"You (and all these poor people) "couldn't find" any econo cars because y'all weren't looking for them."
Blah blah blah. Are you just going to parrot the same thing over and over again? all you have to do is stop by ANY car lot and loos at the prices for the small 4cyl sedans and look at the prices for the V8 sedans and older SUV's. Speaks volumes.
Then when you consider USAGE of a family vehicle and the propaganda that our society puts out (bigger safer smaller coffin etc..) well its pretty obvious why people drive what they drive.
"I" did not have a problem finding a small fuel efficient vehicle. its why I bought the cherokee. It was a great small light long lasting (496k miles) easy to maintain GOOD fuel economy vehicle (24mpg was NOT unusual for me) that did everything including TOW anything I wanted it to even my 6000 pound camper.
A lot of people are not so fortunate to have family that can assist with driving till they FIND "just" the right car. a lot of people would not have afforded the $1500 down payment on the car and the $100 a week I paid to pay it off without finance charges. A lot of people don't own a local family business 1.5 miles from the used car lot so they were trusted enough to be allowed to make such payment arrangements.
I consider myself one of the more fortunate people. NOW what is hard was finding a TRULY fuel efficient vehicle in decent shape OR developing the skills and or having ALTERNATE transportation to be able to deal with a less than decent shape truly fuel efficient vehicle.
Again I consider myself lucky. I always have at least 2 cars opearable optimally and insured so I could AFFORD to buy a $600 metro and then spend 1.5 months "fixing it up" to put it on the road.
Again I consider myself very lucky and in a minority to have to means to do this.
Have you CHECKED craigslist for the prices on good decent shape metro's? even the 4cyl's go for $1800 to $2500 Only rusty needs lots of TLC beaters tend to go for under $1000
"You found all these "ethanol problems" because you were looking for them."
Really? I guess you have reading problems or simply decided to make assumptions. I did not even have the word Ethanol in my VOCABULARY when my van's FE tanked from 19mpg to 13mpg (I was putting a new motor in the Jeep and the Minivan's tranny puked so I was driving the Clubwagon for a few months daily)
In fact since historically I NEVER had "fuel problems" I never even suspected the fuel until a few tanks later and after replacing many not needed parts on the van TRYING to find the problem that I noticed the Ethanol sticker on the pump and was like Huh what the heck is that all about.
it found me. Not the other way around.
"Basically, you find "supporting evidence" for what you are looking for, and are prone to disregard what you are not looking for."
No. I did as mwebb would say. TEST DO NOT GUESS. I tested it. Once I had a suspicion that the Ethanol was the issue I did exactly what any logical sensible person would do.
I STOPPED USING IT.
and wow what do you know the problem vanished. I was getting 19mpg again. Who would have thunk. its a miracle I guess.
the mechanical problem in my engine just magically fixed itself when I stopped using the suspect fuel.
AND HEY when I went BACK to E10 the problem RETURNED immediately. I guess tinkerbell died while sprinkling her pixie dust on my engine at just the moment I switched back to E10 right?
but you keep IGNORING that I did very logical sensible testing and just keep "DECREE'ing" that its me looking for a problem where none exists.
Keep telling yourself that.
"I spose we are all susceptible to that to some degree.
I just find it odd that our experiences are pretty much 180 degrees off on... well, just about everything.
"
What do you want me to do? LIE and pretend that E10 does not cost me an extra $1842 a year in extra fuel (if I were driving the Minivan)
Even in the GEO I current spend $2104 a year in fuel.
With E0 assuming I ONLY got 8mpg of my FE back (and I already know I should get more) but lets use 8 since that would bring me equal to my original EPA highway to be conservative.
it would be $1800 a year in fuel. SO Ethanol is costing me an extra $300 a year in fuel and thats in a freaking 50+mpg Metro !!
Now if it was ACTUALLY cleaner. if it was ACTUALLY greener and if it ACTUALLY reduced out usage of oil (it does not do any of the above) I could ALMOST say ok I can live with paying an extra $300 a year for those benefits.
but from my perspective every one of those things are a lie.
Brazil is invalid because they use a MUCH MUCH MUCH better source of ethanol than we do (sugar cane) and have FAR fewer cars than we do (so its VIABLE their)
How about you stop digging your hole frank and pretending its ME in the hole as you look up.