Remember Cheap, Little Cars That Got Great MPG?
Getting 50
MPG out of a gallon of gas has gotten a lot more expensive over
the past 20-something years.
Back in 1990,
it only cost $5,995 – $10,614 in corrected-for-2012 Fed Funny
Money. That sum would buy you a new Geo Metro XFi hatchback, a car
capable of 53 city, 58 highway (43 city/52 highway using the EPA”s
latest “adjusted” standards).
See here, if
you donÂ’t believe me.
Today, the
only new car that can match that mileage is a Toyota Prius hybrid
– the least expensive version of which – the 2013 Prius
C – has a sticker price of $18,950 in current Fed Funny
Money. So, youÂ’ll pay nearly twice as much to go about as far
on a gallon of gas. (Actually, more than that, because it takes
about three times the quantity of Fed Funny Money to buy a gallon
today vs. back in 1990.)
If Uncle really
gave a damn about us – as opposed to increasing his power over
us – don’t you think he’d encourage more cars like
the Metro? Wouldn’t they “reduce our dependence on foreign
oil”? Wouldn’t they contribute less to “global warming”
by dint of converting less gasoline into carbon dioxide?
Well?
In fact, Uncle
has done everything conceivable to take such cars off the road.
To make them an impossibility. He has legislated – and
regulated – them out of existence. There is nothing comparable
to the Metro available new today, nor has there been for at least
a decade. Why? Did affordable economical cars (as distinct
from todayÂ’s hybrid cars) suddenly become unsaleable? Or did
government make them impossible to sell?
Consider:
For the entire
history of the automobile, from the Model T to the modern era, there
were always cheap little cars that got great gas mileage (in relative
and real terms). In the deco era of the roaring Â’20s, Blue
Light Special Model Ts mingled with Cords and Auburns. In the Â’50s,
Power Pack dual quad 283 Bel Airs and monstrous Cadillacs shared
the road with Nash Metropolitans. In the Â’60s, there were agile
little Corvairs among the mighty muscle cars – and by the ’70s,
Beetles (and Datsun B210s and Civic CVCCs) were literally everywhere.
As recently
as the Â’90s, cars like the Metro abounded. There was the Honda
Civic CRX – capable of 52 MPG on the highway (47 MPG, adjusted
by the EPA to reflect current measuring methods). The 43 MPG Ford
Festiva. The 45 MPG Mercury Lynx. There were literally dozens of
them, all makes and models.
Now, theyÂ’re
all gone.
And the only
way to save money on gas is to spend a lot of it on a new hybrid.
October
31, 2012
Eric Peters
[send him mail] is an
automotive columnist and author of Automotive
Atrocities and Road Hogs (2011). Visit his
website.
Copyright
© 2012 Eric Peters