4 out of every 5 Americans want 40 mpg standard legislation
 

A bipartisan 78 percent of Americans want the U.S. government to impose a 40 mile per gallon fuel-efficiency standard for vehicles sold in the United States, according to a new Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) national opinion survey. The report indicates nine out of 10 Americans expect gas prices to go up "in the near future," with nearly half (46 percent) "definitely" expecting a resumption of higher fuel prices.

70 percent of Americans are not turning their back on fuel-efficiency concerns and say that they are factoring "expected future gasoline price increases into consideration in thinking about buying a new vehicle."

The study found temporarily lower gasoline prices are not sending large numbers of Americans rushing back to gas-guzzling SUV and trucks. In fact, nearly half (45 percent) of Americans are now more likely to buy a "hybrid or other fuel-efficient vehicle" than they were six months ago, compared to 30 percent who are unchanged in their plans and fewer than one in four (24 percent) who are less likely to make such a vehicle purchase.

Other key results of the Opinion Research Corporation survey conducted for the Civil Society Institute include the following:

* Most Americans think Detroit is to blame for its current woes. Respondents were asked: "Do you agree or disagree that U.S. automakers have generally been blind to U.S. consumer needs and tastes by focusing so heavily on fuel-inefficient SUVs and trucks while European and Japanese automakers have focused their efforts on vehicle design and/or improved fuel efficiency?” More than three out of four (76 percent) agreed with the statement, compared to just 22 percent who disagreed.

* Nearly all Americans want President Bush to pressure U.S. automakers to focus more on the latest in fuel-efficiency technology. White House pressure for Detroit to take up such innovations reducing "energy consumption and related global-warming pollution” is backed by 85 percent of Americans, including 58 percent who would strongly support such pressure by President Bush. Political support for White House action on this front is strongly bipartisan: Republicans (82 percent); Independents (81 percent); and Democrats (91 percent).

* Most Americans think "President Bush and Congress could help U.S. automakers be more competitive by increasing the federal fuel-efficiency standard to 40 miles per gallon”. Such a move is supported by 78 percent of Americans, including 45 percent who back it strongly. Support for a 40 mpg fuel-efficiency standard cuts across party lines: Republicans (70 percent); Independents (78 percent); and Democrats (84 percent).

* Most Americans agree that "President Bush and Congress should provide incentives-such as helping to lower health care costs for autoworkers-in exchange for increased investments by Detroit car makers in fuel-efficient technologies to reduce energy consumption and related global-warming pollution.” Two thirds of Americans support this step, compared to less than a third (31 percent) opposing. Strong majorities of Republicans (60 percent), Independents (60 percent) and Democrats (75 percent) would back such an inducement.

* A majority of Americans see Japanese automakers ahead of U.S. car manufacturers. Respondents were asked: "Would you say that U.S. or Japanese automakers are in the lead when it comes to hybrid technology and other more highly fuel-efficient technologies to reduce energy consumption and related global-warming pollution?” Half said Japan was in the lead, compared to only 6 percent who put the U.S. in the pole position. Slightly more than a third (36 percent) see the U.S. and Japan as being roughly neck and neck. Men were more likely than woman to see Japan ahead of the U.S. by a margin of 57 percent to 44 percent, respectively.

* Almost all Americans want Detroit to start selling here at home the highly fuel-efficient vehicles that they make or sell overseas – but not in the U.S. The survey notes that "American automakers produce or sell dozens of car models that achieve over 35 miles per gallon but are not made available to consumers here in the United States. Do you think Detroit carmakers should be encouraged to make available here at home the more fuel-efficient cars they are currently only selling abroad?” An overwhelming 90 percent of respondents said "yes,” including 60 percent who said "definitely yes.” Almost no difference was seen on this question across party lines: Republicans (88 percent); Independents (86 percent); and Democrats (93 percent).

