More than 40 years ago, you could have bought an economical car. No such cars are made today. Even the term economy car has passed out of general usage in favor of entry level. It’s a subtle shift in the way cars are talked about that causes memories of the way cars were once made to fade away and – eventually – be forgotten altogether.
So let’s try to remember.
More than 40 years ago – in the early 1980s – every car company that was not a luxury-car company made what were then commonly referred to as economy cars. They were made to be both inexpensive to buy and to drive. Today, there is very little that is inexpensive to buy. In fact – as of the 2025 model year – there isn’t a single new car you can buy for less than $20,000. In part because there are very few cars left on the market that are even entry level. The handful that were – models such as the Hyundai Accent and the Mitsubishi Mirage – have been taken off the market in favor of crossovers that cost thousands more – and that aren’t particularly inexpensive to drive, either.
As opposed to something like the 1982 Chevrolet Chevette diesel.
Laugh if you like. The joke’s on us.
The Chevette was inexpensive to buy. Its base price of $6,700 works out to just over $20k in today’s attenuated dollars. And it was extremely inexpensive to drive, because its diesel engine enabled it to take you 40 miles – in city driving – one one gallon of fuel and 55 miles on the highway.
There are a handful of hybrids that can go that far – but they need to be hybridized to go that far. In other words, they need a tandem powertrain that includes an engine and an electric motor/battery pack paired with it, which is used to to augment the power of the gas-burning engine and to take over for it when the system shuts the gas engine off. Which the system does as often as possible – as when the vehicle is stationary or coasting/decelerating.
This is how the hybrid delivers gas mileage comparable to what the ’82 Chevette diesel delivered.
The difference being the Chevette didn’t need a tandem drivetrain. And – back then – diesel fuel cost less than gasoline, which effectively decreased the driving costs even more.
It is interesting to think about what kind of mileage might be possible today given 40-plus years of technical advances, most especially in terms of lightweight materials, low rolling resistance tires and so on.
If, that is it were feasible to manufacture a lightweight vehicle such as the Chevette – which weighed about 2,200 lbs. – and to put a diesel engine in it . Such a car would probably be able to take you 50 miles in city driving and 60 or more on the highway.
Today’s hybrids do remarkably well given how heavy they are. A current-year Toyota Corolla hybrid, as a for-instance, weighs more than 2,800 lbs. It still delivers 53 MPG in city driving and 46 on the highway (hybrids get worse mileage on the highway because on the highway the engine is always running whereas in stop-and-go city driving, the hybrid system keeps the engine off often).
Imagine what the Corolla hybrid’s mileage might be if it weighed the same as – or less than – a 1982 Chevette.
There is no reason why it couldn’t, in terms of what is possible. The problem is government – which renders it impossible. A 1982 Chevette would be flamed as “unsafe” if that exact same car were offered new for sale today. Never mind that millions of people drove them every day for years and most never lost control or ran into anything – and if they did, it wasn’t the fault of the car.
A modern hybrid that weighed as little as an ’82 Chevette would probably be capable of better than 60 MPG in stop-and-go city driving and 50-plus on the highway. With a gas-burning engine.
But how would it do with a diesel engine?
Given that a diesel engine is generally about 20 percent more efficient, a diesel-hybrid that weighed about the same as an ’82 Chevette would probably be capable of 70 MPG or even more than that. This isn’t a hypothetical, either. VW – which used to specialize in economy cars – many of them diesel powered – was developing an ultra-lightweight diesel-hybrid commuter car that was capable of traveling 100 miles or more on a gallon of diesel. This was right around the time – circa 2016 – when the government came down hard on VW for designing its diesel-powered cars to pass federal emissions certification tests.
This was characterized as “cheating.”
Of a piece with the way Captain Kirk from Star Trek “cheated” the Kobayashi Maru test.
The government was not amused. But that’s no why VW was hammered by the government. Such “cheating” has been going on for as long as there has been testing. It’s been a game, up to now. It got serious – not because VW cheated but because it was threatening to reintroduce the economy car. In addition to the lineup of economical cars it had already introduced.
And the government can’t have that.
. . .
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After the alleged gas crisis of the early 70’s, even with a lot of interference by the feral government, the car companies redesigned and retooled. By the early 80’s we had a whole slew of economy improvements coming through. The 4 speed auto overdrives became ubiquitous, and v8’s had shrunk and been choked to death with electronic carburetors and catalytic converters. And there were small, fuel sipping, reliable, mechanical diesels in Chevettes, Escorts, Rangers, VW’s, etc.
