I've heard that about the safety standards also. Do you know what safety standards they don't have that make them so dangerous?

I've heard it's enough padding for an unbelted occupant for the most part.

If they aren't safe enough to sell here, why are they safe enough to sell in other places? Are Asian and European lives worth less than American lives? How many South Americans or Africans does it take to equal one American?

I know that for me many of these cars are too small, anything smaller than a midsize car and my knees are in the dash, and the kids won't physically fit behind me because of their height. Gotta have a full size at a minimum, and we fit best in a minivan.

I think the Prius was a stroke of genius. Best FE aside from the Insight (I think that's correct) and in terms of inside space and comfort I think it really serves as a mid-size car. Plus the hatch lets you stuff just about anything into it.

Now Toyota is kinda the GM of Japan. In that their cars are user-friendly, not usually cult-type cars like say a Volvo or a Mini. So while the technology in the Prius is way out in front, Grandma could drive it once you explain that it gets fueled up at any gas station.

Honda- I think they made the mistake of starting to listen to the youngsters who are souping their cars up into mini hot rods. Recently they've been slanting their line more towards "performance" instead of FE.

Instead, I always thought of Honda as an economy car company. I susptected the first ones in US actually had oversized motorcycle engines. IIRC they were 1300 cc. Cheap to run, cheap to buy, and durable. My cousin is still driving her '89 Accord SFAIK.

The politicians that you elected decided that you needed to be safer. The euro and asian pols don't feel the same way. Why? Maybe something to do with liability laws? Or cultural feelings on personal responsibility? Or cultural feelings about death?

Or maybe the fact that something happens, the media smells a story, and the politicos find a sound byte? I think Homer Simpson nailed American politics to the wall with his garbage man campaign of "Can't Someone Else Do It?" Americans as a whole are lazy and easily led by their emotions. I get to say that being I'm born and raised here, and come from a long line of Americans. Even have some Cherokee in.

In the US we want the machine to do it. That goes for safety as well as fuel economy.

We buy a Prius and drive it 70-75 mph, get 45-48 mpg and are happy. We buy an auto tranny and are happy, even though a standard will gets better mpg.

For safety, we want big and solid, and/or lots of air bags. Forget about seat belts, we wish we could leave them off and rely on the air bags to save our a**es.

The Europeans on the other hand design cars for better handling and for better outward visibility (so you can see what's around you). Much better for accident avoidance. But that puts the safety responsibility on the driver.

Same for fuel economy. They make - and buy - mostly standard trannies and people learn how to use them, I would imagine.

The best thing we could do for fuel economy in this country would be to require a real-time mpg display in every car, small truck and SUV. Right in the middle of the instrument cluster, the digits to be the same size as the ones on the speedometer. Tell the people what they're doing. Let them see what happens to their wallet every time they out-testosterone some other driver. Start putting the US driver in control of fuel economy by giving him some information.

We also should be teaching fuel-economy principles in driver ed. If people would start out with some good basic information they would be better off than they are now. As it is you have to hunt for an education in fuel economy.

Our culture wastes what appears to be free. If you pay taxes, you're buying down the price of gas indirectly through subsidies, waived-royalties on public land, publicly funded security for foreign oil industry infractructure (called the US Armed Forces).

This way you get to buy gas even if you don't use any. Those of us who use less gas than the average, are buying some of the gas the guzzlers' use. Though this myopic policy guarantees waste, I don't think it's by accident.

Our choices of vehicles are just as much a symptom as are our buying habits.

I'd have loved a Focus with the 1.6 TDCi even though I've never owned any diesel ! It seems as though Ford America is missing out on sales . There are so *many* options available for the Focus it nearly dwarfs their entire US spec line . They say it is Too costly to offer the same here :thumbdown: . What do I know ?

It would prolly be too costly to meet emissions and safety standards, :p