My wife owned a little 'hoot-n-scoot' Aspire during her college years. She paid a whoppin' $5800 new for this cute little Geo-like knock-off. and fondly remembers getting on the order of 40 mpg with it until she gave it to her folks some 8 years back.
While watching the news one night a Toyota commercial came on praising their 35 mpg ratings to which she turned to me and asked "What's the big deal, my old Aspire 8 years ago did better than that?" She then did some hard Google'in and found that no current cars (non-hybrids) were claiming equivalent ratings as the Aspire. She then found out why. Turns out that with all the safety regulations for current vehicles, the weight of the cars exceeds drastically that of the Aspire. As a result, no current car can make the same mileage.
So I ask, why aren't the safety regulations optional? Truth be told, I'd drive a less safe vehicle that performed better and got better mileage. Why are current vehicles restricted, while we're perfectly comfortable with driving a '74 Beetle down a busy interstate.
Really, what do you think is safer for regular joe; driving a 2008 compact without airbags or driving a scooter down an interstate at 70 mph. That's the trend nowdays, people driving a completely unsafe 2-wheeler simply for MPG. They've made a choice of economics over safety, so why can't car manufactorers extend them the same choices?
