2012 E63 Gas Guzzler Tax

This is from MBUSA as reported in Wards (the news source for the automotive industry): Mercedes Polishes Reputation With Assault on U.S. Gas-Guzzler Tax

I can't remember when the 2012 W212 E63 sedan and wagons were announced for import by MBUSA but the above article is from May of this year. The new CLS was announced late in the year in 2010. It may very well be that in the end the E63 will also escape the tax. And if that's the case, you'll get that amount credited back to you. But so far it doesn't sound like it did, unless MBUSA hasn't yet turned in all their lab test computations to the EPA, which may be the issue here. Or maybe the EPA got their hands on a 2012 E63 and did a test and it failed (they do random testing to confirm the mfg's submissions on about 10% of all models of vehicles at their NVFEL facility.) Although I doubt that since the car is not here yet.

SUVs over a certain weight are exempt. The US auto industry pretty much stopped building big American boat like cars and replaced them with SUVs to escape the fuel economy regulation. If the SUV has replaced the big American car and gets a pass on the gas guzzler tax, there really should be a performance car class exemption. After all, performance car sales are a minor part of the entire fleet and a small part of overall sales. The gas guzzler tax was to get mfgs to increase economy on individual passenger car models. CAFE rules are something different and are to get mfgs to become more efficient and less polluting over their entire fleet of production. That can be done while still allowing a few performance cars to be built. There's really no reason to penalize a few performance cars with the gas guzzler tax. Most performance cars aren't used as daily transportation and owners usually have a more fuel efficient car as their second car.