>>>In many countries, the cars are taxed by engine size. Here, it's upside down.
>>
>>I can understand the rationalization: with a large vehicle you use a lot more gasoline than with a efficent one. So you pay more sales tax, so the government low-tax huge vehicles.
>
>It's just a rationalization - it's actually a way to maximize profits for the manufacturers. Making things bigger doesn't really increase the cost of production in straight proportion - it may actually decrease some, because less precision may be needed in some parts, or weaker materials may be used if the part doesn't need to be so small etc. OTOH, one wheel still has only one set of brakes, regardless of its size, and mounting a 24" wheel takes same time as 14"... but the product you sell in the end costs double, parts for it cost more etc etc - everybody makes more money (except the worker, of course). So this push for the big vehicles is the reaction to the seventies and eighties, when the car companies were forced to reduce gas consumption. The empire stroke back and we're seeing gas guzzlers everywhere, and they even got the government to help them by such laws (for any vehicle over 4000lb you can claim some huge tax break when you buy it - I think it's more than when you buy a
>hybrid).


No, I was talking about the sales tax on gasoline. The government is acting like a crack salesmen, he gives the first dose free....then gain a customer for years.They let you have a huge Hummer, they collect sales tax on gasoline for years.