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I think we should go back to the old style family station wagon. I have a '92 buick Roadmaster Wagon that is the best big car I have ever owned. It gets over 25 mpg at 75 mph and does everything reasonably well.
It will not, however, safely tow a 9,000 lb trailer. Greatday is rich enough to buy a special vehicle for that duty. I do not see where a surburban commuter or soccer mom needs a big truck for the daily chores. If they want one fine but most of the market does not.
When the cars I have finally rust out (In New England they all eventually rust) I will probably have a difficult time finding a replacement for the Buick.
I think we should go back to the old style family station wagon. I have a '92 buick Roadmaster Wagon that is the best big car I have ever owned. It gets over 25 mpg at 75 mph and does everything reasonably well.
It will not, however, safely tow a 9,000 lb trailer. Greatday is rich enough to buy a special vehicle for that duty. I do not see where a surburban commuter or soccer mom needs a big truck for the daily chores. If they want one fine but most of the market does not.
When the cars I have finally rust out (In New England they all eventually rust) I will probably have a difficult time finding a replacement for the Buick.
One need be "rich enough" to get an appropriate vehicle today - For instance, we recently purchase a Ford Expedition and the dealer knocked over 20K off the sticker price. Heck, you can now get a current year Explorer, with very low miles, for under 15k
it would also be useful if you had any stats relating to my belief that consumers are not buying small enviromenatlly friendlier cars because of the fear of being totalled by speeding suv's
Nope. What keeps me from buying a smaller car is the fact that it isn't cost-conscious for me to do so. My 1996 pickup truck gets 23mpg. Even at that it would take a lot of driving of a new, smaller car to just break even in gas mileage. So...I'm driving my truck until it croaks. Only then will I worry about what my next vehicle will be.
Just driving more effectively and keeping a car maintained will be more effective when you keep an existing car. Although those who really put on a lot of miles may benefit from a more efficient vehicle.
I drive a MINI Cooper and have for 3 years.....I have never been put off by the larger vehicles on the road.
I also don't "judge" folks who drive SUV's, if they can afford the gas to fill them up, more power to them. I also think the generalizations on this thread are kind of funny. I see plenty of "safe" drivers in SUV's and maniacs in small cars as well as vice versa.
I really don't put much stock in the fact that type of car(or truck) you drive defines you as a driver or person.
Actually, they were just recently discussing this at an international auto show. Auto makers themselves sometimes don't push for availability of smaller cars in the U.S. b/c of the size discrepancy leading to perceived and actual dangers. Which is one of the reasons why you see all those tiny cars in Europe and Japan (where they also don't have the road or parking space or accomodating gas prices) that you never see here.
Haven't read the whole thread - apologies if this has been mentioned already.
We recently moved to Arizona. Before we moved, we traded in both our Sentras for one new Ford Escape Hybrid. We have been averaging 27 mpg for the last 6 months.
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Have the best of both worlds
