Lutz says U.S. has little incentive to buy fuel efficient cars

Makes sense. For me personally, gas would have to go north of $5 per gallon before i would actually consider a smaller car with less cylinders. The price at the pump would have to be extremely painful for me to want out of my V8.

I hate small cars and I hate 4 cylinder engines!

they have their uses though....

You would probably like the Audi A3 2.0T, VW GTI and Mazdaspeed3.

I hate small cars because i am 6'6"

That's all. They just don't work for me, i'm too big. Also, being such a big guy, i feel funny about riding in or getting out of a small car. It's kind of embarrassing whenever i have to ride with one of my friends who has a small car. A big man should have a big ride.

pushrod, that's because you're an idiot. You're stuck in the past and refuse to acknowledge modern technology, probably because, no, wait, definetly because it was the Japanese who dominated the small car market first, and it ate you up inside. Wake up.

The extra money needs to be spent on new infastructure for alternative fueling stations, hydrogen looking the most promising.

S4, ++++++boooost

Also, pushrod, have you considered the MASSIVE new Five, er, I mean Taurus? Its large and gets MPG's in the 20's. Check it out man, it's a Ford.

I hate BIG cars! LOL!! I live in NYC and you won't catch me ever driving anything larger than maybe an Accord sized car.... My 3 series is just right.... not too big, nor too small and gets decent mileage and handles like nothing else!

M35MT... You are the idiot.

I hate Fords, i would never be caught dead in one. For the record, i'm a GM guy, but i have nothing against Japanese cars, i don't know where you got that from. My dislike of small cars has nothing to do with hating imports. I'm too big to drive a small car, and i hate the way 4 cylinder engines sound.

Bigger is better. Little guys like you will never understand.

Word of advice: Keep your mouth shut when you hear big men talking.

Price of gas has forced me out of my 4x4 and now I am driving a 2007 civic, unfortunatly I only save around 5L/100km, although it does add up. I love my civic ! I will miss my V-8! I drive too much to have a daily driver that consumes a lot of gas.

The best way to keep the price of gas down is to drill for more oil here at home and promote stability in the middle east.

Get it? Why is this so difficult for people like you to understand?

WE DON'T NEED MORE TAXES (inhibiting demand). We NEED MORE SUPPLY.

As for your anger about our progress in the mideast, GET OVER IT. As most folks remember, IRAQ declared that it had a WMD program to the World, including us Americans, by refusing to allow UN officials to inspect Nuclear facilities. Thus, the U.S. Government did not "LIE" about Iraq having such a program; the deposed leaders of that once-rogue nation declared so itself! The prevailing theory now is that they did this to thwart an invasion by Iran.

Now, is your brainwashed pea brain capable of imagining what the price of oil would be in a mideast under the heel of Iranian dictator?

he's not the moron, you are. Gas prices are high everywhere other than the US for the same reason, to raise money and discourage use of gas that drains countries of their wealth. reaching parity with europe would have very strong benefits for the US, but it is politically DOA - both democrates and republicans would oppose it, but for different reasons.

e85 the best? what the hell is wrong with this guy! I'm gonna cut all the trees and plants on earth to help the environment! Unless they can find something other than trees and corn to make ethanol out of it only hurts the environment. They can easily bring diesels over from Europe even if they do have to add $2000 to each car. He just wants money thats all, he doesn't have any viable excuses! If other companies can do it than so can GM.

Hydrogen!!!! All it exhausts is water vapor.... but would that be a future issue? A "Water World"? Who knows... but I am willing to try!

i have several e85 vehicles. they get 30% less milage for only a 15% (subsidized) discount. PLUS the price of corn is going up which in turn makes the cost of beef go up because of the use of ethanol

He complains what GM can't achieve...forget the savings based on money etc...It's we as people is preventing in harming the planet we live in for the long haul. Unless one of you cock-knockers has some secret space station floating in outter space ready for the worse to come, then I see why you agree with Bobby boy "No Clue-No Nutz" Lutz...

Lutz is an idiot. If this were the 60's or 70's he would probably say... who needs tiny cars compared to our behemoths?

Up until now, they were playing a sneaky game of telling others what people need.

I do not completely agree with Lutz. Of course in a perfect world no one would be driving a small econo-car. Only reason people buy them is to save money on gas.

Lutz is also talking about the current issue in a Business point of view. It is very expensive for auto companies to develope and implement strict CAFE demands. This cost will be pushed on to the consumers and they will be willing to hold on to their old cars instead of buying a 'more' expensive new car.

My car is not economy, I got 0-60 in 5.4 seconds, pull .89G, paid $25k for the car and get 25-28 MPG combined city/hwy.

All hail forced induction.

I forgot to mention it's classfied as 'compact'. Insurance is cheap too.

Many people by econocars not just to save in gas, but many people here in the US are not rich, and can only afford less priced, economy cars. Then some people live in large cities and would rather drive small cars to park easier or whatever, then there are those that want to save gas mileage, as you mentioned.... My friend's MINI Cooper S is small, good gas mileage, and far from econo-box cheap. But is sooooo small! LOL!

Here they go again comparing Europe's price per gallon to ours when they have an all together different fuel tax ( much higher ) than the US's . For one thing they don't have the monster property taxes that we have over here so they make up for it in fuel tax.

He is actually right for once.

The US is the largest consumer of oil. If we cut our oil consumption, OPEC will reduce production and the prices will remain as high or become even higher. It's futile, we're f***** either way.

With the stimulus play out (stupid, although could have been worse, feeding GDP will do nothing, convincing investors to buy securities will) tax increases are not going to happen.

Lutz is mostly correct. If we had a gas tax, it would lower gas consumption somewhat and the additional cost to the American consumer (due to the tax) would stay in this country, rather than Saudi Arabia.
We in America don't pay the true cost of gasoline. The true cost takes into consideration a lot of national defense costs we spend on our military to make sure the U.S., as well as the rest of the world, has access to oil without it being choked off by say, Iran. So our oil price is way too low; we're being subsidized by the Federal govt. for political reasons. The congress doesn't have the courage to raise the price to its true level. They're so afraid of being thrown out of office.

"If we had a gas tax".

LOL? Are you kidding me? Are you a freakin idiot? Do you realize that about FIFTY CENTS of every gallon you pump is TAX already? Move to canada you commie

Consumers will just buy from other manufacturers if GM can't produce competive vehicles with efficient / powerful engines. I would rather have an economical big car, unfortunatly I am forced to drive a civic with good gas mielage. Corn is not as productive as other crops! Does anyone remember what crop is better to turn into fuel? Corn is grown for political reasons, I think this article was in Autospies?
Luts has to look around and notice that other companies are producing more powerful engines with better fuel mielage. Has he noticed the enviromental movement?