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...)

[riverman]

QUOTE (r_towle @ Mar 7 2006, 02:51 PM)

What I find amazing is that the Japanese car companies are the only ones who foresaw that the price of fossil fuel was rising....AGAIN... This is history repeating itself...remember in the 70's when honda and toyota took over the car sales market by selling what people wanted...good looking, fun, and great gas mileage... Well here we are again, a new generation of GM and Ford managers...all who apparently cannot read... Lexus (toyota) finally is making a good looking hybrid...at least they will be good looking now. I agree with andy...if honda and toyota can make a car that gets 50-75 mpg...WTF, all cars should be getting that kind of mileage.. Trucks should get 30-40mpg.. It seems that the car manufacturers are still looking at a market that does not exist...build a GTO, or a Mustang..20 mpg, sell 100k and feel good... Or build a good looking reliable hybrid...sell 2Mm and get rich. I feel bad for Ford and GM...they just dont seem to get it, yet they are crying poor...selling off parts of the company to stay alive...yet they still keep making gas guzzlers (put in perspective...60mpg versus 30 mpg Rich

All good points, but don't you think the auto manufacturers and the oil companies ALL know what's going on? The two markets are dependant on each other.

Big business knows EXACTLY what we want and EXACTLY what we can afford. The reason gas prices are so high is because the oil companies know we can afford to pay it. North Americans want big, powerful vehicles - the sales figures prove it. North Americans can also afford to pay for the gas they're using - if they couldn't, they wouldn't. The Baby Boomers are a generation of wealthy consumers and big business has succesfully marketed the "I can have it all" mentality to them and this leads to all these excesses.

If we all have to buy new, more efficient vehicles, so be it - that's just another round of big ticket spending. The large corporations are all multi-national and they don't really care if the cars are North American, Japanese or Swahili, just as long as they make enough profit to keep them competitive with the banks and keep their share values up.