Institutionally Incapable of Getting It

Um, Ford? GM? Chrysler, or whatever you're calling yourself nowadays? Politics should not have to force you to accept new mileage standards. The MARKETPLACE should.

You're getting your clocks cleaned by Toyota and Honda and other companies making fuel-efficient vehicles, and that's not likely to change if you continue to resist giving people what they want. Everyone knows you have the technology to do it, and it would not cause much of an upheaval in your business arrangement. You haven't changed CAFE standards since 1983, and ever since then, you've lost market share. Coincidence?

I want to see the domestic auto industry survive, but its executives are so clueless about the world in the 21st century, it'd almost be better for them to dissolve and let companies that understand the marketplace take over.

(As a side note, it is good news that even fuel economy foes like Carl Levin and John Dingell are admitting that the political climate has changed and there will be increases this year.)

UPDATE: Apparently Levin's amendment may not even pass. Call Webb and Mikulski if you want to drag the automakers kicking and screaming into the new millennium by mandating 35mpg by 2020 (I would also like to see a change in how that mpg number is measured - my car listed at 35mpg and it rarely gets so much as 30).