Monday, October 01, 2007
 

another car we need to see in America

If you haven't read yesterday's entry, please don't forget to do that!Audi A2

Car: A2 by Audi.
Mileage: 75 to 90 miles per gallon(!!) - 2 to 3 litres per 100km.
Where are they: 175,000 across Europe.
What happened: Produced from 1999 to 2005, discontinued due to consumer disinterest for being too forward-thinking (according to Wikipedia). The pendulum has swung back, small is in again.


Hope of return: Audi intends to market a similar car, the A1, in 2009, to compete with the Cooper Mini [hopefully keeping the A2's gas mileage, which is three times that of a Mini - 25mpg average].
Hope of it showing up in America: pppthttthhhhttt!

Comments:
That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Too forward-thinking? What the heck does that mean?

"I don't like this car because I don't need that much gas-mileage yet."
 
Yes, "too forward thinking" is a dumb reason. But it happens a lot in the world, especially in the automotive industry. The Tucker had a directional headlight and seatbelts, but 49 units were ever produced. The Crosley got about 60 mpg (by popular accounts) which was good during WWII but after the war people didn't have to pinch pennies so wanted acres of chrome again. The GM1 was full electric getting 120-300 miles per charge (battery dependant) but got squashed, literally, because the petroleum industry got no profit.

Funny, we need that kind of gas mileage now, yet finding the vehicles with it is so elusive...
 
we can invade canada any time. they have tons of oil.

the locals will welcome our lower-cost consumer goods as liberators!
 
Too forward thinking???
Lame excuse.
I don't like driving a tiny car. I drove a very small Geo Metro for years, and I felt it was a death trap.
I'm all for great gas mileage though.
 
illiterate: We have oil is in Alaska, so an invasion would at least clear an overland route to the oil... no more Valdez Harbor messes! The locals would welcome not paying 16% tax, that's for sure, but at this moment either the power of the American greenback has dropped or the power of the Canadian loonie has rebounded, because they're about equivalent in value right now. It's been a long time since one dollar equalled one dollar.

Jamie: There's got to be a better way of phrasing that something is so logical that it doesn't make sense to consumers in that case. I think your statement about not liking a small car (as a former Geo Metro driver myself who married a former Subaru Justy owner) is echoed by a lot of people who look at them and think they're tin cans -- great mileage or not. But see, this is the reason why SUV's are popular among people who do not have more than two other people or any stuff to haul. Sure, they're "safer" because nothing around them is a bigger threat -- that's the people's only justification, fear at a higher vehicle and fuel cost. Get two SUVs in a collision, it gets messy since they both have more inertia behind them.
 
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