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80 MPG Ford Concept Car Heading To Auction

Gas 2.0 -- Ever hear of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles? Neither have I. In fact, when the program came into existence under President Clinton in 1993, I was just 7 years old. I knew nothing of cars or fuel efficiency. This program involved the three major U.S. automakers and eight Federal Agencies. The initiative was to produce several high-mileage concept cars to be put into production by 2003, and each of the automakers deliver. GM came up with the Precept, Chrysler the ESX II, and Ford developed the Prodigy. Each was a hybrid vehicle capable of delivering about 80 mpg.

The Ford Prodigy is heading to auction next month in Monterey, California. So why haven’t I ever heard of it before?
Admittedly, I was young, so maybe some of you older folks heard of these cars way back in the da

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Submitted Jul 29, 2010 By: CiVX

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Gnusman53 All-Star Author San Diego Posts:568 Points:163,020 Joined:Feb 2004	Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 1:54:37 PM Ignore Gnusman53 Report Abuse Sadly, it has been the GOP fighting any of this.... They stalled changes in CAFE standards for more than 20 years...... They claimed that ANY car that was gas efficient..... was UNSAFE!!!! When the GOP took over Congress in the early 90s, they made sure Clinton could do nothing to improve CAFE standards, cut emissions and pollution.... or even have an energy policy..... After the oil shortages and embargoes of the Nixon era, the US imported gas efficient cars like the Ford Fiesta (I got as high as 50mpg). In the 80s and 90s, you could buy a Chevy/Geo/Suzuki Metro/Swift that got 45+ mpg and up to 58mpg with Metro YFI...... Under Bush II, they stopped importing those and replaced them with a car that got 15mpg less..... For years, Chevy has been selling a car that the British list as more than 60mpg. And Ford has sold a diesel 7-passenger mini-van that gets 43mpg. But not here. Even when Bush & Company allowed the fuel prices to jump to more than $4.50 per gallon, the US carmakers did not import gas efficient vehicles. Chevy even announced it would not import a popular (almost 2 million in internet votes) mini car called the Beat (now the Spark) with the same size engines as the old Metros.......And that was when gasoline was still more than $3.60 per gallon. With the new leadership, the Spark may be heading this way. I'll believe it when I see them on the road and in showrooms. They also need to sell the rest of the "Triplets" the Trax and the Groove. If you wonder what the Beat/Spark and Trax look like, they were the twins in Transformers sequel...... So the fact that high mileage cars are available is nothing new.... and the fact that American politicians have been fighting to keep them from Americans is also nothing new....
SVmike All-Star Author California Posts:574 Points:127,485 Joined:Dec 2009	Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 10:54:22 AM Ignore SVmike Report Abuse It is actually easy to make a car that gets 80 mpg. They just have two main drawbacks that make them hard to sell. They are expensive. They don't accelerate very fast. People who are willing to spend moderate amounts of money don't choose this type of car, in general.
Luckylindy Veteran Author Milwaukee Posts:349 Points:271,725 Joined:May 2008	Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 5:22:03 AM Ignore Luckylindy Report Abuse Okeven if you didn't use all those features, just some of the cheaper ones. You could produce a car that gets really good mileage that people really want. Why not sell it?
vandamme All-Star Author New York Posts:799 Points:98,040 Joined:Nov 2008	Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 4:49:52 AM Ignore vandamme Report Abuse At the time, people wouldn't pay $15,000 more for a car. Would you?
mazdaboy Champion Author Portland Posts:3,032 Points:1,138,200 Joined:Aug 2003	Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 3:10:01 AM Ignore mazdaboy Report Abuse I missed this one, and they are acting like this is new technology. Shame, shame, shame.... [Edited by: mazdaboy at 7/30/2010 6:10:12 AM EST]
nedthenanite Champion Author Mississippi Posts:4,065 Points:785,285 Joined:May 2008	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 11:03:00 PM Ignore nedthenanite Report Abuse Funny thing is, there are some cars in Europe on sale now that get tantalizingly close to 80 mpg. Like 70-75 mpg. Close enough for government work, as they say. They're not hybrids and they're not the size of a shopping cart. I think most are bigger than the smart car people in this country seem to love.
TomJDriver All-Star Author London Posts:930 Points:183,070 Joined:Jul 2006	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 10:34:50 PM Ignore TomJDriver Report Abuse Yes I remember this. Looks like a 1996 Contour but over twice the mileage.
fuelconscious All-Star Author Los Angeles Posts:667 Points:237,635 Joined:Jan 2008	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 9:56:26 PM Ignore fuelconscious Report Abuse I wish I had the money to outbid everyone at this auction.
mynt Veteran Author Ottawa Posts:408 Points:99,820 Joined:May 2010	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 9:20:50 PM Ignore mynt Report Abuse better concept than those electrics that they wannna peddle...
Huskersed All-Star Author Atlanta Posts:509 Points:264,785 Joined:Nov 2008	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 9:17:27 PM Ignore Huskersed Report Abuse Not bad at all back then we can build 80mpg Ford
alterman156 Champion Author New York Posts:2,505 Points:584,850 Joined:Dec 2008	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 8:12:06 PM Ignore alterman156 Report Abuse They should make an 80 MPG car available to the public. The car would be a great fuel saver and money saver.
SBlouch Champion Author San Antonio Posts:4,895 Points:1,053,130 Joined:Apr 2007	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 5:29:46 PM Ignore SBlouch Report Abuse I always knew the auto makers could have produced more fuel efficient auto as I remember this. But oil was still cheap and there was no rush for the American auto makers to change and do better until they were forced too. They came up with many fuel efficient vehicles after they started to feel the pinch of higher oil prices.
PathfinderSC Champion Author South Carolina Posts:4,575 Points:861,585 Joined:Mar 2008	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 3:35:53 PM Ignore PathfinderSC Report Abuse They all could build cars that would get better MPG.
playtimeCLE Champion Author Cleveland Posts:3,205 Points:595,660 Joined:Nov 2008	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 3:06:00 PM Ignore playtimeCLE Report Abuse Where were these car ideas when the gas prices went out of control a couple years ago? Just goes to show we have technology that people wont release because they think we wont buy it.
CiVX Champion Author Oakland Posts:3,140 Points:534,535 Joined:Feb 2009	Message Posted: Jul 29, 2010 2:57:36 PM Ignore CiVX Report Abuse Bout time where was ya in the 70's!