Quote:
Originally Posted by skale7
Yeah, when gas is six dollars a gallon, the small efficient engines will come. ........One thing I would look at is the car's safety. I think (again, think) that the US and Canadian cars have more stringent safety requirements, and with good reason, the cars are a lot bigger here, so crashing into one is much more serious.
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I was prepared for that. You are right in saying that we may be more stringent with safety and that some of these economy cars would never pass USA inspections. However, I did mention in my last post that the SAME EXACT (or at least very siimilar) cars are being sold overseas with smaller, more efficient engines. Like I said the same model that we buy with a 1.8 L engine as a standard comes in either a 1.2, 1.4 or 1.6 L engine overseas. Why are cars so big and powerful? Look at Toyota, for example:
The Toyota series used to be Tercel, Corolla, Camry,Cressida. As of late it was Echo, Corolla, Camry, Avalon. Echo is now Yaris, dont know deal with Avalon. Each upgrade bought more options, luxury, power and SIZE with a price tag suited to the amenities of the car. How is it that todays Corolla is larger than the Camry of a few years ago and seemingly almost as large as the older Cressidas and Avalons. A new Corolla has MORE power than my 98 Camry, which is a pretty good size. No one was complaining about power and horsepower 10 years ago when they bought their cars. But Car manufacturers have decided for us that we need tons MORE power. Now all of a sudden the BASE MODEL Altima has 170hp and the 6cyl version has 270hp. Thats a ton of power for your mid-sized car. Whats the point of a Maxima then? It used to be the Sentra was your economy car, Altima was mid-sized and Max was high power/speed/sporty 4door car. I never recall the Altima as a car that was lacking in power and the Max was known for it high speeds. Now the car below the Maxima comes out and actually has more power than the maxima forcing Nissan to make the next model Maxima with more power. I have no issues withpower but if its going to come at the expense of FE then I dont need it so I can race to the next light in a car that can do 160mph in a city where the speed limit is 55mph (70 on some interstates). I can understand selling these cars in Germany where you have the highways where speed limits are unbounded, but it just doesnt make any sense in the US. Cant wait till I have money and means to import. My .02. sorry if I sound like Im ranting. Oh wait, I actually AM ranting
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