OT: how far we've come?, 35 years of non-progress Options

[lapuwali]

Hybrids are the buzzword now, and people marvel at how the latest Civic hybrid gets 50mpg.

Autoweek had a short article on the early Civics, which got 55mpg with a carb. 1.2L, 50hp, 1500lbs. Sure, they were slow, but they were described as still being fun to drive. The way most people drive modern Civics, I doubt they'd notice if they suddenly only had 50hp.

(yes, I know emissions are much better, it's quieter, it crashes better, yada, yada...)

[byndbad914]

werd... my dad had a 1984 Ford Escort with a Mazda diesel in it and it got 55 mpg around town, 57 on the highway. It was a slug for sure and if there was a steep hill coming, you had better get it up over 65 if you were going to top it out above 50, but I always wanted to leave the Mustang home and borrow it for long trips (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif) We drove from Central Iowa to San Francisco for $33, then slipped down through the Grand Canyon and so forth on the way back so I think that may have been around $40 to get back (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/blink.gif)

but... that is the only one I ever saw. So they only made them one year. Americans are far too fickle about "the smell" or "that knocking noise" which always amazes me. We should have been driving more diesel cars along time ago like Europe, but because gas was cheap, nobody wanted that knocking noise. Now it is emissions, but I think diesels will be (and are being) cleaned up quite a bit.

Blows me away we have wasted all this time on electric this and hybrid that when all we needed to do was build a nice turbo diesel about 30 years ago and have been getting over 50mpg the whole time. Hell, a well boosted turbo diesel can make a (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/stromberg.gif)-load of power. The problem with the Escort was no turbo to get moving/climb hills.