Detroits New 80 Mpg cars ! - (Precept, ESX-3,Prodigy)

[Cd]

" Detroits New 80 Mpg Cars ! " was the headline of an article that I had read on these cars over a decade ago.

It was all vaporware, and nothing ever came of these cars. Gas was cheap and no one seemed to care about fuel economy or pollution then.
In the years that have passed, most people never even knew these cars ever existed ( just the way the "Big 3" wanted it )

This was an article on those same cars - printed in Car&Driver in May of 2001.

A final paragraph from the article reads " But then, the Precept is a Hail Mary bomb, a touchdown at the 80-mpg goal, while the others are barely over the 50-yard line because of worries over cost and practicality. Although GM is planning to build a full-size pickup with a hybrid powertrain that could be shared among vehicles, the Precept is too wonky and makes too many sacrifices for its 79.6-mpg combined rating and will likely never see production."

Here is the link :

The Green Brigade - Car Comparison - Car and Driver

[oil pan 4]

As long as there is no smog no one really cares about "air pollution".

"new powertrain concepts such as miniature turbines"
I call them turbochargers.

[gone-ot]

...back in 1982, I read in my SAE magazine, that GM had made a 60 mpg 2-seater, but decided not to produce it because GM decided "...nobody would buy it..."

...and I was looking at a Honda CVCC at that time--for it's 40+ mpg numbers!!!

[Cd]

One thing I notice about these concept cars, is that they look as modern as tomorrow, yet were built over a decade ago.

Note the 'edge' styling on all three concept cars, which had not become popular at the time.
Most cars of the day had rounded styling :

[Cd]

Here is the pdf specification sheet :
http://media.caranddriver.com/files/...statistics.pdf

I remember my jaw hitting the floor when i read the Cd numbers on these 'brick' like cars - especially the Ford Prodigy and the ESX-3

.22 for the Dodge ESX-3, Ford Prodigy .20, and GM Precept at .16

[Sven7]

First, the styling looks pretty similar to the Ford Ka of 1996, Ford Focus of 1999, Renault Avantime of 2001 and Renault Vel Satis Concept of 1998 (including the production version in 2001).

Not to mention the Ford-Ghia Saetta, Ford GT90, and one I can't recall but you would probably dig. Looking...



The Ford Prodigy clearly turned into the Taurus/Five Hundred. So you can't claim that styling didn't hit production!


I also think that the automakers just don't care enough to try to hit high MPG numbers. With the exception of the EV1, American companies never put their money where their mouth was. Seeing how CARB reacted to that, the automakers got scared and went a more conservative approach.

It's a better business model to claim the lowest mileage that consumers will consider "good" and just keep with that. If no one makes an 80mpg car, you won't lose any business. Yes, Top Gear tested a Lupo TDI that got 70 something mpg on the highway. But America doesn't have high gas taxes. I think it's true that there isn't too much of a market for it.

As long as we keep buying 15mpg SUV's to tow small fishing boats, and drive our two kids to school in 7 passenger mega-crossovers, we're sending a message to the automakers that we don't care about economy.

Period.

[capnbass91]

The blue one looked a lot like a Chrysler 300.

If an 80 mpg car was available stock from a car company and was cheaper than a Volt I think a looot of people would buy it, especially with gas well over $4/gallon and heading towards $5/gallon.

And I think they know we care about fuel economy, ex. Fiats, Minis, Pruii... Small Cars Get a Boost With Fuel-Price Surge - MSN Autos

[Sven7]

AHH! Got it. 1996 Ford Synergy. Why wouldn't they make this retro beauty?



Looks like it would do pretty well in the wind tunnel.

[Cd]

Originally Posted by Sven7

Perfect example of backwards aerodymamics . That car would be beautiful in a wind tunnel facing " backwards "

[EF TuneRR]

I never understood why automakers waste money to make these ugly-a$$ concept ultra MPG cars and not put any of it into production. Yes, there are things to learn, but at what expense if it doesn't make it to production? Too ugly to buy? Yes, with the way they style THOSE cars.

There are CLEARLY ways to achieve better-than-today's- cars' fuel economy without looking ugly as all sin. The Prius and Insight are prime examples of this.

The US "Big 3" are **** for their way of thinking. In my opinion, Ford is the only one that's actually trying to take their company in a new direction (for the better) albeit mostly at Mazda's expense. The US Gov't should have let the automakers fail. They got themselves there, they should have gotten themselves out.

In regards to pick-up trucks getting 20-ish MPG;
"Some men see things as they are and ask why... ...I dream things that never happened and ask why not". That's how I feel about it.

Automakers CAN do it... if they wanted to. Do you know how many trucks Ford (or whoever) would sell if they could produce a rugged, affordable, capable towing capacity truck that could get 30-mpg highway and 20-ish city? TONS.