Longview Plant Unveils Hybrid Specialty Truck

I have had several cars that will easily get 34-40 mpg since 1959. None of these cars were "special" nor high priced. That the current batch of economy cars will not easily exceed this MPG range is unreasonable. Yes I know that the emissions controls and other "safety" requirements are all weight additions and that the weight of the car is directly influential to MPG. My 59 Fiat Abarth would easily get 42MPG at 65mph and it only weighed 1700 lbs. . Todays economy cars weigh much more and are more powerful, but not nearly as economical. Aptera seems to be moving off in this direction but is not yet on the market(later this year they say) and should be easily nudging 80-100mpg. The long list of foreign manufacturers that have successfully begun in our country with "economy cars is legend. The other factor is their long life durability as well as higher MPG than our domestic products. I have gotten 200 to 300 thousand miles from the Honda Civics (stick, smallest engine) as well as annual mpg averages of 33-35 mpg. I currently own a Dodge pickup with the cummins diesel and at 55 mpg can get as high as 33 mpg. It now has 302 thousand miles and shows no signs of aging. This is a long way around to say that we can build transport that will last 1/2 million miles and do so without running up our operation costs. I am regularly underwhelmed at what is offered year after year to much hoopala, it is only transportation after all. As adults we quickly get over the "be seen in this and ..... . advertising. Give us the choices that will be meaningful to our pocket books and keep the prices relevant. When I first entered the workforce cars cost about 25% of the average pre-tax annual wage. today that number is way over 50% . Someone is asleep at the switch

" of MT 8:51AM April 23, 2009