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Mostly you guys are comparing apples to oranges and arbitrarily assigning relative prices based on weight. The material cost for a 2500lb car are not in any way related to the material cost from a 5000lb car. Just because there is less of "something" doesn't mean that the "something" it does have costs the same as the "something" that something else has twice as much of. Think of the Lotus philosophy of "Adding Lightness." The weight that their vehicles lack adds a cost. The cost of their vehicles is therefore no longer in proportion to the vehicles' weight because the avoided weight itself has value.
A 2500 lb car is more likely to have an aluminum block engine, whereas a 5000 lb car (more likely an SUV or truck) would likely have an iron block engine. Pound-for-pound, aluminum costs more. Getting into Lotuses (Loti?), the carbon fiber that they may use costs much more than even aluminum.
Laptops and MP3 players are a good analogy but not because people pay more for smaller, because they DO NOT always pay more for smaller. The most expensive MP3 players cost 2-3 times as much as the smaller ones. Larger ones have moving parts and an operating hard drive compared to the smaller-capacity flash memory. People pay more for a larger package that does more. Same with cars, the device is worthwhile because of what it does. Value is assigned when determining the price that the function will support. With MP3 players storage, screen size, and other features have more value (and a higher price) than shrinking them. With cars seating capacity, comfort, gizmos, and safety ratings are more important than shrinking the cars. Automakers, especially Japanese ones, are pretty good at analyzing the value content of their products and spending money in the right places. This is why cars weigh more - it would cost too much and matter too little to reduce the weight. People will pay a small amount for phenomenal fuel savings, but to reduce weight to achieve noteworthy savings would be extremely expensive.
The reality is that small cars are too expensive because I can not financially justify buying a different vehicle solely to save gas. With me, and the VAST majority of people in the world, it *IS* about paying less for gas. I don't care how much gas I burn. I care how much cash I burn. Buying a car with better fuel economy isn't worth the money it would take to save money.
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