I know they're coming, but I'm getting impatient.

http://www.nhtsa.gov...iciency+Standards points to the 1994 page PDF with the latest regs.

page 19:

EPA is establishing standards that are projected to require, on an average industry fleet wide basis, 163 grams/mile of carbon dioxide (CO2) in model year 2025, which is equivalent to 54.5 mpg if this level were achieved solely through improvements in fuel efficiency.3 Consistent with its statutory authority, NHTSA has developed two phases of passenger car and light truck standards in this rulemaking action. The first phase, from MYs 2017-2021, includes final standards that are projected to require, on an average industry fleet wide basis, a range from 40.3 – 41.0 mpg in MY 2021. The second phase of the CAFE program, from MYs 2022-2025, includes standards that are not final, due to the statutory requirement that NHTSA set average fuel economy standards not more than 5 model years at a time. Rather, those standards are augural, meaning that they represent NHTSA’s current best estimate, based on the information available to the agency today, of what levels of stringency might be maximum feasible in those model years. NHTSA projects that those standards could require, on an average industry fleet wide basis, a range from 48.7 – 49.7 mpg in model year 2025.

When I went from my 20/30 MPG (real commuting/highway mileage) Buick LeSabre to the 44/50 mpg 2004 TDI Jetta Wagon, one of the main factors in the choice was the mileage. A 60-80 mpg commuting car with the cargo capacity of the Jetta wagon would make the pain of buying a new car much more bearable. Toyota could probably do it now, but it would either be terrible to drive or ungodly expensive. Presumably by 2024 things like that will be possible for a reasonable price.

The Hybrid Jetta is nice, but it's not appealing to me at this time. I hope enough people buy them so VW will make a BlueMotion TDI Hybrid wagon sooner rather than later. :-)

Cheers,
Scott.