DEBUNKING THE BIG-IS-BACK CAR MYTH

Eco-friendly Explorer America is the inspiration for the 2011 Explorer Are Americans forgetting the $4 gas we saw just two short years ago and returning to bigger, gas-guzzling vehicles? If you read some of the stories out there, you'd certainly think so. That is what the carmakers perpetuating this idea are depending on since they prefer the higher profit margins of the big, gas-guzzlers. But what these stories--and the carmakers--aren't focusing on is the fact that the changes to some of these "trucks" have them now being built on much lighter and more fuel-efficient car frames powered with smaller, more fuel-efficient engines -- such as the new, 30-percent more efficient Ford Explorer. (Kudos to Ford on the advances - but let's not pretend this is one of the old SUV dinosaurs!) In addition, automakers have aggressively been adding MPG-saving materials and engine adjustments to these vehicles. So if Americans purchase what look to be large vehicles but get much-improved MPG, who cares? To say that the old Detroit mentality is back is both wrong and, arguably, dangerous. Ailis Aaron Wolf, 40MPG.org & LA CAR Contributing Editor