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Big Dave has just identified the reason every car maker has a midsized sedan, but none have excellent high-mpg cars. Arguably no major carmaker has ever released one, when you compare what's been produced to what easily could have been produced.
In order for a major automaker to build a tiny, streamlined highway commuter, several things must happen. First, the market for a very high MPG car must be much larger than it currently is. A spike in the price of fuel would help, and so will the ongoing trend of green = cool. Second, the public must be taught, through advertisements and the actions of celebrities, that streamlining and wheel skirts are okay. Third, the automaker must have a suitable platform already used in other cars. A dedicated platform would be very expensive, but a teardropped and wheel-skirted "Chevy Corsa XXFI" with a parts-bin three cylinder is not beyond the realm of imagination, especially if carmakers can count on oil to become expensive, and remain expensive.
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