* Most Americans would support federal gasoline taxes devoted to renewable energy/clean tech R&D. Respondents were asked: Do you think President Bush and the Congress should dedicate a portion of existing or increased gasoline taxes for investment in research and development of renewable energy and related clean technologies?” Nearly three out of four (74 percent) said yes, compared to just 24 percent who said no. Support was little changed on the basis of party affiliation, with Republicans (70 percent), Independents (73 percent) and Democrats (78 percent) in agreement on such a tax policy.


http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/11/...g-legislation/

it won't last, this same thing happened during the last crisis and as soon as the economy caught up to fuel prices people were back to buying without much concern for fuel economy. I've said it once and will say it again, the only way to ween this society off of gasoline is to make it so damn expensive they will have no choice.

Agreed. :up:

I don't think artificially increasing gas prices would do anything except cause inflation. 99% of the miles I put on a car aren't optional.

We need to figure out how to do our jobs without commuting as much. That's the biggy.

There's your gas. 40 mpg is nice. Parked is better.

I think that the economy will adjust and that SUVs and large cars will be back as soon as inflation pushes gas back down to affordable. Who the hell wants to drive a Geo metro or a Prius?. People drive big cars because it's safer, and more comfortable. I think the only way in the long term to get people to buy cars, is to make cars people want to drive. I expect this short term switch to more fuel efficient cars to die a quick death.

After I bought my Lincoln town car (14.5 mpg), one of the taxi drivers I know wanted to buy it. I said "Wouldn't this kill you on gas?". He said "It doesn't matter, the tips would more than make up for it". This was when gas was about as high as it got.

I had a 1982 Ford Fiesta miniwagon. It got 45 (really!) highway and was a very dependable car. Would I buy another one?. Not a chance :) Yeah, it was the "green" thing to do, but I was never so happy as when I sold the gutless turd. I'd have to give it to the car for being economical, dependable and the miniwagon was really utilitarian. In short, it sucked bad.

Look at how well adopted the 1982 Fiesta was...NOT . like that's a joke dude..... 24 years ago and awesome gas mileage... not even really a terrible car.... You couldn't unload em with a fork lift at the car lot. The only reason I bought the red squirrel mobile was that they practically gave it to me. This was also one of those gas price spikes that very temporarily made economy cars popular.

When people look at my old "shop rod" Lincoln they say "Wow, Cool". When they look at a new Prius "Gee, that's interesting :) ". I look at it and think "Oh, crap. This is the future?"

You get tired of wind blowing you all over the road. Hydroplaning because you don't have enough weight... even with expensive rain tires. Trucks passing you shake your kidneys out. The doors are so thin, you can hear a mouse fart. You feel it if you drive over a dime.....

A traffic jam just gets angry. Or you can drive a real car or SUV.

Vibrationless, effortless.... traffic jams give you the chance to catch on that album you didn't listen to, an easy chair... quiet.... nice .... easy ..... You aren't madder when you get home than when you left work.

They got scared by gas prices, they bought the econocruiser, they'll drive it for a couple years and then, like me, say "Screw this!".

And that's just what happened back then....

People don't want to drive crap. I don't really think they care what gas costs. Adapt the society to travel less, people would even like that.

We need to figure out how to do our jobs without commuting as much. That's the biggy.<<<

Hey, I agree with rockeouthippy. Quick check: yes the sun just rose in the West. heh

When people look at my old "shop rod" Lincoln they say "Wow, Cool". When they look at a new Prius "Gee, that's interesting ". I look at it and think "Oh, crap. This is the future?"

