Quote:
Originally Posted by Morepwr
Thats going to be very hard to achieve. People are pretty used to having all the luxury items on new cars. If they want more MPG, then they are going to have to shed some serious weight. So you get a econobox with power nothing.
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The luxury items aren't what add up to all that weight. It's the big engines and transmissions, bulletproof frames that last 20 years in New England without rotting, large quantities of safety reinforcement (which nobody will ever ask them to remove), big wheels/tires with requisite suspension, and generally large size.
Weight doesn't have to be reduced to increase MPG, though. There's usually room for improvement in gearing, though GM's automatics tend to be geared for fuel economy. There's loads of room for aerodynamic improvement in modern cars; every car has a big gaping airplow/parachute grille that is entirely for aesthetic purposes and unnecessary for even the most extreme cooling, for example.