I sure wish they would get those commodities up.... :bang: :bang:

 

Its not for EPA reasons (I think you are thinking of CAFE, corporate average fuel economy). There is CAFE and then there is the gas guzzler tax.

For example, on the 2004 GTO, if you bought the automatic, you had to pay a gas guzzler tax on it because its average fuel economy is 21. The minimum economy set by the governement was 21.5. The GTO with the 6 speed had an average of 29, so no gas guzzler tax. The tax is set per vehicle model. Had the Mustang got less than 21.5, it would have had to pay the tax as well.

Ford could build alot more GT's if they wanted to and probably still not have to worry about CAFE. This is an average of all of their cars fuel economy and they probably would be OK. (trucks and SUV's are not included)

The big reason is that they have forecasts to all their suppliers and these suppliers build the parts and because they use JIT (just in time) manufacturing principles it takes a long time to change things around so the suppliers can build enough parts to build the cars. Obviously we have seen what happened with the IUP and how long that took. These parts could be as miniscule as the GT badges on the fenders all the way up to major road blocks like the limited slip rear end, etc. They certainly have leeway built into their numbers so they can shift their production numbers around, but if you are talking a major shift (major could be 10%) of the ratio of GT's to V6's, thats tough to swing. Lets face it, they underestimated the demand and are trying to remedy it, but it will take a while.
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You are correct, I was meaning CAFE...

Thanks for the clarification!