You get tired of wind blowing you all over the road. Hydroplaning because you don't have enough weight... even with expensive rain tires. Trucks passing you shake your kidneys out. The doors are so thin, you can hear a mouse fart. You feel it if you drive over a dime.....
<<<<

Do you own a Prius or just listen to right wing talk radio bloviators who love to hate anything that is positive and may help in a small way make our society better? I do own a 2001 Prius and it actually is heavier than a comparative car of it's own dimensions and I can attest to the fact that in violent wind and rain this weight keeps if from being blown around when I drive over the Richmond San Rafael bridge during a storm. That drive has been made much better then the scary rides in my old Ford Escort which was blown around like a cork. Point 2 -- the Prius doesn't have thin doors ( I believe you pulled that factoid out of your ass) and because of the hybrid electric/gas engine it is considerably quieter than any car I've ever owned. I can have a calm conversation with friends even at highway speeds. That the car is so quiet is why you can hear said mouse out-gas. Traffic jams are no stress because while the rest of the cars are sitting them idling away that $2.89 a gallon gas and spewing pollution into the air, I'm burning nothing and my car is dead silent, allowing me to listen to the stereo without having to blast it. I love my Prius and the 55 mpg I get. And ponder this. If every car got 50+ mpg perhaps we wouldn't have to buy middle east oil and could lose our dependency on that horrible patch of the earth. Ever think of that? Getting good gas mileage and emitting less pollution instead of driving a gas guzzler smoker that gets 14mpg is the patriotic thing to do. Why do you hate America so much?

Re: 4 out of every 5 Americans want 40 mpg standard legislation
 

What good is 40MPG when the car falls apart in 7 years?

Are you implying that the dreck GM and Ford have been churning out are going to outlive a Toyota? Man the Japenese have just been owning us quality and maintenence wise for decades.

i'll give you $100 if you can prove you get 55mpg with realistic driving.

prius is a solid car don't get me wrong, but it aint no 55mpg car.

if you want a car thats easy on fuel, why not buy a diesel car?

i'm happy with my v6 commodore at the moment ~28mpg 203bhp(manual gearbox saves lots on fuel)

This is a good point. An SUV is no less likely to fall apart than any other car, and American SUVs are at best no better made than Japanese or European cars.

Send me the check, bubba. I get 53-55 mpg consistently by managing my driving and feathering the gas pedal. Also I use a technicque of pulse and glide --> smoothly accellerate up to speedlimit + and then feather back on the pedal until I'm running on the electric engine only. rinse and repeat. I also do crazy things like not gun it from one stop light to the next.

Yes, that means that oft times I'm actually doing the speed limit, which does seem to get SUV drivers angry enough to honk at me. Too f'ing bad.

When I have to put my foot into it when I'm late or driving a route that is mostly up hill, the mpg is more like 46-48 mpg. But I have a 74 mile roundtrip to work everyday so I enjoy playing the game and driving like grandma, expecially when it's time to hit the pump and pay for the gas.

I admit to a bit of bias as the American made Fords I've owned have all died tragic deaths of decomposing infrastructure. Cost a lot of dough, too. And the Volkswagons and Toyotas I've owned have run for hundreds of thousands of miles with little repair beyond changing the oil and lubing the suckers every few months. The worst thing that ever went wrong on my VW golf that I owned for 11 years was the rear window defroster failing. Big wow. My Ford Courier went through 2 clutches, a differential, u-joints, failed carborator, cooling system (radiator failure), too many brake jobs to count, and then finally and dramatically, the transmission seized up. All a quaint 5.5 years and 110,000 miles into it's miserable life. a full couple of months after the warrenty ended.

I'm saying quite the opposite.

Fuel efficiency not-withstanding (and keeping in mind that my truck is almost 12 years old now), my little Chevrolet has actually been very reliable. The ONLY* time I've had to send it to the shop was when the fuel pump failed, and that was only because I didn't have a lift to get my truck up off the ground. Even then, it got me to work that day before it quit working, so it didn't leave me stranded on the side of the road. I had one of the u-joints in the driveshaft fail one time, but it got me home that evening... again, not stranded on the side of the road. Simple enough fix as well; $10 part and half an hour's worth of my time to replace it. Everything else has been relatively minor. I've never had any serious mechanical problems with the engine, transmission, or differential. The odometer just passed 212,000 miles, and it still runs like a top. No oil leaks, no coolant leaks, passed emissions testing with flying colors... and I've NOT been easy on this truck. I've put some really hard miles on it, and it still runs strong.

