until they find something else to be pissed about)...but what does it get you?
Vehicle emissions testing is mandated in some states. When cars fail the VET in these 'enlightened' states, they become used car lot fodder in other states (so they can pollute there instead.) Clearly there should be federal standards for vehicle emissions, and the US has some of the toughest in the world. Enforcement? Well.....as you accurately pointed out, we have enough trouble enforcing the laws that we already have. Why add to the mix?
I drive 1 G3, 2 motorcycles, and a truck.(make all of the anatomical presumptions you want...it really doesn't matter to me! ) I monitor the fuel consumption assiduously for these vehicles for maintenance purposes...not so that I can look down my nose at people who drive SUV's or own boats, or whatever. Gas is (still) an un-rationed commodity, and I suspect that the people who use whatever you consider to be "too much" of the stuff aren't going to be influenced by some gage on the dash.
And it is JMHO.
Call your Congress Critter (I wouldn't try tweeting them for a while...they're a little jumpy about that!)
If you're really hard over for MPG gauge law...who knows?
You might get it passed!

 

No need to worry, if we pass more stupid laws some police will definitely check. If you don't want police snooping in the cars don't make instrumentation inspection something they can do. Stupidity will find a way. 2 years ago I got pulled over and hassled for 30 minutes for not having a front license plate, I had been driving the car for 10 years and it never had the plate. A couple of months ago a 10 year old was given a ticket for improperly wearing his seat belt. Before he was forced to miss school to go to court, that 10 year old needed to learn his lesson, the tv stations made such a big deal that a judge dismissed the ticket without forcing the kid to appear.

 

Actually no. Women prefer SUV mom-mobiles b/c minivans and small cars make their a$$ look too big. On generational front they don't wanna get bundled in the same bucket with their moms if someone sees them driving minivan. So at the end they are still compensating, just for different thing

 

That's only if you consider a sword's primary purpose to be an instrument of war...not an instrument of peace, and that’s your prejudice. Not mine.
A modern day equivalent would be a handgun, which is either a defensive implement or an offensive weapon. It really depends on who is holding (or holstering) it and which way it's pointed.
Plowshares have their uses too I guess.....unless you don't like the environmental havoc they cause.
I guess I should have used the “Give Peace a Chance.” Quote, but it was already taken. I’ll gather a focus group together and consider a different quote...maybe.

 

suggestion

"Why can't we just get along?" - Rodney King

 

how about this one: "Peace is not mere absence of war"?

 

Oh, were this true.
My ex-wife found the Scangauge "irritating" and had me remove it.

 

I didn't have to try.

 

Comparing sword to to handgun isn't accurate.

In real sword fight the most likely outcome was a death of both opponents, one of them dying of wound right away and another dying later from wounds/infection. Or living crippled the rest of the life at best. It also took a considerable discipline and years of training to wield it.

 

They will need articulatable probable cause to stop you, which means some moving violation (Americans commit an average of one moving violation per 4 blocks traveled, so easy pickins') OR the violation would have to be in plain view while they were standing next to the car citing you. But since they tell you to turn off the car, they likely wouldn't see the offending "broken" device (since they wouldn't cite you if the car was never equipped with one.)

The point is, haven't you ever heard the rhetorical expression, "there ought to be a law...?" I think that is where we were going with this. Most people would be horrified if they saw what their engines were drinking.

 

esp if it were reported in $$ instead of MPG

 

Swords! They're not just for war anymore! Folks, has peace ever broken out, and you thought, if only I hadn't hammered my sword into a ploughshare, or my spear into a pruning hook! Well fret no more. Ronco offers the "Swords of Peace" series of swords and spears (Must be 18 or older to purchase, not for use in war.)

 

Ex-freakin-zactly!

I drove a 1968 Olds Toronado once, and when you stomped on it, you could literally watch the gas gauge go down (and I don't mean temporarily from the gas sloshing around!)

 

Some cars back in the seventies and eighties (Pontiacs, for one) came with a fuel economy indicator. I think it was vacuum operated, and indicated the best mpg with a light foot at cruising speed, and really went south if you stomped on the gas pulling away from a stop, etc.
Maybe on modern cars a digital readout of instant and average mpg could be placed in the area of the speedometer, so it would be easy to see how driving habits affect fuel economy. The $$ sign might be a good idea too. Especially if it switched to $$ when the mpg dropped significantly.
It wouldn't really require a law if the manufacturers got on board, but OTOH, it could be written in as part of CAFE. After all, laws are how we got a lot of the safety features built in all production cars sold in this country today. Remember when you had to pay extra for seat belts and padded dashes?

 

Yes, and in my college days we sometimes read these as a drinking game. You needed to guess whether these were real or made up. Now we have entire websites dedicated to stupid laws, and you think well the uncommon common sense gives you the right to add more.

Dumb Laws, Stupid Laws: We have weird laws, strange laws, and just plain crazy laws!

Then from your state

So do you really feel we need more of them?

As to people being horrified, these instruments are in many gas guzzling cars, trucks, and SUVs. Every business that I worked for kept track of gasoline used in its company vehicles, so I don't think fuel economy is as much of a mystery as you seem to think.

Most of the truck and suv owners that I know are women. I haven't asked, but I am sure that none of them bought them because they had small penises. I think you should survey your sample group. One guy that has a big truck is british so you may be right. I have also seen him use the truck bed a great deal, and he rides his bike to work at whole foods, when the weather is nice. How does that fit in your theory?