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It'll take a lot more than "smart" government officials to fix this.

This article dumbs it down to high-gas mileage = death trap because they're light weight, so solution is make everything have better gas mileage, right?

Not always true: 2001 Ford Explorer 2wd SUV has a curb weight of 3769 and averaged 17mpg. 2011 Ford Explorer 2wd SUV has a curb weight of 4400 lbs and averages 20mpg. 600 lbs (18%) more, 3mpg (20%) better gas mileage.

So go ahead, require better gas mileage, but better mpg != lighter vehicles.

Besides this is already a problem because I can buy a used 2005 (last year they were made) 7,000+ lbs 15mpg Ford Excursion and outweigh almost every non-commercial vehicle on the road by 2,000+ lbs. Even a 2011 4WD Chevy Suburban is over 1,000 lbs lighter than a Ford Excursion.

While the newer Prius, Civic, etc hybrids are nice and all they are just way too underpowered.

It's kinda sad to see the Japanese wiping the floor with GM, whose sales have tanked completely because they weren't forward-looking. Sales of big trucks have plummeted about 40% while the Prius and other hybrids are selling like hot cakes.

I think it is appropriate-
On family trips my dad's joke was to point out any nice looking scenery and say "what a nice vista."
One time, while traveling to MA from Ohio, he pulled into a rest stop that said "scenic vista." He had a low speed accident, or crash in that rest stop, and now I associate the word vista with crash.
Wasn't one of the ugliest cars in history named the Vista? The Colt Vista, imported for Dodge?
http://www.intellichoice.com/reports/vehicleReport /vehicle_nmb/100009877/type/used

High cost is due to relatively small market. As for repairs, I found this on the web:

Green' doesn't have to mean more expensive

20 January 2005
Australia's leading general insurer, NRMA Insurance, today released the latest results from its internationally accredited low speed crash test program, showing repair costs for hybrid cars are comparable with standard small to medium sized vehicles.

An 'out-performer' in the hybrid vehicles category was the Toyota Prius II. The repair cost of this vehicle after a low speed collision, as a percentage of its purchase price, is commendable at 11.6 per cent. The top performing car, Mazda6, achieved 8.3 per cent.

And this/a. too.

It's not even a real Hummer. It's a pickup in quasi-military drag.

Actually, it is a Suburban. They share the same chassis.

http://www.intellichoice.com/reports/vehicleReport /vehicle_nmb/11571/section/reviews

Wow!, *love* that Volta!

I'm also impressed by the looks of these:

Volkswagon Concept T
Acura HSC
Saturn Curve
Italdesign Visconti
Holden SST

Here's my question. Why don't car-makers actually make some of these concept cars, at least by body design if not all the under-hood bells and whistles! Why are the only new-looking cards on our streets all these funky looking things like the "new beetle" and the "new mini" and the like.... Why isn't there anything like the Volta available (at a reasonable price, the $400,000 Italian cars don't count.)

I mean, right now there isn't *anything* on the road under $50,000 that' I'd die to get my hands on. But the Volta and Concept T would get people who otherwise wouldn't have a car to buy a car, just for their uber-looks.

Wow!, *love* that Volta!

I'm also impressed by the looks of these:

Volkswagon Concept T
Acura HSC
Saturn Curve
Italdesign Visconti
Holden SST

Here's my question. Why don't car-makers actually make some of these concept cars, at least by body design if not all the under-hood bells and whistles! Why are the only new-looking cards on our streets all these funky looking things like the "new beetle" and the "new mini" and the like.... Why isn't there anything like the Volta available (at a reasonable price, the $400,000 Italian cars don't count.)

I mean, right now there isn't *anything* on the road under $50,000 that' I'd die to get my hands on. But the Volta and Concept T would get people who otherwise wouldn't have a car to buy a car, just for their uber-looks.

Wow!, *love* that Volta!

I'm also impressed by the looks of these:

Volkswagon Concept T
Acura HSC
Saturn Curve
Italdesign Visconti
Holden SST

Here's my question. Why don't car-makers actually make some of these concept cars, at least by body design if not all the under-hood bells and whistles! Why are the only new-looking cards on our streets all these funky looking things like the "new beetle" and the "new mini" and the like.... Why isn't there anything like the Volta available (at a reasonable price, the $400,000 Italian cars don't count.)

I mean, right now there isn't *anything* on the road under $50,000 that' I'd die to get my hands on. But the Volta and Concept T would get people who otherwise wouldn't have a car to buy a car, just for their uber-looks.

On the Geneva fair, an number of nice hybrid concept cars were introduced. Have a look at them:

Alessandro Volta
Honda IMAS
Lexus RX 400h

Actually your car weights 3,010 according to this.

But the questions not how much your car weighs, my mustang weighs well over 3,500 lbs and it's still damned fast (which means if my sentra had the same amount of hp, it'd be faster than the mustang since it weighs less.) And which part of my comments did I mention coffee can exhausts, running low 8's, vtec (dude that's fucking honda), superchargers (superchargers and turbochargers are two very different things, turbos run off your cars exhaust, supers run from your cars timing belt, supers give you all around hp while a turbo increases the high rpm hp.)

I don't put stickers on my car, it doesn't have NOS (it probably won't ever get any, but NOS does increase a cars speed, a lot of mustangs running below 10 have NOS so don't knock it), it will get a turbo kit one day and they do add tons of hp (which is why they cost $3,000+) I was going to get a supercharger for my mustang but I didn't have the money, then I moved and gave my sister the car, it had everything setup for it except the supercharger itself. No I'm never getting any body kits on my sentra, however I will get new wheels (gonna get some 17" 12lb konix) and that will probably be the only external thing. And dude if you get flames to come out of your muffler, you'll probably burn your paint. Where did you come up with this ignorance? Do I actually come off as a ricer? I really doubt it since I'm far from being a ricer. Maybe you're angry that I have two cars, one of them is yours (and probably faster since it has a motor from a cobra and a ton of add ons like a cam, headers, ignition kit, flowmasters, etc) and I know more about both of them than you do?