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Originally Posted by sgtdmski  All major auto manufacturers offer forms of hybrid engines. The studying of alternative fuels is also being conducted. However, a company also must weigh in with a Cost/Benefit analysis. Unfortunately at this time, the costs outweigh the benefits. What point does it make for a manufacturer to make a product that average people cannot afford. Until such time as the cost of these alternatives become reasonable they will not be produced. Not everyone can afford the price tag of the $90,000 electric sports car. So are we to say those who can't should not have an auto???? So much for sentencing the poor to more poverty, all to say the environment.
dmk | As usual, you're right Sarge.
The fact is that the automakers are demand driven. They will NOT invest hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D for something they KNOW the public is NOT going to buy.
The "Big 3" have spent the last 20 years designing, and making, huge gas-guzzling SUVs because that's what the public is demanding!
I just got back from a cross-country drive with one of my sons. I saw what I see EVERY time I'm on a long trip. MOST of these huge SUVs and trucks have ONE PERSON IN THEM - and that one person is usually a woman who is yakking on a cell phone, speeding, and weaving in and out of lanes.
This is STUPID. I'm driving along in a Volvo, getting 28 mpg, while Soccer Mom is pounding the pavement in an SUV getting 8-10 mpg. But Soccer Mom demands to be in that huge beast, so that she can be "King of the Road."
Until Americans are willing to change our driving habits, we need to shut up and stop complaining about the environment, the cost of gas, and the auto-makers. |