This letter is in regards to Joel Aurora’s article (“Bush Administration Steals the Cake of Incompetence” Daily Nexus, Oct. 24).

Mr. Aurora implies the fuel efficiency exemption for all vehicles over 8,500 pounds will include family SUVs like the Hummer. Assuming he meant the new H2 and H3, a little research shows both models come up far short of the 8,500 mark. According to Kelly Blue Book, the H2 and H3 weigh in at 6,400 pounds and 4,700 pounds respectively. Only the original Hummer, a vehicle designed specifically for military use, comes close at 8,114 pounds. I can’t say for certain, but I’m betting the original Hummer only accounts for a fraction of sales.

So let’s take a short look at the H1. My somewhat outdated production numbers show GM delivered 37 H1s in March 2002. Compare that to 16,656 Chevy Tahoes and 11,537 Chevy Suburbans for the same month.

More importantly than all of this should be truck sales as a whole. For Sept. 2005, light truck sales for GM and Ford slipped 24 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Meanwhile Toyota and Honda made gains of 10 percent and 11 percent respectively. Rising gas prices and savvy consumers put a halt to soaring SUV sales, making this argument over legislation almost a moot point.

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