Electric cars, Hybrid vehicles

We drive a Hyundai Sonata Hybrid sedan. We like it very much. It is a 2013 and has 53,000 miles on it. Not a speck of trouble so far. Gas mileage around town is 38 to 40 miles per gallon. Some driving conditions earn us 42 mpg and I’ve seen it as high as 48 mpg for a prolonged period.

So, our hybrid works quite well in suburban, urban and highway locales. We bought the car used with 42,000 miles on it. It is almost fully loaded with conveniences and everything works as it is supposed to. We are very pleased that the car functions extremely well and quite reliably. I’ve had similar experiences with Mercedes Benz products but even they had frequent scheduled maintenance and repairs. Each was costly. So far maintenance on the Hyundai has been limited to low cost oil and filter changes.

The car is quiet and has a firm ride. It does not sway at corners and delivers an excellent feel of the road. Visibility is very good. Seats are comfortable and give terrific back support. Rear seat passenger room is more than adequate and comfortable. Storage capabilities are perhaps better than most cars.

All in all we are very pleased with the Sonata. Anyone who rides in it says the same things we do.

Now I pose the question: why haven’t American auto manufacturers met this competition head on? Why are their products oversized, overpowered, over priced and underperformanced? When will domestic auto companies drive the market toward meeting consumer needs? Why must foreign competitors always beat the US to the true auto market?

The planet needs less polluting forms of transportation, especially the ones we use every day. We also need less power and noise. Size matters as well when it comes to transporting only one or possibly two people most of the time. And size matters when parking and housing the vehicles as well. Larger cars and vans are fine when the purpose calls for them, but most of the time the purpose doesn’t. So why are cars so large in the US, noisy and fuel-guzzling? They don’t have to be. In fact, they ought not to be!

It would be lovely if we all had money to drive a Cadillac or Mercedes but we don’t. So why don’t we fit the public with the cars they need?

While we are at it, why don’t domestic auto makers re-invent transportation entirely and replace the internal combustion engine? We know they have studied and researched this for decades. Surely they have discovered the means to build clean, reliable and cheap forms of transportation. They could lead the world with these products. Why have they not delivered them to a hungry global market?

What special interests are they protecting? Their own or the petroleum industry? Or political controllers? What and who is behind our lack of progress in this arena?

Anyone have an answer to this question? Anyone?

Please?

May 26, 2015