@ 1c3d0g – Your views on vehicle weight (and size by association) are what is wrong with selfish US “drivers”. The view “if my vehicle is heavier or bigger I’ll be safer” is absurd. The lighter a vehicle is the better it can respond (accelerate, brake, maneuver) i.e. AVOID hitting something. Also, weight has nothing to do with the surviveability of a crash. Strength & design (crumple zones, door beams) have ALOT more to do with it. I gather from your statement that you’d rather be in a 60s or 70s full size sedan than a Lotus Elise because it would weigh more. Guess what would happen if you rolled over. The roof would collapse under the weight. You hit a guard-rail. You would go through it. etc, etc.

Don’t think I’m a lightweight elitest, I drove into a tree @ 40+ mph in a 88 Jaguar XJ6 & walked away without a scratch. Not because the car weighed alot, but because the crumple zones did their job & the frame passed the energy around the cabin. (A tree will always win) So much so that I was only able to get out by climbing out the sunroof because all the doors were jammed shut. I would hate to think what would happen in my current car, a 76 Lancia Scorpion. The thing weighs barely over 2000 lbs & has little structure to it. i.e. the doors are just skins, nothing but an empty trunk in front of me. But it is “safe” in the sense that it handles like a gokart & at the time had one of the shortest stopping distances recorded by the auto press.

(Also, the people that think modern small cars are unsafe, search Google Video for some crash tests, many are safer than the tanks you THINK are safer.)

Automakers do, after all, make a large number of cars that make over 20mpg; there are even a goodly number in the near-40 or 40 range.

But they’re not popular enough to get the average up, and it seems silly to blame the manufacturers for that – they’d love to get their CAFE numbers as good as possible by selling even more of those, I imagine.

Consumers want power, size, and luxury more than they want lower fuel consumption; this is demonstrated by their purchasing patterns, in the presence of choices in both directions.

Get rid of the SUV trend and move back to lighter cars?

It’s insane how few 3100 or 2800lb non FWD cars are out there right now.

And most of them are only weekend 2-seaters.

If you really want to help the environment and unclog the highways, then go get yourself a motorcycle. Better yet, buy yourself a moped or a skooter. Put your money where your mouth is!

This is the single biggest factor as to why we haven’t seen an improvement in overall MPG. Had the SUV boom not taken place, we would have notworthy gains, regardless of additional safety equipment and increased displacement/power.

From the linked repot:

“For model year 2006, cars are estimated to average 24.6 mpg, vans 20.6 mpg, SUVs 18.5 mpg, and pickups 17.0 mpg”

Diesels. US regs bend us over.
Dual mode hybrid: on the way for BMW, DCX, and GM.
direct injection. More advancements coming.
additional cycles: steam/heat recycling… on the way

etc…

It is the government regulations that has forced vehicle weights up in the first place… how are cafe standards going to bring weight down? increased fuel economy standards does not lower vehicle weight… but increasing vehicle weight lowers fuel economy.

Everyone is getting bigger and heavier cars in the name of safety, but the end result would be every car being big and heavy, which is no safer than every car being relatively light and compact.

Here’s an idea: restore communism in China!! Force the billion Chinese to ride bicycles again and quit sucking up our oil.

The strange thing is that in the States you can not even buy the 2000 cc or less versions of cars that you can buy here in Europe (VW Passat, BMW 3 series, Mercedes C en E series ) which have a mileage of +/- 30 MPG.

That responsibility is on the people, not the automakers. Have you ever studied business? do you know that business work in their own self interest? Do you understand supply vs demand?

It is not wrong and sad that the top corporations in the world do not bend to your bias. What is wrong and sad is that you expect the top corporations in the world to adhere to your agenda.

Clearly, automakers have added more weight to meet a multitude of government regulations that have driven the average price of a vehicle through the roof as well.

Although the exterior design is a bit freaky, the car has everything you need for commuting, and is fun to drive, and does 82 mpg. I’d take this thing everytime over one of those ugly Smart cars.

Cars should be getting lighter. They make them lighter just so they can fill them up with more luxo and saftey items.

We should all be driving Ariel Atoms.