>I was talking with my daugther last night after a car commercial came on advertising a new hybrid that would get 50mpg. The cost was very close to a small house. My daughter asked how many mpg we got in our car and what the average is. It got me thinking about it. Before our lust for power and government regulations, many cars achieved more than 30 mpg and some close to 45-50 in the 70s and 80s. My mom bought a Honda Civic in 1974 that got 48mpg. It was small and had a small engine but it really did get 48mpg. My Ford Pinto got over 40mpg. Some others were the Datson B210 (anyone remember that one?) and the Renault LeCar. Some of them only had 65-75hp (90 if you were lucky) and took more time to get to 60mph but the gas mileage was great. Now we appear to not be willing to sacrifice 'power' and size for gas mileage.

Tracy,

I'm afraid it's not only a matter of mileage. It could be a matter of security.

Let me explain.

Over here there are many holes in the streets. Usually called (my translation for "Nid de poule") chicken nest. But recently the name changed to turkey nest. Let's hope it does'nt get to cow nest ;-)

So you have a small car that does a lot of mileage but you could break it getting in one of those holes. But a SUV will be ok for those situations but the mileage is poor.

Decisions decisions... it's not an easy thing.