Unfortunately, people didn’t buy them. Americans were already sybarites, addicted to living beyond their means, and slow, noisy, cheap, and long running cars were only an easy sell to the smart and the cheap (Venn diagram is about 95% overlapped…).
Worse, the feral government was already out to get diesel cars, starting with higher license taxes. And the social justice warriors of the world just knew diesels were dirty, since you could actually see black smoke coming out of them (even though mechanical diesels were cleaner than carved and catalyst equipped gassers).
It pains me to say it, but Europeans were already more sensible about their cars, with displacements limited by license taxes, on the eminently reasonable theory that bigger heavier cars imposed more wear and tear on the roads and streets, and that every Jacques and Fritz didn’t need or want a 300HP beast to get to work. Added to the fact that European countries are smaller and layed out for non-motorized transportation, so a car was a luxury in much of Europe and a 2CV or VW Kafer were plenty of car for Jacques and Fritz, or a Mini for Clive, to get around in and even have some cheap fun.
What’s my point? Wise traditional leadership doesn’t ban or restrict, but makes public policy by making sure the options are available for those who are willing to pay for them. Democracy is communism, and it sucks. Democracy/communism always devolves to envy, and resorts to force when free people refuse to obey.
My second car I owned was 1978 Olds Cutlass with a 260 c.i. V-8 2-barrel carburetor. That car got 25 mpg highway and it was a full frame vehicle. That was way before the ethanol mandate. Another way government hinders efficiency.
The only new car my parents ever bought was a 1982 escort wagon.
The only option it had was automatic transmission.
Around $8000
Lasted until my brother blew the engine around 1995
I don’t remember the mileage it got, but dad kept a log book at every fill up
Used to pack that thing full of campong gear and 5 people
Only problem it ever had was a flat tire once
bought new, that is
Chevy made a Cruze diesel with a manual transmission until quite recently. The gas Cruze seemed like a decent car, I rented one in 2014 and I enjoyed it.
It must be said that in GM’s defense, though, that government nonsense aside, the driving public was not exactly buying Cruze diesels by the millions.
Unfortunately they’re both gone now so the point is moot.
Every month or so there’s a story in the Colorado Sun about Denver traffic, or mass transit, or usually both. This past Sunday there was a feature about how the (voter approved) taxes added to Denverites’ tax burden earmarked for light rail are now being shunted toward dedicated bus lanes on Colfax ave. To put that in some perspective, Colfax is 26 miles of roadway that runs the length of Denver. They’re going to introduce more buses too. But no new light rail, which is what the voters voted for. Those bus lanes are going to remove lanes for all traffic, adding to the already horrible traffic situation.
The “nudge” to get you out of your car is becoming a “push.”
Will it work? Perhaps for some the “convenience” of sitting in an unheated graffiti covered shelter with the unhoused is a charming slice of life in the city. For most everyone though, we’ll let someone else enjoy that experience every morning. My grandad didn’t build the modern infrastructure so that I could shiver in the cold every morning on the way to my call center job, no sir. The world’s supposed to be getting better, not worse. Just because some Malthusian came up with some back of the envelope calculation that says we’re all doomed (while not enjoying the mass transit experience for himself). The catastrophe that is highly unlikely is the only one presented.
The free market was working on a solution, pushing efficiency to new levels. But that wasn’t good enough for the doomsayers, no sir. They don’t want solutions, they want to make money off the problem. Preferably by talking about it and only offering distasteful draconian solutions they know won’t be accepted by the public. But unlike the boy who cried wolf (eventually there was a wolf), these chicken littles aren’t going to realize what they see is not the sky falling, but just the way things are. The difference this time is we’re there to record it.
God, please damn the regulatory state to hell.
Thank you.
Just as masks and “vaccines” had nothing to do with health, the push towards higher mpg has nothing to do with the environment. I think Eric has well documented that fact.
My first car, a Vega station wagon, got 25 mpg, give or take. If the “raped ape” was still with us, its 25 mpg would be considered average mpg amongst today’s offerings (I say that without a shred of evidence).
My Cherokee Trailhawk gets about 22 MPG on the highway with winter blend gas. Summertime I will see 23-25 on 87 Octane and about 26 on 89. On ethanol-free 89 it will top out about 27 MPG if I’m not towing (which is the only time I buy it). The other Cherokee models do better but not much. I could probably pick up about another 1 MPG if I took off the roof rack and changed over to slicker tires, but then what’s the point of having a vehicle that can go on dirt?
I drove a Chevette. Total piece of junk. But it was cheap and sipped gasoline.