Green Daily

When it comes to fuel economy, most reasonable people would assume that car companies in the year 2009 would have no problem when it comes to meeting CAFE standards that were first introduced in 1985 (and have been in place since 1990). But those reasonable people would be dead wrong. Apparently, for the last 2 years running, the cutting edge technical knowledge that has brought you Mercedes-Benz comfort and luxury has also produced the grand prize, most gas-guzzling fleet.

Well, that's not completely fair. Last year, it was DaimlerChrysler that got the record setting $30,357,635.50 fine, so Chrysler can take some of the blame. This year -- out on their own again -- Mercedes-Benz USA was only fined $28.9M for not meeting CAFE standards. Wow, they've really cleaned up their act. In case you're wondering, fines are in proportion to the amount of models sold that don't meet the mileage standards -- obviously, that's quite a few. Does that mean that Mercedes drivers are bigger polluters than Tahoe drivers? Whatever happened to that Bluetec clean diesel thing Merecedes was working on?

Other dishonorable mentions go to Volkswagen $4.5M, Porche $1.2M, and Ferrari $1.1M.

[via AutoBlogGreen]