Well said Peter.The real issue here has been that consumers have NOT been forced into more fuel efficient vehicles, as has been the case for decades in Europe. It's all about performance, luxury, and security... big vehicles fare better than little ones in crashes, especially when a big one hits a little one.
But we are headed down the same path as Europe, even as you try to dig your way out of decades of socialism. After all, its only fair that EVERYONE drive a small car so that we can spread the wealth...except for the politicians who will continue to drive in small packs of SUVs.
;-) Regards Craig At 11:57 PM +0000 12/11/08, peter wilson wrote:
Hi all, Coming from Europe I find it very strange that Ford and GM who produce class leading compact cars in Europe don't import the designs to the USA. Sure there are local regulation differences but they cannot be that big. European Emissions regulations are also very stiff. Ford and Vauxhall are the top two in the Uk with a Wide range of cars in several size classes from very small to mid range. What's also galling is that although Ford and probably GM have pulled cash out of Europe for decades to prop up their US operations inefficiencies they expect the UK government to support a US company in a crisis. Now finally that the US has low sulphur Diesel Fuel at the pumps you could try the, quiet, economical and powerful modern diesels with electronic single rail injection, catalytic converters and particulate filters. It is common today to get 45 Miles + from a Uk gallon with a 2 litre diesel, my six year old 2 litre diesel Peugeot with 115 Bhp manages over 40 MPG average over 20,000 miles and although I don't drive recklessly fast I don't hang around either, smaller cars with 1,4 litre Diesel engines will hit 60 MPG + driven carefully and 100 MPH if not. Regards, Peter
---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.