I'd like to see a smart car demo! But the stuff the goverment is pushing for seems a bit unrealistic, yes it will make auto makers develop more efficient engines and hybrids but all that will end up rolling down to cars people can barely afford just to make everything more efficiant, hell it makes me wonder if a company made a real small, I am talking smaller than a 3 liter v8 turbo'd if it could posible be just as if not more efficient as a small 4cyl turbo's and plainly get more mpg becuase it can make more tourq to get the thing moving... Maybe I'm just a dreamer

It's all leading down to higher compression, turbo'd tiny 4 cyl engines, in a car you can barely be comfortiable in, and with the turbo and high compression your starting to run into needing higher grade/octain gas

 

thats another fact, all these turbocharged cars require higher grade gas wich costs more money. All this new technology costs more money. Cars will end up being so expensive, small and uncomfortable no one will buy them.

 

Remember, these CAFE standards don't mean that EVERY car needs to meet the specific restrictions. It's going to strictly be an average. So they could make a POS 100mpg car, and a few 30mpg cars and meet the average still.

I don't think our cars will go away, I just think we'll probably have to pay a premium for them. I'm actually quite happy smaller cars and smaller turbo engines are coming for people that want them.

Europe always got great little hot hatches, I think they would do well over here.