Can America successfully build a small car?

[bowtieguy]

Originally Posted by SentraSE-R

The author is correct. He's clearly talking about subcompact B segment cars - the Sonic, Yaris, Fit, Fiesta, and Fiat 500. The US-built Civic, Corolla, Sentra, Elantra, and Saturns are/were much larger compact C segment cars.

much larger? sedan vs sedan, 5-7" shorter. fact or opinion? hmmmmmm.

[FrugalFloyd]

'

Originally Posted by bowtieguy

much larger? sedan vs sedan, 5-7" shorter. fact or opinion? hmmmmmm.

Suit yourself. You can pretend the 30" length difference between the hottest-selling Fiesta model and the most recent (2009) Aura doesn't exist. You and tjts1 seem to think that digging back 20 years in Saturn history to their shortest US-made S models, and limiting the Fiesta discussion to its largest sedan, and finding the Saturn was "only" half a foot longer, makes them the same size car. Sure. Meanwhile, there are the inconvenient facts that the Saturn Aura is a whopping 15"-17" longer than the Fiesta sedan, and the Saturn Ion is a full foot longer. That is, every US-made Saturn sedan made in the past 7 years or two car generations is a full foot longer than the biggest Fiesta.

[bowtieguy]

and typical of you and your failure to recognize the broad scheme of things...

my original point was comparing the PRICE and FE of sub vs reg compacts, and the subsequent draw on a persons finances; the actually FACTS contained are the sizes of all said models, past and present in that regard.

lighten up man. you continually jump on other members w/ facts that can be misleading or criticize legit viewpoints other than your own.

[bowtieguy]

Originally Posted by bowtieguy

...facts that can be misleading...

on a lighter note, i borrowed that from the movie "inglorious basterds."

good flick!

[kamesama980]

I too have noticed that in america cars get up to around 25-28 mpg city and 35 highway and just don't get any better as you get "more efficient" compacts. there are a few outliers like the VW TDIs but on average...

for example: my moms 3800 lb (empty) 02 lesabre gets 35 mpg with fully (44) inflated tires, 3 people and a weeks worth of luggage while my fiancee's 2800lb 03 protege maxes at 32 going slower with oversize tires and 1 person. both are rated at 30 mpg on the highway.

The difference is mainly the gearing...the buicks doing 1800 rpm @ 70 mph, the protege's doing 2k @ 40 mph(with gobs of torque to spare mind you!) people want to have cars that they can pass in without downshifting because they think if the engine revs, it'll blow up. thus the mfrs make cars that can pass without downshifting. I hate people. people are stupid.

[theholycow]

I thought this thread was about EPA ratings, not real-world observed FE...that'd be a whole different story IMO.

[Jay2TheRescue]

You also have to take into account that American "land yachts" are built and geared for highway cruising. It is easy to cruise @ 70MPH between 1,700 and 2,000 RPM in an American V6 or V8 sedan. Smaller foreign vehicles will usually rev much faster to maintain the same speed.