Originally Posted by
knary
Yes, emissions requirements do impact fuel mileage. But they are NOT the reason our cars guzzle gas. They guzzle because we're gluttonous *******s that whine that drive 5,000 lbs vehicles that make 300 hp. There was a time when a Porsche 944 was considered a kinda fast car back in the mid to early 80's. This was no miser car, but a performance machine that put fuel mileage second to fun. The first ones made a whopping 147 hp and weighed just shy of 3,000 lbs. Today, a base Honda Civic makes 140 hp and weighs just a couple hundred pounds less than that 944. Fuel mileage is up on the Honda compared to the 944, but just imagine how miserly it could be if it were built with mileage as the primary focus?
+1 My friend wonders why his 1988 Mercury Tracer still gets better mileage than most modern cars. The American market prefers performance over gas mileage. There are lower hp versions of cars that never make it to the U.S. market because sales would be so low.