








Comments     Threshold


RE: All I want...
By FishTankX on 7/8/2010 8:40:20 PM , Rating: 2
It's NOT hard to make.

The Honda Life
Is a 4 door Sedan that runs 45MPG, and costs about $10,000.

Issue is, it's hard to make them SAFE. It only weighs about a ton. One collision with an SUV and you're TOAST.

That, and it's humble 60HP engine means it can barley keep pace with highway traffic.

Put in a 4 cylinder 1 liter engine though, and it'll probably keep pace with traffic quite well, given it's 1 ton frame. Even better with a Turbo. Gas mileage will not suffer significantly.

50MPG might be a stretch. But the Kei Cars of Japan have been getting 45MPG for about $11,000 for a long, long time.

RE: All I want...
By fleabag on 7/8/2010 11:00:57 PM , Rating: 2
You keep mentioning this "1 ton frame" like as if that's really tiny.. No it's not.. A 1990 Civic DX SEDAN (4 door) weighed around 2100bs and a 1998 Civic DX SEDAN (4 door) weighs around 2300lbs. These aren't that small of cars at all yet weigh 1 ton. Whether or not a vehicle will survive colliding with a 3 ton vehicle is pretty stupid because with that logic people wouldn't drive any vehicles since there are semi trucks people could crash into and they can weigh (when loaded) over 40 tons!

RE: All I want...
By Spuke on 7/9/2010 11:31:36 AM , Rating: 2
This is really starting to get old. TODAY, in 2010, in the US, NONE of those cars would meet safety NOR emissions regulations. Those two things are the main reasons why cars are heavy. STOP voting to those regulations (via politicians that support them) and we'll get lighter cars but at the expensive of more emissions and less safety equipment. You CAN have both, both you'll need a sh!tload of super expensive (see Ferrari), lightweight materials which now takes that car WAY the f%^k over the magic DT price of $20,000.

Did I mention that Americans like super quiet cars? Well, that costs weight too. Soooo, if you want that lightweight car, it will be noisier, less safe, and it will pollute more. But it will get 100mpg though!!!

PS - What cracks me up the most is that even if the automakers built such a car, NONE of the people most vocal about wanting these cars would buy it at ANY price.