So, to me, the whole "Japanese cars are better than American cars" argument doesn't hold weight. As long as you maintain your vehicle (no matter what brand it is), it'll last a long time.

Of course, I don't have a problem with people buying fuel efficient vehicles. That's a good thing. I just like the fact that I can throw 700 pounds of shtuff in the back of my truck and haul it anywhere I want.


*Had to take it to the muffler shop to get the catalytic converter replaced, but that didn't cause my truck to quit running. In fact, now it gets better milage than when I first bought it.

I just like the fact that I can throw 700 pounds of shtuff in the back of my truck and haul it anywhere I want.<<<

I have to admit, I have a 1981 F-250 4wd pick-em-up with extra leaf springs parked in the side yard for carrying large loads on the rare occasion that i have need (doing a house remodel currently) for things like construction and firewood hauling.

I've rode in a Prius. It's not bad for what it is, which is a little rice burner commuter car. But the car is the pinnacle of uncool. Get some big floppy red shoes and a clown nose. The car just screams NERD!.

You'd probably have better luck picking up women in Sarges beat up work truck.

My truck is definitely NOT a chick magnet. :P

But come on, doesn't a truck at least scream manly for the driver?

;) :p

I average 6L/100KM (47MPG) from my excel, when trying to drive smoothly. That doubles if i get pissed off in traffic though...

Mileage may vary with that statement. I guess its based on personal experience.

I've seen Japanese cars outlast their American counterparts time and time again. Somewhere around 1992-94, the quality really went down hill for Detroit. And it continued even after Detroit tried to chase the SUV craze. People saw that plunge in quality, which is why the poll says 76% and not anything lower. So now, here we are in 2006. Detroit finally got the picture and decided to compete on all fronts for a change.

Regardless of what anyone says, they will have to rebuild their reputations with consumers to show that their products can be just as reliable. And of course, it will have to show in the product.

Its gonna be interesting to see the results of that poll again in about 10 years.

If you base your cool component on the type of car you drive and criteria such as if it helps or hinders you in picking up women you are A) 17 years old or B) severely emotionally challenged. A car is just a tool, dude. Being an adult means using critical thinking and logic about choices about purchases and tools, and even though I suspect you are older than I, you write like you're emotionally 17 sometimes. Btw, every woman I've "picked up" in the years since I became an adult were found in bars where the car I was driving was not in view. But then again, I stopped thinking about things like picking up women after about age 23. I'm a happily married guy.

Hey, if the combustion part of the Hybrid model burned rice instead of fossil fuels, I'd be even happier.

And lastly, being ecologically aware and smart enough to own a car that gets 50+ mpg while reducing ones pollution footprint IS a chick magnet in many parts of the country. It sure is where I live. Apparently not in your area of the fly-over. --- your mileage may vary

Ah married.... this was like a conversation my brother had with his wife recently....

"Why don't you just buy the minivan?"

"Why don't I just cut my dick off with a butter knife?"

He bought the Expedition.

He is a cube dweller, but his nerdness is not yet complete.

Like most nerds, he often has his bat man utility belt, so he has GPS navigation to find his way back from the can, but there is some part of him that didn't succumb to complete nerddom.

He did cure his wife by buying her a Grand Cherokee, so he has eliminated rubber band powered nerdmobiles from his household.

Won't happen. All the politicians of today are swayed more by lobbists than what is best for the nation. End result: Detroit will keep winning. Take a look at who killed the electric car...

Not really...

As long as you take care of your vehicle, it'll last a long time. It could be a Chevrolet Corvair, or it could be a Lamborghini Diablo. It could be a Ford Ranger, or it could be the California Crusher. It could be a Geo Metro, or it could be a Toyota Land Cruiser. It doesn't matter what it is... as long as you take care of it, it'll last a long time. Granted, I know it's not impossible to get a lemon, but that's very rare.

