It’s time for the Detroit Auto Show, we’re in for a sea change in our love affair with the automobile. I’ve always preferred small cars, my friends use to make fun of the odd things I drove. Once looked at an NSU Prinz but it was a little too tired. All those people that have been trying to run me off the road with their Ford Expeditions are now preaching the merits of hybrid technology. I’m a little skeptical, it’s very early in their development and many are rushed to market. It’s not that they won’t do what is preached of them, it’s more that they seem much too complex. We’re going to end up with cars that will be too expensive to repair when they are just a few years old. That means filling our junkyards with even more debris and heavy metals. Hardly environmentally sound. These designs need to be easily recyclable in addition to being efficient. It’s a great first step, if for nothing else than reducing our dependance on oil and driving down the price of gasoline. I’m waiting for hydrogen or, perhaps, a modern steam engine. Where’s the nuclear reactor powered Ford, they were promising back in the late fifties?
It gets great mileage. Mostly because I carry it where ever I go.