Energy economy was thought to be a significant factor in their choice of a new car by a minimum of 1/3 of buyers in America. Given the preoccupation today with pollution, global warming and America’s dependence on foreign sources of oil, it’s actually shocking to learn that as long ago as 1992 a car that got 100 miles to the gallon was built by General Motors. There was also a car that looked a lot like the Geo Metro and weighed 1000 pounds, which boasted 75 miles per gallon gas mileage. Balanced growth of the vehicle, the engine that had 3 cylinders, was dropped because, in order to meet American safety principles, it had to be reinforced which added 200 pounds to its weight.
It was certainly not the only protype developed by GM which ended up on the scrapheap. The GM Lean Machine of 1982, which could achieve 80 mpg, along with the GM Ultralite which realized a fabulous 100 mpg, were two of these vehicles. GM seemed to be selling cars to the shopping public in 1992 that did 20 mpg, while Honda was getting 50 mpg with their Civic VX, but right then GM already covertly had cars doing 100 miles per gallon. Clearly this begs the question that explains why these cars that are proficient at 100 mpg are not available to the public.
One more baffling thing is that many manufacturers, while selling fuel-eficient vehicles in foreign countries, are selling traditional gas guzzlers in the US. Cars that achieve more than 70 mpg have been available in Europe and Japan for a lot of years. To illustrate, the Volswagen Lupo has never been distributed in north america – this is a car that gets 78 mpg. In 2007, Honda in the US launched the FIT, elsewhere known as the Jazz. In Japan the Jazz models include one with a smaller engine, plus there are ways to improve fuel consumption, but with the Fit in the US not even the option of a smaller engine is offered.
Auto manufacturers in America tell their public that they make big autos because they, the public, love big autos. It’s obvious that manufacturers don’t make a lot of money selling a small 2-person commuter vehicle, but they certainly do selling big SUVs. American citizens have been brainwashed with advertisements to believe that they just must have the latest and largest bundu basher. It really is quite apparent where the giant companies’ interests lay when you consider that they have never offered options. Leading the way in fuel economy might have been General Motors, but they opt to often be the leader in SUVs instead. The rest of the car makers did the same thing by producing fuel-efficient cars, and then denied them to Americans.
We all live in a society that has waged wars over oil, that has been polluted, and car makers have never even given the choice to people in this country of fuel-efficient cars. Just how many people would’ve loved having a car that got good gas mileage, and were never presented with the option? It’s possible that it is the perfect time to get those previous plans back out and build a vehicle that has already been built before.
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