By David C.
Note: AutoRamblings.com welcomes another contributor to our growing blog. David C. hails from the great northwest and has keen insight into the state of the automotive world. We enjoy bantering back and forth about issues of the past and present in the ever fascinating world of automobiles. Welcome David.
Smog pumps and related emission control devices were a disaster for the auto industry, but they only have themselves to blame. For 20 years their only answer to making cars ‘better’ was to make them bigger with bigger engines. Of course, bigger cars and bigger engines mean bigger profits. It’s a lesson that Detroit has failed to learn as evidenced by the recent losses they have taken after putting too many eggs in the SUV basket. The evolution of the Mustang from 1964 to 1973 is a sad example of that kind of thinking. Historically speaking, I believe we may look back on those regulations as the rules that forced the automakers to start putting some serious engineering into cars to make them better, cleaner and more fuel efficient. Today’s V6 Toyota Camry gets close to 30 mpg, goes 0-60 in around seven seconds and has over 250 horsepower. Perhaps that doesn’t seem too impressive by today’s standards but consider that same Camry would outperform a stock 1965 Mustang GT in just about every category which says a lot.
However, for those of us who had to live through the 70’s and the dreck that was peddled to us by Detroit still have bitter memories of poor performance, shoddy quality and half-baked ideas. The Chevy Vega, Monza, Chevette, GM diesels and the ridiculous attempt at cylinder shutdown in Cadillacs come to mind as cars that will never be classics in any form. Arguably the hottest…er…at least most popular car of that decade was the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am that was used in the Smokey and the Bandit movie. This was a GM small block powered car that only put out about 165 horsepower. While it may have looked sporty, it was anything but. The performance in that car was so tepid that the makers of the movie actually had a modified 1955 Chevrolet ‘camera car’ drive alongside the ‘Bandit’ car to use it’s exhaust notes. This was the same (one of three) car that Harrison Ford drove in ‘American Graffiti’ and James Taylor drove in ‘Two Lane Blacktop.’ A classic car for sure but anything but stock, particularly by 1970’s standards.
So I think we can agree that performance was dismal in the 1970’s and long-overdue and hastily implemented emission controls were a big part of that. However, I think this time around is a completely different story. First off I believe that the judge was in the right to allow California to make it’s own requirements for regulating greenhouse gases. Principally, this is a states-right issue and as long as they are adhering to minimum federal government standards they should be allowed to do whatever they like. Second, as an economy, California by itself is bigger than most countries in this world. Auto manufacturers would bend over backwards to make their cars comply with standards that California mandated in order to be competitive in that market.
Most importantly however is the fact that there already is a standard for ‘Low Emissions Vehicles’ (LEV) and ‘Ultra Low Emissions Vehicles’ (ULEV) and a lot of cars out there already meet or exceed them. Meeting this standard is not only a combination of fuel efficient and potentially smaller engines, but also ones that do a better job of burning the fuel they use. It’s about building an engine smarter not just bigger and more powerful.
As the picture in AutoRamblings recent post on this topic clearly demonstrates, anyone who has lived in CA or even flown into LAX can plainly see that there is a serious pollution problem and something needs to be done. I think this decision is a win-win-win for all of us. It’s a win for state rights, it’s a win for California’s air quality and it’s a win for all of us who will get better, cleaner and more fuel efficient cars as a result.
Certainly there are extreme political groups in California that would like to ban all cars or go all electric but that would grind their economy to a halt and destroy the tax base so that’s not going to happen. Also don’t forget that a lot of cars are built in California. That means good paying jobs that come with them. This is an instance where I am trusting the legislators to strike a proper balance between the economy, the environment and the auto industry.
