VW Rabbit: why only 30 mpg?
04-26-2007, 09:09 AM
#31
3100 lb. Rabbit?! The GTi must weigh as much as a 4th gen Z28 CAMARO!!!
WAY back when, the mags (R&T, CandD) couldn't rag enough on the domestics being so overweight, but now that IMPORTS are almost universally overweight, even more so than domestics, you never hear them mention it.
(not that I think current domestic offerings are necessarily better or even acceptable for the most part)
PROGRESS should be doing MORE with LESS, not just more piled upon more every year. Time for the industry to go in a new direction IMO.
WAY back when, the mags (R&T, CandD) couldn't rag enough on the domestics being so overweight, but now that IMPORTS are almost universally overweight, even more so than domestics, you never hear them mention it.
(not that I think current domestic offerings are necessarily better or even acceptable for the most part)
PROGRESS should be doing MORE with LESS, not just more piled upon more every year. Time for the industry to go in a new direction IMO.
04-26-2007, 09:40 AM
#32
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Lighter cars like the 90's Civic is probably not gonna happen, due to increasing safety standards and fear of product liability lawsuits. If the manufacturers could get away with using less steel in their cars, they would do it.
The tech to make ordinary cars more fuel efficient is out there, and was on the market recently. However, now that low-margin hatchbacks and small cars are out-selling high-margin SUVs, they would rather have you buying more expensive hybrids than lean burning basic subcompacts.
The scandalous thing, IMO, is that Honda was offering the dirt cheap HX coupe in the last gen Civic that got almost as good MPG as the hybrid (44 or 46 hwy). For the dealers, this must have been a nightmare to explain why they needed to buy the $25k (+ gouge markup) Civic hybrid when they could get an HX for $15k, especially when the HOV lane exception for hybrids expired. Whenever you would go over to a dealer, they would claim that they've never heard of a Civic HX version (huh?? that's the natural gas version I think?!?!). My guess is the dealers leaned hard on Honda to kill the HX for good.
The tech to make ordinary cars more fuel efficient is out there, and was on the market recently. However, now that low-margin hatchbacks and small cars are out-selling high-margin SUVs, they would rather have you buying more expensive hybrids than lean burning basic subcompacts.
The scandalous thing, IMO, is that Honda was offering the dirt cheap HX coupe in the last gen Civic that got almost as good MPG as the hybrid (44 or 46 hwy). For the dealers, this must have been a nightmare to explain why they needed to buy the $25k (+ gouge markup) Civic hybrid when they could get an HX for $15k, especially when the HOV lane exception for hybrids expired. Whenever you would go over to a dealer, they would claim that they've never heard of a Civic HX version (huh?? that's the natural gas version I think?!?!). My guess is the dealers leaned hard on Honda to kill the HX for good.
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