The Automobile of Today

I was talking to a friend yesterday about cars and their fuel economy. My friend had just purchased a new Ford that claimed to be able to get 43 miles per gallon on the highway.

My friend was surprised by the fact that I personally had owned a 1959 Renault back in the early 1960s that consistently achieved 50 miles per gallon and more recently I had owned a Chevy Sprint that achieved 60 miles per gallon. Both of these high milage vehicles have long since disappeared and have been replaced by the high fuel consumption vehicles of today.

My friend came back with the Smart car which gets excellent fuel economy for a two passenger vehicle. That is true but the Renault and the Sprint were both four passenger vehicles.

Today's technology has not been able to improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine and produce high fuel economy vehicles. I wonder when the world is worried about the shortage of fuel there has not been greater improvements in fuel consumption of the automobile.

Today's vehicles have been designed in such a way that it is nearly impossible for the back yard mechanic to work on them without have to purchase very expensive specialized tools. I guess the advantage of these modern designed engine is that they are harder for the home mechanic to modify and improve on the fuel consumption.

During the era of the muscle cars (big engines) these cars were able to get 18 to 20 miles per gallon with out fuel injection and computer systems. These vehicles were heavier than today's automobiles. I owned a 1976 Lincoln Town Car that consistently got 23 miles per gallon on the highway with a huge engine for the time and weighed in at 7,000 pounds this was a bit of a gas guzzler compared to the cars of today, but when you compare the weight of the vehicles the older vehicles were a lot more efficient.

What has happened to our technology? Today everything seems to have a computer chip in it whether this is good or bad is anyone's guess but it seems to me that the world has become so dependant on the computer chip that if the computers should fail for any reason the device is rendered useless.

Old technology that has been replaced by new technology is not always the best answer, and definitely is not the most efficient use of technology.

Here is a question for all of my readers out there. What new inventions have you seen in the last decade that are not just upgrades or modifications to existing devices?

Until next time keep on researching and building.