Auto mysteries

Might it be, as some have claimed, that domestic automakers have rigged things in cahoots with oil companies? Who knows, but it does seem that domestic automakers, GM, Ford and Chrysler, have fallen due to the fact that they lacked, for the most part, fuel-efficient cars. One wonders as to why this is, for they certainly know how to make them, and actually they have, from time to time, so done.

Mrs. Schultz drives a basic 1998 Saturn four-door sedan, five-speed manual with air conditioning. I drive a year 2000 model Saturn, a quite similar vehicle. Either vehicle on road trips usually achieves fuel rates of 40-plus miles per gallon. In local driving they usually get 30-plus miles per gallon. No magic involved.

Given that American automakers have produced fuel-efficient autos, what needs to be developed at great cost to consumers, other than yet another scheme to clip The Great Unwashed? I may be overly suspicious, bitter, untrusting of corporate America and government; however, the above questions remain, and they need to be answered now.

 

ALAN SCHULTZ

McCandless