Energy economy was thought to be a significant factor in their selection of a new car by a minimum of 1/3 of buyers in America. Because of the preoccupation today with air pollution, global warming and America’s dependence on overseas 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. Advancement of the vehicle, the engine which had 3 cylinders, was dropped because, in order to meet American safety specifications, 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. In the event that cars which were able to do 100 miles per gallon had already been developed way back then, why is it that such cars are not being sold today?
It’s a strange phenomenon that some companies sell traditional vehicles in the US, but sell different, more efficient cars in other countries. Customers in Japan and Europe have for several years now had the opportunity to get cars that do 70 miles per gallon and more. A case in point of a car / truck never marketed inside the US and capable of 78 mpg, is the Lupo by Volkswagen. An automobile referred to as Jazz elsewhere in the world was brought to the States in 2007 as the Fit. There are economy-boosting options with the Jazz in Japan, such as a smaller engine and other ways to reduce consumption, but not so with the Fit in the US.
In The United States the manufacturers point out they have to build big cars simply because that is what the American public wants. Building a small commuter type vehicle doesn’t make the manfacturer big money, unlike with a large SUV. A Tank on Wheels may be the thing to get – that’s the concept that the commercials beguile the American public with. The fact that options have never been offered shows 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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