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^^What he said. The emissions regs did away with the Honda lean-burn engine, and Mazda and Toyota's efforts were stillborn for the same reason.
Today, a Toyota Yaris with no power windows, locks, or mirrors weighs about 2300 lbs. A Honda Civic VX weighed about 250 lbs less, and was a slightly larger car. Safety regulations are the culprit here. Side airbags, curtain airbags, impact beams, and seatbelt pretensioners all add weight, more than offsetting the weight savings by lighter materials in construction. An overall increase in equipment for most vehicles (A/C, power windows, locks, mirrors, seat(s), sunroof, huge wheels, etc.) hurts even more.
There are other changes brought on by market conditions: The first-generation Scion xB was a handy runabout that had 109 hp and weighed 2500 lbs. The 2nd generation weighed almost 700 lbs more, and had roughly the same interior space. In order to make it perform, Toyota gave it a 160-hp engine (as the only option). As you can imagine, gas mileage fell for the 2nd gen models, but not as much as you would think.
Sorry for the rant. it is 3:00 am and I can't sleep.
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