Chuck
03-23-2008, 09:07 PM
Gas costs are up. So is Third World consumer demand. The result: a new breed of cars that are cooler, cheaper and incredibly small. Goodbye, Hummer. (http://www.newsweek.com/id/123068)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/simpsons2.jpgKeith Naughton - Newsweek - Mar 24, 2008
Getting Americans into smaller cars seemed to require an Act of Congress or other paramentary procedure (see above :D ) -- Ed.
When gas prices began to shoot up last summer, Millie Richardson (http://www.newsweek.com/related.aspx?subject=Millie+Richardson) became fed up with her minivan. So the Lawrenceville, N.J., mom traded in her Dodge Caravan for a $17,000 Nissan Versa, a subcompact that gets more than 30 miles per gallon. Richardson, 55, likes spending less at the pump, but she's most excited about how roomy her little car is. "My son is 6-foot-6, and he drove it," she marvels. "So it's small, but it's big—does that make sense?" What's even more appealing to Richardson, though, is a $2,500 car she's heard about that was introduced in India (http://www.newsweek.com/related.aspx?subject=India) last month: the Tata Nano. Though there are no plans yet to bring it to America, Richardson is ready. "Oh, boy, would I ever love to drive one," she says. "I would look at it as a disposable car. It would be so cheap, you could always afford a new one."
Around the automotive world, small is the new big. Driven by earning power in emerging markets, along with rising gas prices and global-warming concerns in developed countries, small-car sales are soaring. By 2012, forecasters expect consumers to buy a record 38 million small cars annually, up 65 percent from a decade earlier. Even in the United States, land of the large, sales of small cars are expected to grow 25 percent by 2012 to a record 3.4 million while SUVs and pickup trucks continue to tank. Daimler had 30,000 orders in hand even before it launched its nine-foot-long Smart Fortwo model in the United States in January. "This is not a fad," says Smart USA president Dave Schembri. "It's a trend."
… http://www.newsweek.com/id/123068
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/simpsons2.jpgKeith Naughton - Newsweek - Mar 24, 2008
Getting Americans into smaller cars seemed to require an Act of Congress or other paramentary procedure (see above :D ) -- Ed.
When gas prices began to shoot up last summer, Millie Richardson (http://www.newsweek.com/related.aspx?subject=Millie+Richardson) became fed up with her minivan. So the Lawrenceville, N.J., mom traded in her Dodge Caravan for a $17,000 Nissan Versa, a subcompact that gets more than 30 miles per gallon. Richardson, 55, likes spending less at the pump, but she's most excited about how roomy her little car is. "My son is 6-foot-6, and he drove it," she marvels. "So it's small, but it's big—does that make sense?" What's even more appealing to Richardson, though, is a $2,500 car she's heard about that was introduced in India (http://www.newsweek.com/related.aspx?subject=India) last month: the Tata Nano. Though there are no plans yet to bring it to America, Richardson is ready. "Oh, boy, would I ever love to drive one," she says. "I would look at it as a disposable car. It would be so cheap, you could always afford a new one."
Around the automotive world, small is the new big. Driven by earning power in emerging markets, along with rising gas prices and global-warming concerns in developed countries, small-car sales are soaring. By 2012, forecasters expect consumers to buy a record 38 million small cars annually, up 65 percent from a decade earlier. Even in the United States, land of the large, sales of small cars are expected to grow 25 percent by 2012 to a record 3.4 million while SUVs and pickup trucks continue to tank. Daimler had 30,000 orders in hand even before it launched its nine-foot-long Smart Fortwo model in the United States in January. "This is not a fad," says Smart USA president Dave Schembri. "It's a trend."
… http://www.newsweek.com/id/123068