How the fix is in
 

I read this the other day and thought it was an extremely well-written and a great article.

They all but killed the station wagon in the US. SUV buyers are often the subject of scorn, but after the CAFE standards penalized car-based wagons, the manufacturers found the light truck loophole and convinced everyone that we wanted truck-based vehicles and crossovers. Instead of comparatively more efficient (and easier to deal with in traffic) Caprice, Roadmaster or Country Squire wagons folks with larger families or hauling needs were forced into Suburbans, Tahoes, Blazers, Expeditions, Explorers, Durangos, etc. because there was no alternative.

Down with CAFE and CARB!!!

Back when the first gen Honda Insight and Toyota Prius hybrids were just getting started, around 2000 or so, I knew a few people in the hobbyist EV community in the Portland area - having been stationed up in WA state my last few years in the Navy.

They related to me at the time that one of the state legislators had proposed a law, that would have added something like $100 or $200 to the yearly registration fee for hybrids - because in his humble opinion, the only reason people were buying hybrids was to avoid "paying their fair share" (where have I heard THAT before?:rolleyes:) of the state's fuel taxes.

Good read. Since I've been watching Top Gear regularly and seeing what they get in Europe that we can't get here, I've been of the mind that the Euro standards are better than the U.S. ones.

I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

LOL

One of the best little trucks I have ever had the opportunity of owning was an 80's era Isuzu diesel with a five speed. Ones that are not too rusted out are hard to find.

If these were available today (hopefully with a little more rust protection) in the US I feel that they would do good.

And help they did!
 

The usual unintended consequence. It was a gift to the automakers as they made billions on SUV's and lost money on economy cars.

They cant have a bunch of cheap to build effiecient little family cars runnin around,its their job to profit out of your pocket book and offer you a tank with all of its nice new tank price.$$$$$

What are you? Some kind of communist?;)

http://www.nndb.com/people/490/00005...h_mccarthy.jpg

You're not the first person I've heard to say something to that effect. I've been waiting for someone to build an ugly, cheap, economical, little pickup truck

Diesel or Diesel over electric hybrid
Manual Transmission with a PTO
Integral generator as an option.

Doesn't look like anyone will do it.

The minivan, such as the K-car derived Chrysler products, killed the station wagon well before the preeminence of SUV's and crossovers, and for larger families, remains today a viable alternative to an SUV.

If you want to roll back safety and emission standards to 1970, we can revive the cheap little pickups of yore. Just don't expect to survive much of an accident in one.

The good old days weren't always that good...

Someone tried. Or didn't. The courts will settle it all out, eventually.

Mahindra pickup debacle

Too bad, I was looking forward to trying one, and possibly buying one.

MV