Hi Dennis,

I agree with you that the market here dictates what we drive. We visit family in Ireland a lot and find that most of their subcompact and compact cars have 1.0 litre engines. Anything over 1.6 litres there costs you much, much more to register. We had a Ford Focus, diesel and got well over 40 mpg. And that car had power to spare! We had it for 3 months and I would have sneaked it home if I could have. Folks there have cars they say get 60 mpg....and I believe it! But I'm not sure I buy into your heavy US car theory (safety equipment etc.) that cuts down on mileage. Their cars also have the side air bags and other safety things ---maybe even the same frame construction. Their engines are half the size of our compact imports! I'd like to strip down the European Ford Focus and one of ours to see the difference. Can you find out anything on that? I tried to find a 1-litre car at a dealer here in the States---not a chance. My VW Jetta here is a 2.0 litre---in Ireland that size engine would only be found in a large "saloon car", or suv.

Finally someone with common sense. Thanks

I guess you're talking about the EV 1 from General Motors back in the early 90's. These cars were available in limited areas for lease as GM evaluated whether such an all-electric car would be profitable. It was not. The EV 1 had limited range...cost twice as much as a regular car....had little cargo space....and was very heavy. GM dropped the program because there were not enough customers who wanted one. End of story. That doesn't sound so suspicious to me.

The "Tesla" is NOT the first fully electric car with a realistic range to be produced, and given to the public to use. Several years ago a car manufacturer release an all electric car in to California for tests, then recalled ALL to have them ground up!! If you can find a copy of the movie " What happened to the Electric Car " you will find what I have stated above is true. And there is a "Conspiracy" between the oil companies and the care makers.

Thank you

I agree with all the fact you stated in your post, but one thing I have to add is the fact the US automakers were working with the oil companies before, but now that they know that they are loosing market share to Japenese and koreans companies, they started thinking for themselves. Auto makers can build now cars that are fuel efficient, if every car on the road had automatic engine shutoff when the car stop, the gas mileage for that car will increase by 2 MPG, plus the benefit of less cabon dioxide released in the air, the cost to add this functionality is minimal in the range of an extra $1000 or less. Right now in California there are two companies that offer upgrading the Prius with new battery that will allow the car to travel 100 miles per gallon, the price for the upgrade is $10,000, this means for a total of $32,000 you can get a car that goes 100 MPG. So the cost is not a big issue, and the manufacturer is going the right direction right now. VW will be coming soon with new diesel hybrid that will allow the jetta or Rbbit to travel 65 MPG. The future is promising and it may take 3 years from now to see some improvement. Tks

Something worse than the conspiracy theory is happening in our country. Oil consumption in th last six months has gone up less than 2% world wide. Oil has gone up 60% during that time. Why? The stock market and oil becoming a commodity. Why was this alowed to happen? Today is a perfect example. The Fed said they are most likely done with interest cuts. The market dropped 227 points. Where did the money go? Oil commodities, thus raising oil over $5 dollars. Sen. Joe Lieberman had a meeting yesterday to try to stop the rediculous stock market speculation that is driving our prices on oil and food out of site. Not one major TV broadcast even mentioned it and it was the most important news of the day. This problem has to be brought to the forefront. People can not afford 4, 5 and 6 dollar gas prices and 4-6 dollar a gallon heating oil this winter. OIL SPECULATION ON WALL STREET IS THE COUNTRY'S MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE . IT MUST BE RESOLVED OR PEOPLE ARE GOING TO "REALLY" START SUFFERING.

the government can encourage people purchase more fuel efficient cars, just like several years there was a tax incentive for self employed people to purchase humongous suv's, because of a loophole in the tax code...15 years ago i was driving a car that got 48/mpg and GM had an electric car(EV1) that they only offered in LA or parts of AZ. we couldn't get them here. any other GM car they would have marketed extensivily. GM pulled the plug on a great electric vehicle...they eventually smashed them up. Couldn't even get them used. so yeah, i think there might be a little somethin' somethin' going on.

I agree, for the most part. Most of those who believe in conspiracies against "us" are relying on rumors and myth; however, few positive social changes occur without some sort of government prodding. If you believe that it would be beneficial for America to become less dependent on foreign sources of oil (or oil in general) then the government is justified in establishing some guidelines based on the theory that the good of the many takes precedence over the good of the few. Ultimately many of the contentious debates today come down to defining who the "many" and "few" are. We got where we are as a society because of some sense of commonweal; losing sight of that would be a terrible mistake. Thanks.

