Joe -
The higher fuel economy cars died on the vine so to speak because fuel
became cheap / readily available again after the 70's early 80's. The Civic
that you mention was rated at 67 highway and 55 in the city - in 1984 ! Of
course, dropping the CAFE requirements did not help anyone either in the
long run.
I am different that a lot on here - I do believe that we need to start to
build fuel efficient cars as things are different that in the 60's. Nothing
wrong with the 60's cars, and not that I want in anyway to stop driving
them. No in fact, I believe in going forward, we as a nation need to stop
producing inefficient vehicles that are capable of speeds in excess of 125
mph, when nowhere in this nation can you legally drive faster than 75 mph.
Personally I would rather drive something with better mileage than less, if
nothing more than to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Same reason I
drive ONLY American cars to begin with I guess.
Set the base minimal highway mileage at say, 50 mpg minimum for cars, 30 mpg
for light trucks - and see what happens - well I can tell you what will
happen as it has happened in the past - you will get cars and trucks that
will do just that, get better mileage and still be fast enough to get a
speeding ticket in ANY of the fifty states - (yes - the aforementioned 84'
Civic had a top speed of 89 mph - I know, I drove one) and we as a nation
will still get to our jobs, get to the store and do those things that need
to get done, and as a bonus, it will make all of those with a older / higher
performance car richer - as I am sure that it will make them more valuable.
More rambling / puzzling thoughts to add to your own Joe -
David
