I am continually amazed that consumers seem to have no memory at all.
The call for small, fuel efficient cars is not new. Every couple of years some company puts out a small, efficient rattle trap that no one buys because it sucks. The CRX, Metro, Chevette, Storm, Smart, Echo have all been made, made poor sales, and with the exception of the Smart been killed. We like to make noise about more fuel efficient cars.....until we have to drive one. The real problem is small, light efficient cars suck.
*full disclosure: It takes more horsepower then the Volt makes to turn the blower on my car. Of the three vehicles my household owns My wife's Explorer gets the best mileage at 16.5mpg. I think the whole "Buy a whole new car to save $5.00 a fill-up is silly. I'm even more annoyed that my taxes need to subsidise EV owner's (pick one) 1.) horrible math, 2.) misunderstanding of where electricity comes from, or 3.) smugtasticness. I'll burn as much 93 octane as I can afford to pressurize and inject into my V8, thank you very much.