This concerns the ticket the truck driver got from Maryland. I also got one in 2000 for not paying the $1 toll for the Fort Mc Henry tunnel. There were a couple of problems with that. One, I avoid any tunnel that travels under water, I never went though it, two, it was supposed to be a Maryland license plate, I was a PA resident and last, it was for a vehicle which had been scraped two years earlier and the plates were turned in!!!! They threatned to revoke my license and registration if I did not pay the fine. I was also told that to prove the car and license plate were destroyed I had to pay $15.00 to the MD DMV for a copy of the record, and that I had to then send them! You see, the DMV and the traffic dept do not share the same information system. Since I do not have a MD license or registration, and I did not go thru the tunnel, I told them "tough, go ahead and revoke a license I don't have and a registration that doesn't exist!" Oh, by the way one lady did admit that MD licenses and VA were VERY similar and it probably was a mistake, but they still wanted the proof that MY vehicle had been destroyed!!

That's right. When I was in high school, dad had a 1960 Dodge Seneca. ( Full size) Three speed on the column & he got around 25 mpg with a slant six engine. I also remember 6 dollar fill ups too!!

That's right. When I was in high school, dad had a 1960 Dodge Seneca. ( Full size) Three speed on the column & he got around 25 mpg with a slant six engine. I also remember 6 dollar fill ups too!!

Here is just a sample of what I'm talking about:

1968 Ford Mustang GT 2659 lbs.

2008 Ford Mustang GT 3500 lbs.

1970 Dodge Challenger 3600 lbs.

2008 Dodge Challenger 4200 lbs.

1996 BMW 335i 3234 lbs.

2008 BMW 3351 3600 lbs.

Much of the added weight comes from better crash test protection now compared to years ago.

I believe the car manufacturers could build more efficient cars if they wanted to but we the comsumer won't let them. Several years ago everybody wanted more power so the car companies granted our wish and gave us more power but not overnight(it takes years) now we want better fuel economy but it's gonna take time because the car companies are still building more powerful engines. They have to totally changing the goals of the engineers and that takes time. This is only my opinion for what its worth.

Williams Roberts

Car companies did much in the way of making cars lighter, however, the only changes to the car in the 70's era was the catalytic converter that was mandated by the U.S. government. The catalytic converter caused a loss in horsepower.

The gas crisis in the early to mid 70's caused the era to change from powerful V8 to V6's and 4-cylinders to get more MPG.

In the late 70's early 80's thing started changing with the imports you mentioned. They started to be imported with the reduced emissions ( catalytic converter) and were better MPG than big three could make at the time. The European cars have better emissions, because there country mandate it. Two I know for sure are Japan, and China. They have stricter emission standards than the U.S.

Dennis I agree with you wholeheartedly. We are a spoiled society and a throwaway one at that. We expect our cars to have heated seats, power seats, adjustable pedals, power windows, power locks, and the list goes on. What ever happened to rolling your window down with a crank.

I have a 1967 model year car with a 302 v-8 that gets the same gas mileage as my 1994 fuel injected vehicle. Americans need to stop buying gas guzzling huge Suvs and new cars in general. If we keep paying the prices for them they will keep charging those $30,000.00 price tags for a car thats worth maybe $2000.00 by the end of your payments for trade in value.

More expensive and bigger cars are not always better. My next vehicle will have better gas mileage than the one I currently own and I will be looking for less options not more. Ask a car salesperson to show you a car with manual windows and they look at you like your crazy.

No Not crazy just practical. No window motor to go out when its pouring down raining at the bank drivethru. Just a thought.

Dennis, I do not agree with you that cars are much larger, heavier and more powerful than they were in the the 50's through 70's. Cars have been made lighter using aluminum and plastics. Every US manufacturer back then had huge V8 engines. Chrysler developed the ever popular Hemi back then. Open the bonnet of an old car and a new car and take a look. I think you will see a lot of the reason for reduced fuel economy, if you can even see the engine in a new car. Although the new cars are technologically much more advanced, there is a lot more going on in there. In the 70's cars were changed to reduce emissions. This was the beginning of lower fuel economy. This is also the reason that many European cars were stopped from being imported. They are still being marketed in Europe with good economy. But that is only my opinion and I am "auto mechanically declined"

Hey Dennis read the ad to the left www.waterforgas,tv. what do you think, it sounds like a bunch of bull to me

The government should not force auto manufacturers to produce cars with more mileage. The problem with the gasoline prices needs to be addressed. There is no reason gas and oil should be the price they are. Do something about fuel prices not the car themselves. Cars aren"t the problem.