49 MPG

The year is 1990. I owned a Honda CRX HF. At 6'7" I actually fit in it pretty good once I got in. I even had to bring the seat forward a little from it's fully retracted position. I, John Adams, am a little anal-retentive (i.e. overly frugal, orderly, overly neat, maybe obsessive compulsive about some things). You can ask Patrick Henry if you don't believe me. After 25 years he has probably seen some evidence to bear proof of this statement. I say this because many may not believe that I keep a log of everything I ever do to my vehicle, including fill-ups and gas mileage. For the entire time that I owned this car it averaged 49 MPG with regular unleaded gas. I was in the upper 50's if I ran higher octane gas (Amoco Ultimate) on the interstate heading east to Charleston (downhill). Today we get 'all' excited about expensive hybrids that are barely breaking 40 MPG, while 20 years ago it was being done with 'old' technology. We could debate for hours and days the reasons, and I have heard many of the 'excuses', but I believe we will find the same truths moving forward as we did then and that is a highly efficient car with uninspiring looks and performance will not be popular enough to sell enough of to save the Big 3 (or 2, or 1), especially for a higher price. It is not the field of dreams (if you build it they will come). And I am curious to see how this all plays out, assuming we actually live to see it. I hear from Ol' Ben that the world is scheduled to end December 21, 2012.