EPA’s New Rating System Encourages Poor Decisions

David Kreutzer / September 01, 2010

The EPA recently proposed a new grading requirement for new car stickers. The A–D grading system would rank cars according to their fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions to help consumers make better choices. In the new grading scheme, the Ford Focus gets a B and the Toyota Prius gets an A–. What does this tell consumers? As it turns out, not much.

Already on the new car sticker are two more useful bits of information. The first is the EPA’s estimate of annual fuel cost. For the Focus it is $1,435 per year, and for the Prius it is $804 per year. The second bit of information is the price of the car. Though critical to virtually every consumer, the EPA gives no weight at all to the purchase cost in its grading system. If it did, the grades would be different. (more…)