Quote:
Originally Posted by 99Metro
I think they stopped making Metros because demand is for high horsepower/high performance vehicles. People want to do 0-60 in 5 seconds - they want performance and the "fun" factor. In general, people are doing better financially, so they sacrifice fuel economy for horsepower. If you look at the new cars these days, you will be hard pressed to find one with less than 100 hp. I also think that the auto makers believe the gas price situation is temporary and that it isn't worth going to smaller vehicles for now. People are still buying the big ones - and that is where the money is at. It is all about the money...
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Right. What better reason to keep people from paying the true costs of imported petrol at the pump? The less it appears to cost, the more consumers use.
For better fuel economy, there is simply no replacement for small displacement engines in a light chassis. There are people who will insist that a small car can never be a safe car. That's only because there is no real incentive to use the types of materials used in F1 cars that allow drivers to walk away from 200 mph crashes. For this technology to be applied to passenger vehicles, what's needed is the long overdue divorce of the auto-industry from the steel industry. Lightweight aluminum space-frames and carbon fiber can be used to make very safe small cars. What's needed is for these materials to be produced at economies of scale that make them cost-competitive with steel.