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title: ""Stringent fuel economy regulations imposed on cars in the 1970s had…"
date: 2019-07-06
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships shared a link.
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# "Stringent fuel economy regulations imposed on cars in the 1970s had…

*July 6, 2019 · Facebook*

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[https://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2019/07/how-regulation-killed-the-station-wagon](https://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2019/07/how-regulation-killed-the-station-wagon){target="_blank"}
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\"Stringent fuel economy regulations imposed on cars in the 1970s had made it practically impossible for automakers to keep selling big station wagons. Yet many Americans still wanted roomy vehicles.\
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The answer, Mr. Sperlich and Mr. Iacocca realized, was to make family vehicles that were regulated as light trucks, a category of vehicles that includes pickups. The government had placed far more lenient fuel economy rules on light trucks, as well as more lenient safety and air pollution standards.\
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Cargo vans, a tiny niche marketed to carpenters, plumbers and other workers, were regulated as light trucks. When Chrysler introduced the minivan in 1983, fewer than 3 percent of them were configured as cargo vehicles, with just a couple of seats in the front and a long, flat bed in the back. But that was enough for Mr. Iacocca to persuade federal regulators to label all minivans as light trucks\....\
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Four years after the introduction of the minivan, Mr. Iacocca led the acquisition of American Motors. He then oversaw the development of the roomy Jeep Grand Cherokee, a sport utility vehicle that became a runaway best seller in the 1990s.\
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Best of all for Detroit, the federal government limited foreign competition: Japanese automakers were initially kept out of the minivan and S.U.V. markets by an obscure 25 percent tariff on imported light trucks that was imposed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.\"
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