OBAMA'S CAFE HIKE AND CA$H FOR CLUNKER$ DOOMS SUVS

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To most enthusiast motorists, sport utility vehicles are either a nuisance or a necessary evil. Typically, SUVs are rolling chicanes or road blocks for sporting pony car drivers. They've often been the transportation "appliance" of choice by many marginal motorists who value size and perceived safety over handling, acceleration,and fuel economy.

A few SUV drivers are serious off-roading enthusiasts.

Other enthusiasts tolerate SUVs for their practicality. Since Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards killed the large station wagon, SUVs have been the most popular replacement for drivers who need to haul large quantities of people and things without the mind-numbing boredom of a minivan. And SUVs have been placed into service towing boats, race cars, and recreational trailers, which are tasks the current crop of FWD vehicles are not equipped to perform.

Many hot rodders and grassroots motorsportsmen have viewed aging SUVs as donor vehicles for V8-based RWD projects.

But now SUVs are under a winnowing attack. Used SUVs at the bottom of the market stand to be decimated by the welfare/bailout plan known as "Cash for Clunkers." And President Obama's massive acceleration of hikes in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards will likely choke off new supplies of affordable and mid-market SUVs.

Industry observers warn it will be difficult to keep crossovers such as Equinox — never mind traditional SUVs — in the line-up as the result of the Obama administration’s recent move to raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard to 35.5 mpg by 2016.

Further downsizing may be essential, which could drive full-size SUVs like the Ford Expedition, Mercedes GL and Cadillac Escalade off the road entirely. Already, a number of manufacturers have begun paring back SUV projects.

Future SUV sales will compete with high-performance car sales under the new CAFE rules. This stands to drive up the sticker price of each.

And while expensive hybrid, turbo-diesel and exotic lightweight materials technology will keep some of the high-end SUVs on the road (in downsized form, no doubt), many in the middle class will be effectively "priced out" of the SUV market.

Certainly as some of these fuel-saving technologies are applied, they may "trickle down" to V8 RWD performance cars through the aftermarket, if not through the OEMs. But whether the volume of OEM production will be sufficient to reduce the costs of the "trickle down" technologies remains to be seen.

As it is now, only GM's rare and expensive hybrid Tahoe-class SUVs contain any electric hybrid technology that appears adaptable to traditional RWD muscle cars and street rods.

Ford's more conservative approach to SUVs has produced little technology for "trickle down" to muscle car retrofits. Ford's parsimony and short-sightedness stands to put Ford-loyal performance car builders at a huge disadvantage if future fuel price/taxation costs trigger electric hybridization of muscle cars and street rods, or the torque-boosting "electric nitrous" concept catches fire.

Unfortunately, the current sales depression and bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler mean that the pipeline of quality late-model used SUVs will be less-than-full as supplies of new SUVs escalate in price.

In short, artificial market restrictions championed by President Obama and his radical green special interest constituency will dramatically increase the "buy in" cost for SUVs and constrict their supplies in the future. This stands also to restrict developments in the performance aftermarket, as well as putting a crimp in our freedom of mobility.

Now that's "change" we'll all have to pay for.

"Some future!"