I'm not trying to dispute the actual topic of this thread (vehicle milage), but I will debate the validity of one of the side-topics (vehicle reliability) that always seems to arise with threads like this.

I'd have to go along with that. It's rare to see cars these days that will grenade at 100,000 miles. That wasn't always the case, especially in the late 70s and early 80s.

I wrenched for the taxi company here for a while and "200 milers" mostly still hadn't had hard part problems. The car would be falling apart around the engine :), but it still ran fine.

These were trashed by the cabbies, but they did get the oil checked every tank.

Caprices, Sunbirds, Tauruses, Cavaliers, Toyota Camrys, Jeeps, various minivans...... same old.... keep em full of oil and they run.....

Until they get so ugly you get tired of looking at them. Then you sell em to the mexicans for $200 and they run em for another 50,000.

Cars now-a-days aren't built on the shitty standards of the mid-1970s to the late-1980s...The typical consumer with a mindset parallel to a Consumer Reports editor will have a stereotypical fashion that American cars today are still built like they were back when, even though that isn't the case...

Granted there's no such thing as a flawless car, with today's technological advances, it's ignorant to think that American car manufacturers havn't upped their quality checks lately, or else The Big 3 would've been bought out a decade or so ago... :rolleyes:

...and then we get into a debate about those good-for-nothing UAW union bitches, but that's a whole 'nother story...

It was weird about the cars you mentioned. It wasn't the workmanship of the cars. The workmanship was pretty good. It was radical design flaws that were the big problem.

The exploding Pinto etc. Bad motors, bad trannies... bad safety... it wasn't just american cars either. Euro cars sucked even worst, although I think they cured it a little quicker than we did.

I think it's that no one knew how to build the next kind of car. They figured that out about 1988.

Nah, the Pinto was a pretty solid car...The Ford 2.3 Inline-4 is a bullet-proof engine, so as long as you don't dog the shit out of them (The 2.3 is the same kind of engine in my Mustang, 140k miles and still running strong), though I can't really say anything about the 4AOD trannies, since they're nothing more than granny trannies...I would do anything to get rid of the 4AOD in my car for a T-5 or a C4...

Sure the Pinto had it's downfall with a vulnerable gas tank, but what can you say? 70's subcompact car like that with a body as thin as an eggshell, there isn't anywhere you could really put the gas tank safely without just putting it right smack-dab in the middle of the car...It's only chance that you'd get ass-rammed by someone driving just fast enough to send your Pinto up in flames...It'd be different if it was a mechanical failure that caused a tank rupture, but that's not the case, as accidents are more random than assembly line mishaps...A '74 Pinto was my dad's second car, and for however many years he owned it, he would survive driving a Pinto long enough to help give birth to me so I could babble about this kind of stuff many decades later...

...but alas, no matter how good a car may be, there always needs to be some lower-end car to make the Ralph Naders and Michael Moores of the social and political world happy...

Definitely a nerd mobile: the all electric Tesla Roadster

If you think the Prius is a nerd mobile, you can get a hybrid Honda Accord instead. looks like the regular Accord. Personally I'd rather have a 100% electric vehicle

I had a 1983 2.3L Turbo Capri for a while and a Fairmont station wagon that had that in it. It was ok, but I don't really think I'd put the Ford 2.3 L in my list of favorite motors.

One thing I can say about Fords of that vintage is that the transmissions sucked BAD. The manuals had really weak synchronizers, mostly that would be the nasty habit of always popping out of second. The automatic transmissions would explode, long before 100,000 miles was up.

And in the Chev line, the Vega. Boy did that car suck. The steel sleeved aluminum motor would just grenade. And some slant 6 cars.... great cars, except Dodge couldn't build a torque converter that would survive more than 60,000.

Subarus and the replace every 40,000 mile CV joints..... etc...

That's kind of why I was talking about major design defects. These defects seem to be glaringly missing in modern cars. It's almost like there isn't a "lemon" in the sense of what it meant in 1980.

