When purchasing a new car, fuel economy was an important factor for at least one-third of American car buyers. Back in 1992 already General Motors built a vehicle that got 100 miles to the gallon – and all these years later one of people’s major concerns on top of global warming and pollution is dependence on foreign oil. An additional automobile, the GM TPC, which looked a lot like the Geo Metro, weighed only 1000 pounds and could easily get 75 miles per gallon. Regrettably, to be able to meet American safety regulations, the 3-cylinder vehicle required reinforcement weighing 200 pounds, which resulted in further development being discarded.
It really is rather shocking that this had not been the only GM prototype that was built, only to be thrown out later. A number of these were the 1982 GM Lean Machine which made 80 miles per gallon, and the GM Ultralite which managed to do 100 mpg. Once Honda in 1992 achieved 50 mpg with the Civic VX, GM was offering cars that got 20 mpg, while in the background they had vehicles capable of 100 mpg. 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. Automobiles that achieve more than 70 mpg have been purchased in Europe and Japan for several years. For example, the Volswagen Lupo has never been sold in the US – this is a car that gets 78 mpg. In 2007, Honda in america released the FIT, in other places known as the Jazz. The Jazz in Japan has methods to increase fuel economy and a smaller engine, but for the US, the Fit doesn’t even use a smaller engine as an option.
The automotive companies tell Americans that they love big cars, and that is what they want to produce big cars. Needless to say they generate big money on SUVs, and practically nothing on a small two-person commuter. Commercials have convinced the citizens of the US that Tanks on Wheels are an absolute must to have. Because options have never been presented reveals where the big companies have their interests. The top in fuel economy may have been General Motors, but they prefer to remain 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? Maybe it is time to get those old plans back out and build a vehicle that has already been built before.
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