martinjlm,
I'm aware that Chevy Cobalt, Saturn ION, Ford Focus, or Dodge Caliber exists, but the promotion seems to be for the bigger wheels. I am also aware of Toyota's latest big truck
By
no means am I giving the consumer's choices a pass. You have corrrectly pointed out that popular culture is promoting the most gas-thirsty vehicles. I see it in the toy stores, MTV, the pro jocks....
Each successive generation has things better (we hope). Maybe it's getting older on my part, but it seems like the standard of "geting by" gets higher and higher.
Even with the "humble" Honda Civic, it went from a 40+mpg 1500lbs car to a 40+mpg 3000lbs car that goes 0 to 60 much faster - probably half the 1976 version. Make that 50mpg for the hybrid Civic.
One item that has not been discussed much on HOV lanes is people carpool less. Hope someone can get the stats but thought at least 80% drive to work alone. Families are getting smaller, but they have more cars. Roads have not kept up with increased traffic and seem to deal with it by choosing faster and/or bigger vehicles. Bigger vehicles exhasperates rush hour and road wear.
Movement has been made in Congress on requireing 35mpg fleetwide by 2020. Im aware that politics can work slow and awkwardly. Some of the true heavy haulers may get whacked on FE standards. I see this as a abrupt adjustment to address no progress on the 27.5mpg CAFE standards over the past couple of decades. Many could blame government for letting the light truck loophole stay open for many of today's problems. We it not for that, I predict Detroit would have protected it's share of the car market better and suffered less contraction.