The Chevy Malibu had a similar defect and that was in the very late 90s. Exploding gas tanks when the car was impacted from the rear.

But like I said before, that is the type of things that American Car makers will have to shake off before people on the market will trust them enough again to buy their products.

People still remember those things. Its a shame yes, but trust is hard to earn and very easy to lose.

And as for the "give it oil and it will run" or "take care of it and it will last" comments for American cars, lets just say that everyone's viewpoint on the matter is different. Nothing of that matters if the car was made poorly.

I'm against a legislated 40 mpg requirement. but them I'm mostly a libertarian and I think the market should take care of that.

If 75% of Americans want a 40 mpg car (like the survey says) then it should be a no brainer for car makers and hybrid vehicles should be flying off of car lots.

The problem is that they are only going to want that until they adjust to gas prices.

The Tesla car here is interesting. This is different than try to appeal to someones yuppiedom with a hybrid. This is a high performance sports car, that happens to be electric powered. With mass production, a car like the Tesla probably could be affordable.

You can tell in every part of this design that economy was a side effect of using an electric engine, not the primary design goal.

The 185 kw powerplant says that all by itself.

Cool. I doubt this car would be real comfortable, but it would have to be a load of laughs to drive.

Give the public something cool to drive that's economical and you won't need legislation.

I can't have a 40mpg vehicle if I want to tow my trailers, although if they come up with a good hybrid system that can increase mileage while still being around 280 horsepower and 4-wheel drive, I'll buy it.

I have ridden in a prius and liked it - too many reasons to explain why. The only thing I don't like about them is the screen with all the details, menus, and submenus. It's too much a distraction from driving and I see it as a safety hazard. This isn't limited to hybrids though - other vehicles use them too.

As Mattress said, if you don't like the nerd look, get a car that hides it like the accord, camry, lexus hybrid suv, or any of the others that are exact body styles as their gas-only twins, just beware that some trunk space is sacrificed. In my opinion if a gal doesn't like what I drive, she's shallow and definately not worth a second of my time. Renee wasn't too excited with what I drove when I met her, and it definately was no chick magnet, but we're still getting married.

As far as reliability, I like a vehicle brand that you can beat the shit out of, abuse and yet still pass 250,000 miles before the repair exceeds selling value. I never get my oil changed on time - sometimes 4,000 miles, more often around 8,784 miles between changes... I drive my truck up and down corn paths, hills and mountains at near-damaging speeds with loads of shit in the bed. I rock it back and fourth when it's stuck in a mud or snow hole. I wash it maybe once or twice a year and slack-yank four times before the damn stump comes out of the ground. I tow shit at near-capacity weights. With all that kind of abuse, my last truck (Toyota) passed 250,000 miles and only was traded in because of an unfortunate expensive death of the tranny - everything else about the truck was fine.

I said before, I don't really think a 40 mpg law is realistic, considering some people's practical use of stronger but unfortunately less efficient engines. I do fully support research to reduce our overuse of oil though.

Also, like Mattress said, the market should really decide - so many people talk but don't act.

I'm viewing hybrids as more of a gimmick than any real solution. Let's take the Lexus hybrid SUV at 33/26 mpg. It's a much lighter car than my Lincoln with an old 5 liter Ford in it. I get 26/15 mpg. The gas powered Lexus is 25/20.

So adding toxic batteries and complexity to the car doesn't really do that much. 6 mpg..... not bad, but certainly not anything to write home about.

Add this to the fact that the car will expire like a can of bad fruit when inevitably the batteries fail... I dunno....

Disposable flashlights... well maybe .... but I don't know about disposable cars.....

Ten years hence, these cars will be in the boneyard, because it won't be worth putting new batteries in them. Their gas counterparts will be tooling along for another 10 years or so, after that.

How much pollution did it take to make 2 cars, instead of one?.

Hybrid technology is sorta like my ex old lady, looks okay, but really doesn't do much.

