I am an engineer and the problem isn't the motors.

Some wag pissed on Honda back in '09 by pointing out that an '89 CRX HF got 49MPG highway so what the fuck was so special about the Insight? Honda's spokesman gave it right back by pointing out that an '89 CRX HF didn't have seven airbags, five crumple zones, eight cupholders or, frankly, air conditioning.

This is a Saab 96.

We drove one across Mexico in '84. With a surplus '61 Ford V-4 pushing a family of four across the desert, it got 70MPG on vintage '84 Mexican gas. That's because a Saab 96 weighs 1700 lbs and has a drag coefficient of 0.23.

Growing up, a Mach 1 Mustang or a '74 Charger were the most ridiculously huge coupes imaginable. A '74 Mach 1 is 2700 lbs. A '74 Charger 440 Torqueflight is 4032 lbs - I mean,TWO TONS of Chrysler bombing down the road, with a whopping 14.7 lbs/HP.

Astonishingly enough, a Mustang is 3800 lbs these days but the Charger is only 4500... and it now comes with 700HP. The power-to-weight ratio of a modern Charger Hellcat is DOUBLE what the teenage boy's bedroom poster made back in the glory days of 113 octane voodoo gasoline.

You put that in a 2700 lb car and it will terrify you.

This is 8 years old.

Back in the glory days, a Lamborghini Diablo was fucking insane because it could do a quarter mile in a little under 14 seconds. I can go down the street and buy a Camaro SS that'll do it in 12.3.

And it's got almost as many airbags as it has cupholders.