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When one usually thinks of luxury cars and status-brand vehicles, light and efficient are generally not the first terms that come to mind. More often than not, luxury cars are defined by their wretched excess in one or more areas. They're generally heavy, powerful, opulent, and thirsty. The conventional wisdom goes, "If you can afford the pricetag, you can afford the gas."
Yet, I can't tell you how many homes in upscale neighborhoods where I've seen a Prius parked alongside a Land Rover Range Rover, BMW 750iL, Mercedes-Benz S 550 or Lexus LS 460. Clearly, these households can afford just about any vehicle they want. So why would they voluntarily choose a conspicuously frugal, $20k-something, oddly-shaped hatchback?
Maybe the same reason the Hollywood greenies are. Perhaps they have a guilty social conscience. Or maybe the rich got tired of filling up their trophy wives' (or husbands!) Cadillac Escalades, Lincoln Navigators, and Mercedes G-Wagens with premium for their shopping sprees and pedicure (or golf) appointments.
So why hasn't the predominant trend been toward lighter, leaner, and more efficient with automobiles? This despite significant increases in specific output (horsepower and torque per liter), advancements in engine management technology, aerodyamics, and precision materials?
Simply put, we're constantly demanding more from our vehicles. More power, more room, more toys. The easy way to address these consumer demands is simply adding them. But as anyone knows in weight-obsessed America, the more stuff you keep piling on the scale, the heavier the load. The problem is, automakers have not been nearly as diligent at counterbalancing the demand for power and amenities with research and development into lighter-weight materials and construction techniques.
Add that to the latest coveted laurel among the automakers: Safety. Again, the "easy" solution is to make the vehicles more massive. Is it any surprise that the Ford Crown Victoria is one of the safest passenger cars you can buy, even though its basic design and configuration is approaching 30 years old? It's simply a massive, body-on-frame, old-school cruiser.
Making a small, lightweight safe car is a bit more of a challenge. Yet it is possible. But the perception among most automakers (not entirely inaccurate) is that people care more about goodies and bells & whistles than economy and engineering elegance. Yet vehicles like the Prius continue to demonstrate there is a demand for cars that are deliberate in their frugality. Perhaps the reason it's been such a success is it's one of the few cars that is so focused and single-minded in its mission. If others followed suit with similar vehicles, what's to say they wouldn't likewise be rewarded for their efforts?
Though some have called the Volt concept "vaporware" and "engineering by press release", it seems GM is quite deliberate in the development of the vehicle. I hope it will have the same positive halo effect for the General as the Prius did for Toyota.
Among some of the noteworthy "lightweight" status cars are the Chevrolet Corvette, which seemingly has shed about a hundred pounds with each succeeding generation, the Porsche Cayman, which tips the scales at a hair under 3,000 pounds, the Mercedes SLK, and the soon-to-be-introduced BMW 1-Series, which will pack the six-cylinder punch of its big brother, the 3-Series, in a trimmer, lighter package. Kudos to all of these manufacturers for producing these featherweight fun machines, and proving that bulk doesn't always equate to better. I hope this is the beginning of a trend that will continue for the forseeable future.
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