My Corolla enables someone else to drive a Landcruiser

NYT article on how the gas guzzler rules have an unintended consequence - that every hybrid (or any other fuel efficient vehicle) allows a manufacturer to sell a less fuel-efficient vehicle. The mandated average fuel economy for trucks is 21.6 mpg. So each time you sell a truck that does better than that, you can sell a truck that does worse. So buy a hybrid and allow someone else to buy a Hummer.

"...every Ford Escape — the hybrid S.U.V. that Kermit the Frog hawked during the Super Bowl — makes room for a Lincoln Navigator, which gets all of 12 miles a gallon. Instead of simply saving gas when you buy a hybrid, you're giving somebody else the right to use it."

The Europeans have huge gas taxes. Their cars are tiny.