While international companies were willing to submit to expensive and strict U.S. regulations in the late 1990s as a way of participating in what was considered the biggest and best market in the world, a string of accounting and trading scandals have called into question the efficacy of the American rules.

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And if you think of the world in traditional measures, then you think of it in a way that's broadly traditional, and none too fussed about strict adherence to logically thought-out principles.

BBC: Gonna take a centi-mental journey

And while EPA emission standards have gotten increasingly strict since they first were instituted in the early 1970s, there's still a long way to go, especially at home: 60% of the entries on our list are from domestic automakers.

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