The other day I slammed Chrysler pretty hard - deservedly so I believe - but now I want to offer some hope for the domestic industry. Ford is offering their Escape Hybrid SUV that gets up to 34 MPG. Although I'm not personally an Escape type of customer, for the family that wants to drive this type of vehicle it is a pretty good offering. More importantly, it shows that Ford is making some moves to face the future of selling cars in the USA. The former Ford SUV of this style got fairly poor mileage - a couple of my friends drove them and complained of the cost even at $2.00 gas - but when Ford can transform their guzzler into getting 30+ MPG then they deserve some credit. Now if they could turn their Focus into 45-50MPG then perhaps I would consider looking at another Ford again. I must admit to a bias against Ford. I once owned a 1993 Escort wagon - Mazda designed - which I consider to be about the best car I have ever owned. I drove it for 207,000 miles before I sold it to the kid down the road and it never left me stranded. I then made the tremendous mistake of purchasing a Ford Windstar which was quite simply the most unreliable vehicle that I have ever owned in my life - including junkers I owned as a kid. I have purchased 2 new vehicles since the Windstar and was so upset with Ford that I wouldn't even walk onto the lot of a Ford dealer. With offerings like the Escape, maybe this could change.

I'm admittedly a high mileage junkie. I own a Dodge 4WD truck which only gets about 13MPG and I really like it but I only put about 3000 miles on it last year and the year before I put under 600. I only use it when I have to tow my tractor or snowmobiles around or go get a load of lumber at the mill. It's really great for this use and is the 3rd Dodge truck I have owned. My daily drivers are a Scion XB (my wifes' car) which gets 38-40MPG and a Chevy Aveo which also gets 38-40MPG. I really like the Scion a lot and like the Chevy fairly well. The Aveo is made by Daewoo but Chevy is smart enough to import and sell them with their bow tie on the front. For a domestic manufacturer, Chevy seems to making the right moves to stay in business. They offer several cars that top 30MPG - which I consider the minimal acceptable. I have read articles where they are developing smaller engines for the Aveo and other future cars to offer even better mileage. I remain hopeful. My first ever new car about 24 years ago was a Chevy Sprint which got mid 50's MPG and I would be tickled pink to see Chevy offer something like this again. Maybe I will just have to pick up a Smart car in a year or two when my older son starts to drive. I drive by one on the way to work and think that I wouldn't mind driving one. I would just like my dealer to be in the state somewhere so I didn't have to go to Mass. for service.

I don't know what will be available in a couple of years when I start to look for my next car. I like to hope that I will at least be offered some competitive choices from the domestic 3. Chevy and Ford at least seem to be making some right moves. Dodge offers exactly nothing in their car line that I could afford to fill with gas. Even though I really like my Dodge truck, if I wanted to replace my truck then I could now buy a used one for pennies on the dollar from people who cannot afford to run them any more. If Dodge doesn't do something quick then they will just go out of business and my current truck may be the last Dodge that I will ever own.

E-mail this entry to a friend