Should the government make us drive 38mpg cars?

I firmly believe Americans should make an adjustment to their lifestyles and leave the government out of it. In other words, if Detroit wants to sell a 6500 pound ten-cylinder Hemi vehicle which gets 6 mpg, then I think that is just fine and if someone wants to own and drive and pay for that sucker, go ahead. This would become the rich mans vehicle, like the 427 Cobra of my early youth.

However, if Americans take responsibiltiy for their own actions and realize if they keep buying these vehicles, Detroit will keep making them and the opposite is true too. We have to have a paradigm shift. Our obsession with horse power should be relegated to those who can truly afford it instead of every Tom, Dick or Harry with a line of credit.

If we Americans demand a better product by NOT buying these poor mileage vehicles, then Detroit will get the message and make a product that will get the mpg we will settle for. They make and sell these gas-guzzlers because we continue to buy them, not because they are the only vehicle available.

One of the main problems with us is we are constantly bombarded with high horse power demonstrations on TV and the media. We buy into it and in fact we believe it. The other day a friend spent almost $20,000 on a new motorcycle with 1600cc's because he was tired of paying for gas. Do the math on that decision.

Most of our roads are full of vehicles going so fast that if you tried to drive an older vehicle on the road you would never get up to speed before you were rear-ended. Another case comes to mind concerning this H.P. business. About 4 years ago, a New Mexico Highway Patrolman clocked a 2.6 liter stock 2004 Hundai Sonata doing in excess of 140 mph on the desert highway. How much H.P. do we need in our vehicles anyway? We are blatantly manipulated by commercials of cars skidding sideways and whipping around the roads and we don't even know it.

Realize here I am not talking about hotrod hobbyists, but daily drivers and I'm talking about we Americans educating ourselves on our wasteful lifestyles, not to mention we are pumping gas straight into the billfolds of OPEC.