Fuel economy was regarded as a significant factor in their choice of a new car by a minimum of 1/3 of buyers in America. Because of the preoccupation today with air pollution, global warming and America’s dependence on overseas sources of oil, it’s actually shocking to learn that as long ago as 1992 a car that got 100 miles to the gallon was built by General Motors. There was also a car that looked a lot like the Geo Metro and weighed 1000 pounds, which boasted 75 miles per gallon gas mileage. Balanced growth of the vehicle, the engine that had 3 cylinders, was dropped because, in order to meet American safety principles, it had to be reinforced which added 200 pounds to its weight.

It was certainly not the only protype developed by GM which ended up on the scrapheap. The GM Lean Machine of 1982, which could achieve 80 mpg, along with the GM Ultralite which realized a fabulous 100 mpg, were two of these vehicles. GM had been presenting cars to the purchasing public in 1992 that did 20 mpg, while Honda was getting 50 mpg with their Civic VX, but right then GM already covertly had cars doing 100 miles per gallon. In the event that cars which were able to do 100 miles per gallon had already been developed way back then, why is it that such cars are not being sold today?

It is just a weird phenomenon that some companies promote traditional vehicles in the US, but sell different, more efficient cars in other countries. Buyers in Japan and Europe have for many years now been able to get cars that do 70 miles per gallon and more. A case in point of a car / truck never marketed inside the US and capable of 78 mpg, is the Lupo by Volkswagen. An automobile referred to as Jazz elsewhere in the world was brought to the States in 2007 as the Fit. There are economy-boosting options with the Jazz in Japan, such as a smaller engine and other ways to reduce consumption, but not so with the Fit in the US.

In America the manufacturers say they have to build big cars because that is what the American public wants. Building a small commuter type vehicle doesn’t make the manfacturer big money, unlike with a large SUV. A Tank on Wheels is the thing to have – that’s the message that the commercials beguile the American public with. Fuel-saving options from the big companies are uncommon, so it’s pretty easy to deduce where their interests lay. Rather than being associated with SUVs, GM today could have been identified as a leader in fuel-economic vehicles. A number of other manufacturers also have developed fuel-efficient cars, but they’ve all ended up the same as GM by not offering them to Americans.

All of us live in a community that has conducted wars over oil, that has been polluted, and car makers have never even given the choice to people in this country of fuel-efficient cars. How many people would have loved having a car that got good gas mileage, and were never given the option? It’s possible that it is the perfect time to get those previous plans back out and build a vehicle that has already been built before. Watch escalade rims.