DaimlerChrysler to Pay Record Fine for CAFE Infractions
While news of the new standards for the Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulation has been thick in the air since Congress passed the most recent update to the law, how those regulations get enforced has barely been touched.
That may be set to change as CAFE gets tougher and automakers struggle to keep up.
DaimlerChrysler was recently fined a record $30,257,920 for infractions in model year 2006, nearly doubling the $16 million and change that the now dissolved automaker paid for 2005. The huge tab for 2006 bests the previous record of $28 million that BMW was levied for 2001.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which collects the CAFE toll, is set to get a lot busier with a 35 mpg average on the horizon. NHTSA has collected a total of $735,422,635.50 since the original fuel efficiency standards first took effect.
+ AutoblogGreen: DaimlerChrysler gets record $30M CAFE fine
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Russ Bellinis
California discovered that the government could engage in a perfedctly legal extortion scheme with their California Air Resources Board aproval of aftermarket smog equipment where it is not only necessary for a manufacturer to prove that their product works, but a few extra thousand $ in fees paid to the state is required to get the certificate to get a certificate so a company can sell their product as 50 state legal. Now it looks like the Feds are jumping on the band wagon with their CAFE standards, and exhorbitant fines for failure to comply. If private industry tried to implement these draconian measures, they would be charged with extortion and raqueteering; but the government can do it with impunity. What I don't understand is why a company would even do it. Daimler Chrysler built plenty of cars that met CAFE standards. For the cars that didn't meet the standards like Chrysler 300, and Dodge Charger and Magnum Hemis, just charge an extra gas guzzler fee. The dealers were marking up Hemis in cars like crazy so that you could by the standard 300, Charger, or Magnum for $30-$35k. A hemi would set you back $50k or more. If someone is willing to pay $50k for a hemi, are they going to balk at paying an extra couple thousand for a gas guzzler tax?
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