[cfg83]

Frank -

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

As I see it there's basically three things that influence what carmakers make:

1. What sells. F150 has been the #1 selling vehicle in N.A. for decades, not Metros. All the mfgs are going to try to build F150s then.

2. What's the most profitable. The market has said F150s are worth enough to it that they'll pay a price that includes a tidy profit for the mfg. The market has said that to sell a Metro, the price has to be at a point where the profits are thin.

3. Government regulations. CAFE and safety regs can provide forces to influence product that the Market alone may not.

I think everything else- letter writing campaigns, forum threads, or... what else is there?- pretty much falls on deaf ears.

Yeah, I think you need to build incentives into owning economy cars, aka (or a-KEI-a?) Japan :

Kei car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kei cars ("light automobile") are a Japanese category of small vehicles, including passenger cars, vans, and pickup trucks. They are designed to exploit local tax and insurance regulations, and in most rural areas are exempted from the requirement to certify that adequate parking is available for the vehicle. These standards originated in the times following the end of the Second World War, when most Japanese could not afford a full-sized car yet had enough to buy a motorcycle. To promote the growth of the car industry, as well as to offer an alternative delivery method to small business and shop owners, kei car standards were created.

CarloSW2