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Date Posted: 12:12:49 01/21/10 Thu
Author: Bill
Author Host/IP: 70.21.211.214
Subject: Re: Fur wheel?
In reply to: Howie 's message, "Re: Fur wheel?" on 16:21:29 01/20/10 Wed

I was thinking more on the snow cat varaiants as far as the name went , however there are some rather innovative ideas for personal transport out there at the moment that may or may no fiind thier way to the market.

If you remember there were purveyors of electric cars back in the sixties some of which enjoyed quite a bit of success for a while but we not that pratical for full time everyday transport though a friend of mine was the local demonstrator for one made in California that he used every day for many years until it finally gave up the ghost and died well after the company stopped either making or servicing them ( he got a second hand small car that gave about twenty MPG to replace it that also needed a lot of maintaining , a for I think but maybe not ).
Some of the alternatives to the usual suspects were pretty good , like the diesel powered cars made for the european market that were not sold here because they would need too much done to fit federal pollution rules which probably was really not necessary , just that cars had different requirements under the federal rules than trucks which were both more inefficient and more polluting than most of these euro cars.
Also lots of small car alternatives that would not meet fed impact requirements or had two stroke so more pollution than was allowwed.
People are usually not aware that there were both two stroke and side valve cars here in the early years that gave very high mileage but had a trail of unburned hydrocarbons following them all the time , like soome of the Willys offerings. Very high mileage but " dirty " so legislated out of existence by federal programs that took used cars off the roads and eliminated the spaer parts from the market to keep them going by requireing that the cars tuned in be destroyed including the usable parts.... anyone see a parrallell to the clunkers legislation here ? this was back in the twenties and thrities Or so.

Americam manufacturers had ideas for small cars and efficient cars that just didn't sell to the buying public. they were not interested and most of them were taken off the market and some makers went belly up because the innovative cars just would not sell.
Think Crosley and the Hudson Jet for example.
Cars that sole well in europe post war when gas was both scarce and expensive just didn't make it here very well and service and parts were always harder to come by making that a big issue with the buying public just as american cars in europe had a bad rep for the same reasons over there.
BAck in the sixties and the next two decades car makers were doing a more global approach to some of their offerings with cars made and sold all over the world that were much more efficient but might not be as safe or durable as those sold here by the major manufacturers. The market was still not that interested though they sold better than the earlier small car ideas just not enough to keep them on the market.
About the only ones that really were competitive were cars like the VW which was successful till legislated out of the market and things like the small renaults and fiats which just fell behind by not being updated fast enough then sometimes had problems with the new models that lost too much credibilllity ( not to mention the fed steppig in and adding those requirements that makers found too expensive to meet so stopped selling those cars here ) .

The market though will find what it wants and that will lead things in whatever direction it goes. It always does no matter what the makers do to try and direct the market where they might want it to go.
People would not be buying what they do unless they were getting what they were looking for.

b

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