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I'm really confused by the comment about your weekend.

My Renault Zoe is absolutely tiny by US standards: it's a supermini.
https://www.renault.co.uk/vehi...

It could definitely fit 5 people, 8 boxes of kitty litter and an electric guitar and the groceries for a week. I mean, I guess it partly depends on just how much you all eat, but we routinely get two large suitcases and multiple further bags in the trunk when we go away.

Could you not be a little bit patient? EVs have only started to come onstream properly in the past 5 years, and you can already buy a Renault Zoe in the UK for about $18k. It has the simple looks, 100mi range and no fancy shit spec that you want.

https://www.renault.co.uk/vehi...

Give it a couple of years and, assuming volumes build up, the price will be closer to your sweet spot.

You mean, like the Renault Twizy?

http://www.ford.co.uk/Cars/Mondeo/FueleconomyandCO2emissions [ford.co.uk]

http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vaux/vehicle/vehicleBrandAction.do?method=viewBrand&brandCode=9J&modelYear=2008A (GM group)

http://www.chevrolet.co.uk/epica/epica-technical-data-epica-ls-fuel-consumption.html

http://www.renault.co.uk/cars/model/newlagunasporttourer/ecoefficiency.aspx

http://www.citroen.co.uk/new-cars/citroen-c5-saloon/in-more-detail/technical-specifications/

and there's always Mercedes, BMW, and the whole VW group if you want something of even higher quality.

I'm not looking to get a hybrid yet, despite the UK's sky-high prices for petrol and diesel. My turbo-diesel Renault Scenic (1.5L dCi-86 engine) regularly gets in excess of 72mpg on motorway journeys (UK gal = 4.546L) although that is rather higher than the published figure of 61mpg for this car, and at one point I managed to get over 80mpg down the M1! Even the hybrids don't get this good a fuel economy.

Their new Clio with their 1.5L dCi-86 diesel has a published figure of 70.6mpg extra-urban.

Want a small, efficient four seater? Try a Honda Jazz or Renault Modus.

That could be electronic malfunction or the throttle cable could get stuck.

why can't you just shift into neutral and coast to a stop?

Some modern cars are "drive-by-wire". There is no physical connection between the shifter and the transmission, and there is no throttle cable to get stuck. Everything is under computer control. GM's HyWire concept car is a good example of this. Even the brakes are under computer control on the HyWire.

I don't know of any production cars are entirely drive-by-wire, but this may become a concern in the future. One would imagine that engineers would ensure these systems are each handled seperately, so that any single systems failure doesn't end with your car flying off the side of the road, but one can imagine all kinds of things which aren't true.

Now even if all those three items happened, what about your emergency break?

Here I CAN tell you that the Vel Satis is "drive-by-wire". The Vel Satis parking break is automatic, engaging when the car is turned off. The car has a small lever on the dash, which can be used to instruct the computer to manually engage the parking brake (Renault even notes that the ABS will engage, so the parking brake can be used as an emergency brake to safely bring the car to a halt... Mind you, if the parking brake lever engages with full ABS, it probably uses the same hydraulic system as the plain-old-regular brakes, so its use as an "emergency" brake is questionable at best. I suppose in a "loss of foot" emergency it might come in handy...).

That link to the Renault page even makes a big deal about the lack of a hand brake. They put it in bold: "Since there is no handbrake lever, there is space for a large storage compartment between the seats."

No, I'm not. We use Miles here in the UK. My car, a Renault Clio 1.2 16V (here), does 49MPG (on average). My Girlfriends car, a Renault Megane 1.6 16V, does (on average) 53MPG. I was talking of our "average reasonably efficient" car, not "average car" - there are still a lot of old gas guzzlers around, but they are gradually being culled.

Come to the UK, where you can have all that in a diesel for little money.

Take the Renault Laguna's diesel engine for exmaple.

2.2 Turbo, 4 cylinders, high pressure common rail, 150 horsepower, 6 speed manual box. Top speed of 120 mph

It handles extremely well, comes with all the good stuff (traction control, ABS, all round discs, keyless entry, start button etc) for £23,000.

If you want to cut out some of the options, you can get it down to £16 to £17,000, which is about $25,000

The best part: 52 miles per gallon, extra urban. (about 32mpg urban) see here

Remember also, our sales tax (VAT) is 17.5%, so the price above is higher than it would be if the car was sold in the US.