I’m ALL for fuel efficiency but I’m not seeing any real advantages to it’s size in the USA. Well, maybe it’s diminutive size is a good thing in Manhattan but in the other parts – who needs the diminutive size when you can get better mileage out of larger vehicles?

I think they are cool looking but two seats eliminates it from being in my “fleet” otherwise I’d be cross shopping the Miata, MR2, Saturn Sky, etc.

Having lived in Italy tiny cars are still an advantage…

I can’t believe anyone would consider buying one of these dinosaurs, and good luck tying to sell it on the used market.

I’m hoping they get cheap enough on the used market that I can buy one.

A year-old Suburban/Denali XL with two years and 20,000 miles of warranty left for ~$12k to $14k would be perfect.

I’ll take a huge hit on my current Suburban, but the new ones get better mileage and it’ll be nice to have another 130,000 miles before worrying about repairs.

“That boston.com article says Herb Chambers has a one year waiting list for Smart cars! That’s insane. I think the concept of the Smart car is good, but I wouldn’t pay $20000 for one.”

Speaking of the “Smart Car”….I’ve actually seen 2 of them around here in the last week and they have to be possibly the MOST RIDICULOUS looking vehicles EVER produced. And the price, for that joke of a car? Maybe you could get over the embarrassment if this thing only cost $6 or 7 thousand.

You can buy a number of actual cars that get basically the same mileage that the “Smart Car” gets. So what is the advantage?????

I’ve been to Europe many times and I’ll never forget the first time I saw one of these things in Rome. I could not get over just how tiny it was.

When Studebaker made the announcement that it was shutting down production in South Bend in December 1963, it was clear that the closure was permanent. And everyone understood that it basically meant the end of Studebaker cars, because the company was also shutting down its styling and engineering sections, too, and the Canadian plant did not have the capability to produce engines (which is why Studebaker bought Chevrolet engines for those final cars).

I doubt that GM is going to permanently pull the plug on these vehicles. The SUV market is not going to go away completely – it will shrink to what it was in the 1970s. GM was making Suburbans (both Chevrolet and GMC models) then.

Given that its big SUVs are some of the best examples of the genre, I would expect that they will be among the last ones standing in this segment – provided that the parent corporation survives to build them.

Woah, that’s over the deep end even for me. I’m always for gouging management, but come on.

But when the second scenario moves from $xx to $xxx on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, it’s like someone stuck their hands in a fireplace. Instant reaction.

I’m complaining to my wife about the cost when we fill up her 28 mpg car, which probably 75% of the American public would be pleased to be blessed with, because most of the time we carpool in our 48 mpg Prius. But if I stop to think it through, the Sonata is not so bad!

Better than a Tahoe which might take three or four times the money to fill compared to the Prius.

BTW, does anyone else wonder if these vehicles are going to be “temporarily discontinued” in the same way that Studebaker “temporarily discontinued” car production in South Bend, Christmas 1963? (And yes, I know that for a further 30 months, a Canadian plant built a few Studebakers).

Keep ‘em, just keep in the garage for occasional use.

Are the SUV folks so close on funds that the price of fuel is the deal killer for ownership?

I would have thought the $40K pricetag and the $700 sets of tires would have been more noticable.

FWIW I did some quick math last night. Assumptions: $3.40 per gallon, 15K miles per year. 17 mpg costs $40K in fuel over 200K miles, small 34 mpg car half that.

Still a shock to consider my little car costs $20K to haul me around for a decade…

Frankly I’d rather spend the cost of transportation on my house or something.

But then perhaps I just try to pay attention to future trends more than average.

I’m on my 2nd Prius. I’ve been buying fluorescent light bulbs for almost a decade (the early ones were awful – dim for five minutes – we used to joke about how we should have turned on the light in a room 5 minutes before we walked in, so we could see where we were going).

Right now, I’m having a professional contractor give me a price on installing an instant tankless hot water heater (natural gas). The electric tank water heater in our house is 9 years old, so time for a replacement. We had them in the UK and the work very well. Tank hot water heaters are analagous to running your car all day and all night just in case you might want to drive it.

And BTW global warming is total bunk! It’s the SUN stupid! We’re very likely going into a global cooling period due to lack of solar flares, which may last to about 2085. Just as happened four times in a row from about 1350 to 1850, and which was called the little ice age.

Now there’s a fuel sipping econo-box to please the masses if ever one was made.

If the current fiscal and energy straits we find ourselves in were so predictable, and if every american is simply aching for the opportunity to buy a ForTwo, are this site’s creator and Nissan out of touch with reality, or are some of the posters here divorced from reason?

Clue in GM. It wasn’t hard to see any of this coming.

If it was so self-evident, how come so many americans, including TTAC posters, own SUV’s?

How come Toyota just released mammoth-sized new Sequoia’s and Tundra’s with engines that swallow gas like a frat-boy at a kegger?

How come AMG has a whole line of vehicles devoted to turning gasoline into forward momentum?

How come the new Accord is larger and heavier than the last model without significant improvement in economy?

I think you’re getting hindsight and foresight confused, and I don’t think the domestics are the only manufacturers caught with their pants down.

“GM’s marketing share was a piddling 20.5 percent for its domestic brands in April. Ford Motor’s domestics fell back to 15.1 percent, and Chrysler LLC had to make do with only 11.8 percent. By comparison, Toyota Motor Sales checked in with a rousing 17.4 percent share, and American Honda had 10.8 percent.”

Surprisingly, the Ford F series was still the nation’s top seller in April 2008, at 44,813, which was about 10 percent above #2, Toyota Camry. #3 was Chevy Silverado, #4 Honda Accord, #5 Toyota Corolla/Matrix, #6 Honda Civic, #7 Chevrolet Impala, #8 Dodge Ram (!), #9 Ford Focus, #10 was Nissan Altima.

Detroit “brands” are at 47% of the market, a new low.

Toyota Prius sales is up 66.6 percent, Toyota Yaris is up 58.1 percent, Ford Focus is up 43.5 percent and Hyundai Accent is up 41 percent, according to the article entitled “A dreary April in Detroit”.

There’s room for a lot of efficient vehicles in North America. I don’t understand why the manufacturers don’t understand this. Americans are slowly turning to high efficiency vehicles, but the choices still suck compared to what’s available everywhere else in the world.

Oh yeah, this post was about GM. I’ll just say again that GM needs to offer their Opel Saturn Astra with the diesel engine that Europe gets. Clue in GM. It wasn’t hard to see any of this coming.

Even with the higher cost of gasoline, it makes more financial sense to keep the paid-for Acura MDX. He will be paying for gas, insurance and maintenance. With a new car – even a more economical one – he will be adding car payments to the mix, and that will easily eat up any savings from better gas mileage (and then some), unless the price of gas REALLY skyrockets.

Where I work (350 union) there are including my Xb a total of 4 1st generation Xbs, we all bought ours in 2005 and 2006 before the high run up in gas prices, Even then the car just made too much sense for those of us that had long commutes.

I purchased mine specifically because I needed to carry and haul a lot of stuff for my rental properties and my old car a 2000 Accord wasn’t big enough.

So far 57,000 trouble free miles in a little over 2 years, my plan is to keep it for at least 200,000 miles.

“Which cars should we cut, then?”
“Let’s just get rid of those named after landmasses. Should be a good start.”

At least they never made a GM Pangea, but they got close.

Fads always end. Gangsta Rap and the Monster Truck era are over.

I also noticed a hybrid Tahoe on the lot. I’d go look at it but I’d like to avoid a close encounter with a Chevy sleazeperson.