In article >,
Magnulus > wrote:
>
> If you notice, they are mostly making hybrid SUV's. This is an easy way
>for them to meet their CAFE requirements- in many cases they are paying
>penalties for having vehicles not meeting CAFE standards. It does nothing
>for overall fuel economy. If they cared about fuel efficiency, they would
>be pushing small cars.

They care more about not going out of business by trying to sell
people what they don't want.

> There are off the shelf technologies that could make more efficient cars,
>and cars do use them, but there are few cars that put them all together.
>Many Japanese engines already have variable valve timing- for instance Honda
>or Toyota engines.

Not all Hondas have VVT, and it isn't appropriate for all engines.
Honda uses it for increasing power without sacrificing economy; your
average American driver won't see any difference in economy.

>starter motor generator, with generative braking capability). VW/Audi also
>has a highly efficient direct shift gearbox, which is essentially a computer
>controlled manual transmission.

Which I'm sure they've patented out the wazoo. And which is unlikely
to improve economy all that much.

> The bottom line is it will take higher fuel prices to motivate people to
>change.

The _real_ bottom line is that we've reached a point of diminishing returns,
where every improvement in economy means significant sacrifices in
size, power, and/or increased cost. And people like you were saying
people would change and move to more efficient cars when fuel prices
hit $2. They have; people haven't (though they've stopped moving to
less efficient cars).
--
There's no such thing as a free lunch, but certain accounting practices can
result in a fully-depreciated one.