> We can make cars smaller, but people often find large cars more useful. (even though a small car is good enough for 99% of all trips, that last 1% makes it wo

> We can make cars smaller, but people often find large cars more useful. (even though a small car is good enough for 99% of all trips, that last 1% makes it worth having the larger car. Renting is so expensive that even for the 1% trip it may still be cheaper to have the large car for everything) Partially. But CAFE standards are based on a footprint model which has kept light trucks and SUVs cheaper for a given fuel efficiency standard than smaller cars. If you close the gap, I'm pretty sure consumers would change their behavior, at least somewhat.