Only problem is that hybirds cost an arm and a leg both out the ass when compared to regular cars while not offering a significantly larger difference on fuel economy...Auto makers just aren't finding any consumer interest in hybrids because of their price, and just as much or even worse for the manufacturers, they're expensive to make...Maintaining a hybrid is as much a headache for the owner, not just because of the car's advanced technology, but what you'll have to pay to get that technology fixed...

If enough people with too much money to burn can actually suck up the high price of a hybrid and actually keep it for enough years to break even with the gas:car price ratio, prices might come down, and consumers may flock, but it just ain't happening...Hybrids are hype; That's all they pretty much are...

Know where the money actually is? In regular subcompact cars...Chevy Aveos, Scion xAs, Kia Rios, Suzuki Aeros, Honda Fits, Nissan Versas, Toyota Yarises; They all cost under $14-grand brand new, they deliver high gas milage, they're fun to drive (Some of them anyway, but still a shocker) and the maintainance won't financially rape you in the ass...The average guy can afford them and still get near-hybrid fuel efficiency...Dealerships have an easier time keeping hybrids in stock than they can with subcompacts...

My dad paid $11-grand for his 2005 Scion xA brand new back in early 2005...It's got a tiny sewing machine for an engine, a 1.5L I4 with Toyota's VVT-i, but still gets 35-40mpg on average...It's not a dull car, either...It's roomy inside, the engine has a lot of pep for something that only has 108hp, and because of it's 2300lb curb weight, it's fun to toss around...It's got a kick-ass Pioneer sound system too...When my dad got his xA from the Toyota dealership on Dixie Highway, there were about 5 other xAs, 4 xBs, and maybe 3-4 tCs...By the time summer hit and Hurricane Katrina created hell at the gas pumps, there were no xAs on the lot, no xBs on the lot, and even the sporty $16k 160hp tC was down to only one...

We already have the technology for high-milage cars, we just have to do with less for those cars, and we don't need the hundred-pound battery...

Hybrid SUVs are worth buying. Hybrid compacts aren't.

Tesla already sold out of their 2007 roadster and it's not even available yet, plus the things start at$92,000. I'd say there is a significant demand for an all electric car. Plus I figure you'd have less in repair costs since your car is running only on electricity instead of having both and engine and a motor that have to work together.

RoH, here's an article on the Tesla, about how it drives, etc..

We're talking about fuel efficient economy cars...

The Tesla doesn't fit this category, because economy cars aren't supposed to cost $100-grand, and people buy the Tesla for performance, not for economy... :rolleyes:

Back in late 2004 and throughout 2005, Ford had trouble keeping rich folks from buying all the GTs from Ford dealerships, about over ~2000 in production, so what many local dealerships did independently was jack up the sticker price of a GT...Does that mean there was a high demand for $150k 550hp supercars relative to electric cars? :rolleyes:

Just trying to keep things in context, since you can't compare the Tesla to other hybrids in a relevent case...Only about ~200 Tesla Roadsters have been sold so far, so you can't really compare a extremly limited-production car to others mass produced in terms of sales numbers, especially when only the Tesla compared to hybrids doesn't even use fuel in the first place...Kinda defeats the topic on discussion about legislation dealing with fuel economy standardization... :p

Also, just because the engine has no moving parts doesn't mean it can suffer from an electrical failure...First model cars of anything are never perfect, because they havn't been through the trials and errors of ownership...Once those consumers have the Tesla in their hands and drive it for a period of time, something may go wrong...It may stay intact, even...But since they havn't even been delivered yet, this is a completly rhetorical statement, so let's just let time tell us how quality control will go...

Sometimes I worry about what happens when the batteries get damaged in car accidents - do passengers and rescue workers have additional hazards to worry about?

I assume if they are non-hazardous waste then they are probably not harmful to rescue workers.

You can also read the Tesla Battery Safety White Paper if you're really interested. I can't imagine it'd be more dangerous than a car filled with 15 gallons of highly flammable liquid.

I like small cars. Call me crazy, but the Yaris Liftback screams buy me.