Cheap 40 MPG cars
The Thinking Man's Future Green Car
Forget about those over-hyped hybrids. You can save the planet and your wallet by driving one of these new and low-cost four-cylinder models, due out in the next year. Thanks to AOL Autos for the heads-up.
"The cars you see grabbing all the eco-friendly headlines tend to be hybrids. Cars like the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius have so much mindshare that you'd think they had 50% of the market; in reality the hybrid segment is only about 3% of all new cars sold. What gives? It's simple: hybrids are really expensive and the payoff (the time it takes to recoup the downstroke of paying for all that hybrid technology) tends to be longer than most people are willing to wait. Do the math: Hybrid cars start at about $20,000 at the low end (and top $100,000 -- we're serious -- for the lux-barge sedans from the Germans), making them the playground of the middle class only. Sure, $20,000 is lower than the average price for an American car sold in 2009, but it's not cheap..."
