40 Cars That Avoid The Gas Guzzler Tax

The infamous “Gas Guzzler Tax” (GGT), which is also known as The Energy Tax Act of 1978, is assessed to new cars (trucks, minivans, and SUVs are exempt) that do not meet required fuel economy standards. Cars that achieve a combined fuel economy rating lower than 22.5 mpg are subject to taxes ranging from $1,000 to $7,700. Even though this sounds very straightforward, there are over 40 cars that have managed to dodge the GGT.

Some surprising vehicles from the list below includes the Ford Shelby GT500, Audi RS5, McLaren MP4-12C, Jaguar F-Type V8 S, and a host of Mercedes-Benz AMG vehicles. These and a plethora of other cars were able to avoid the GGT because of a strange double-standard in the system used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA uses laboratory testing to obtain mpg ratings, which tend to be more lenient than the three other testing procedures used to replicate real-world driving.

The GGT only uses numbers based on the EPA’s lab testing, not the rear-world driving experiments. As a result, the below cars have a combined fuel economy rating well below 22.5 mpg but still don’t get the GGT.