What is wrong??

[Erdrick]

You answered your own question. Gas is cheap in America. While Americans are freaking out about $3.00 gas, most of the rest of the world would praise the heavens for gas that cheap. I think that gas needs to at least hit $5/gal before Americans make a real commitment to FE-focused cars.

You mention your car is a diesel. Unfortunately, those are pretty rare in America, and fetch a high premium over their gas-based siblings. Americans generally have no foresight, so something that costs more today is not worth the added cost, regardless if it saves them money in the future. Americans live in the present. No real hindsight or foresight. Anyways, other than VW TDis, there are no real diesels in America that offer decent FE.

Oh yeah, and the thing is that Americans DON'T buy American cars. Nowhere else in the world can you find people driving so many foreign cars... that I am aware of anyways. Here in Japan, almost everyone drives a Japanese car. Some opt for European cars, but the American car is a rare sight indeed.

You could really put the blame on any number of factors as to why America still hasn't gotten with the program in the FE department... but it all comes down to cheap gas in the end.