[johnpr]

Originally Posted by ebacherville

the one thing that i do see if crash test standards are insane, now adays you can drive a new car into a brick wall at hiwayspeeds and walk away.. thats all good but.. these standards have made it so i cant choose to buy a very light weight fuel efficient car that may not have as good of a crash rating..

heres a pro for crash test standards, last fall i hit a metro from the rear, i was in my trans am, on my car all that was messed up was the bumper cover, the bumper assembly the hood, the headlights, and the airbags. the metro hit the car in front of it, a new toyota solaris?, the damage to the toyota was the rear bumper cover. the metro was squished, if there would have been any rear seat passengers they would have suffered serious injuries, the rear axle was pushed right behind the front seat, and the front was crushed completely (maybe 9 in between front of car and windshield) i wish i would have taken a picture of the accident because my words only convey so much, by the way i was traveling at 30 mph when this happened and the metro just came to a stop, i fear that if i would have been in jeep 2 that day, well the accident wouldnt have happened because i would have seen the stopped car infront of him that he didnt notice until the last second, damn his heavily tinted windows.

Originally Posted by ebacherville

My opinion of the way this will go down either well start seeing motorcycle cars.. aka three wheel cars as there considered motorcycles.. or well see some of these imports that arnt legal in the USA being allowed in.. Or in a idea world, new process for carbon fiber production etc allowing weights to go down and MPG's to go up.

i would love cheap cf, but its more likely that we will see an increase in 3 wheeled vehicles.

Originally Posted by ebacherville

However, on top of all this.. it still shocks me how every american complains about fuel prices .. and then floors there suburban it to pass me at 57mph in a 55mph zone.. Americans are to big for there britches in my opinion... they need to get of there high horse and make some sacrifice in there lifes..

dont use the term "every" im an american, i own a jeep, and alas i probably drive slower than many (yep thats right 50 in a 55, 25 in a 35, im bad, i know it ) anyhow my mother in law is realy hard on her gas pedal and hard stops but she never complains about gas prices (she drives an alero so she probably doesnt notice as much of an impact as an suv would, she also has a 45+ mile daily comute)

Originally Posted by ebacherville

If you need cargo space isn't a small trailer a good option or a station wagon?

trailers are not always an option, i cant have one at my apartment building. also i tow other vehicles quite frequently and in a station wagon i would have needed to make 4 trips yesterday compared to my 2. also i tend to worry more about the interior appearance of cars (station wagons) than i do with the jeep, because 1: my jeep has no carpet and other than the doors no plastic trim 2: its a jeep so no one comments about scrapes in the paint, or the tear i have covered with clear tape in my rear window. im also helping local water usage by not washing it verry often compared with my honda which gets washed every other weekend.

so sadly in conclusion, there will always be a demand for suvs which get roughly 19 mpg but hopefully there will be an increase in safe fuel efficient cars. also just a thought, why was it necesary to make a fuel efficient honda have 140 horses compared to the 70~ hp that the old ones had, i used to have an oldsmobile cutlass which weighed alot more than my honda and it did fine with only 120 hp (probably less because it was in sad repair when i purchased it) i think that is the real culprit against FE