[Katana]

I imagine the SUV craze in the late 90's killed them off, not much point in trying to sell something if no one wants it.
In Europe the move away from cars like the GM/AX and lightweight cars is mainly for safety reasons. Though manufacturers are now making small cars that get great marks in the Euro NCAP crash tests.

I think when the production of carbon fibre materials becomes cheap enough it will be used in affordable cars to save weight and increase mpg while still being very strong if not stronger than steel/aluminum. The VW 1L car is a good recent example of a completely carbon fibre car made with aerodynamics in mind.
Though high end cars like ferraris, lambo's, koeniggseggs, mccalren slr etc. all have had carbon fibre bodies for years for weight reduction, but that's more for increasing the power to weight ratio than mileage.

I won't bring political things in to this, sorry, but i will say i have a couple of stories like that myself BDC and so do many people in this country. (last OT comment i swear)