Rant: the big lie

The idea that came to me before I wrote this is that most Americans are consumers. Consumers, unlike capitalists, never do the math and never adjust their habits for the end result. Wanting fuel mileage out of a vehicle goes beyond just buying the car and assuming going hammer down all the time will get you great fuel mileage. Fuel mileage also has to do with driving styles, how to calculate the best routes to get to where you're going, etc. Case in point: my pop's '54 Ford 239 OHV 3/speed w/OD get's 23mpg mixed driving. My wife used to get 33mpg out of a '90 3.3L Chrysler 5th Ave, with some hilly driving, but with long flat straights at the top of the hills. Pop's Neon gets 45mpg highway.
A big difference, too, is car maintainence. I used to work in Ithaca, NY, considered to be San Francisco of upstate NY. High homosexual population, high liberal population thanks to Cornell University and Ithaca College. (Unofficial motto of Ithaca is five square miles surrounded by reality.) Used to deal with the idiot college kids who would come into the shop for work and have "save the environment" or some such horses*** plastered all over the car and refuse to do simple maintainence such as oil changes, air or fuel filters, tune ups, etc. Had a kid come in with half flat tires, air filter was dirty enough that the car couldn't breath, the engine hadn't been tuned in over 100,000 miles and ran like it. The MAF sensor was fouled out, and he'd hypocrisized himself by jumping on the environmental bandwagon and made comments about the SUV that was on the wrack next to his car. Finally, I got tired of it and pointed out to this idiot that the SUV may be a gas guzzler, but not a polluter like his car was. (Oops, another rant.) He was getting an oil change that was 10,000 miles overdue. I didn't score points with a customer that day, or the boss, but I did finally stop biting my tongue.
The problem is American's (for the most part) fall for a TV commercial and a sales pitch and expect the product to work miracles. There is no accountability or responsibility on using that product in such a way as to get the most out of it. And the government doesn't help in this. Everything in the car advertisements says EPA estimated mpg. The EPA doesn't actually put butts in the seat and real world test a car. They use a formula based on weight, horsepower, average commute, speed limit (by the way, I once read they still use 55mph), etc and extrapolate a number from there.
American's don't want to do the research on a car either. Most of 'em have no idea the hybrid has such a large environmental footprint before it's made!Most of 'em don't care. They just want to be seen as "doing the right thing" in the cause du jour, but wind up hurting their own cause in the long run.