Volkswagen's New 300 MPG Car Not Allowed in America.

JR wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

Actual link:

Excerpt: "One excuse is that 'they don't meet American crash test standards', but the real truth is that the Fed simply refused to ever crash test them..."

However...

From a Google search:

Excerpt: "VW plans to build only 250 of the little cars [the XL1] -- and none will be shipped to the U.S., in part, because federal rules require all vehicles be equipped with left and right-side exterior mirrors. But that could soon change. At least, the auto industry is hoping so. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a consortium that includes VW, Toyota and General Motors -- as well as start-up Tesla Motors -- has petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to begin permitting manufacturers to replace mirrors with digital cameras."

I see from VW's press release that this little wart is two-feet shorter than a Honda Civic. A car that small will end up being a "halo car" like the Smart, bought as an auxiliary vehicle by rich people to show how "green" they are.

The first thing you have to do is get rid of that awfully inefficient internal combustion engine. The future will probably be electric cars powered by energy produced by nuclear power plants. We won't have any other choice. That's just my opinion but it's pretty awesome. :-)

VERY doubtful until they can come up with much better batteries. The current crop of electrics won't even get many folks to their jobs.

This VW is interesting BUT also very hyped. VW says it has a "real world" mpg of around 120 mpg, and that they have no plans to bring it to the US.

I don't consider it very doubtful because they will come up with better batteries in the future. Sooner or later, and I believe that it will be sooner, people are going to realize that the planet will have to stop burning fossil fuels. At that time, batteries will be much better or good enough. Either way, we'll probably just have to settle with whatever we have.

American won't settle for a sub 1800 lb go cart. The GM turbo diesel engine in the car I drove in the UK was brilliant. The power delivery was unlike any gas engine I've used. The 2 liter four was able to move the mid-sized car effortlessly. It felt like some kind of electric motor and got around 40 MPG.

The real reason it's not allowed here is because it doesn't use enough fossil fuels to profit big oil! Hellooo people??

Another reason is that a car that gets 300 MPG doesn't exist.

it's not allowed because it doesn't meet federal standards. No need to invent conspiracies. It also doesn't have AC as near as I can tell, don't think it has a rear seat. It's not all that special anymore than the Tesla is. Take gobs of money and go after a design target, big deal. At $120,000 dollars it will take a long time to recoup that investment in gas savings. If you burned ZERO gas a year compared to the typical car you might save at most $4000 dollars. So for this case, you have a $120,000 car that, aside from gas mileage, provides the functional equivalent of a clapped out used Aveo with a broken AC system, all the sound deadening removed, and the body weakened making if fail to provide crash protection. Even if that Aveo cost you $20,000, you still have $100,000 to account for. Lets see, 100000/4000 equals 25 years worth of driving in this POS to break even. Such a deal. Not even the Hollywood elite would drive this POS for more than a week once they realized it wasn't that they couldn't find the AC controls but that there was no AC so unlike the Tesla, which the big rollers will buy because it's a good car if you ignore the cost, this isn't even a good car.

The real reason is because it fails to meet safety standards. Get a clue.

Google,,, Electric cars can only go half as far in freezing weather, AAA finds

If you want to be super Bill Gates rich... Just come up with a better battery... The world is ready. I don't know why they don't just beef the car up to meet American standards. So put a rear view mirror and a couple of cup holders etc... Duhh.... :) Crzzy1

It's not just the safety most other countries have very low emissions standards as well. I've talked to places that import non-US spec vehicles about the conversions. Most have charts of the various makes/models and what it would take. The ones that are clones of US spec are not that bad. Others just about require a complete rebuild of the car with extra wiring, frame/body reinforcing and major engine rework to make them legal.