Autoblog

psarhjinian @ May 7th 2008 11:44PM

Here's the thing: a lot of those Euro- or Japanese market cars weigh just as much as the Accord. Take the Toyota Avensis, for example: ~1350kg versus ~1450kg for the (much, much larger) Accord. Assuming we put the Civic's 1.8L in the Accord, we can probably narrow that gap further. Cut some mass from the Accord's body, either with complex options like aluminum, or simple ones like thinner glass and no spare tire, and we might end up with a car that weighs _less_ than the Avensis does.

Yet the Avensis can just manage more than 35mpg (again, Euro cycle) with a gasoline engine. It's only serious disadvantge is that 1.8L four that makes maybe 130hp, and European gearing, which tends to be pretty tall.

The point here is that 35mpg is more attainable than we're being led to believe. It's not easy, and it's going to result in some dog-slow cars by current standards, but it's not going to be crap car parade that some of 1980s were. The changes needed are incremental (like weight reduction and less power-to-the-wheels) rather than radical changes (the rapid adoption of fuel injection, unleaded fuel and emissions control.)

The problem will be selling these changes to a public that's gotten addicted to cheap power.