re: New York to L.A. with very little luggage
It's relatively easy to build a tiny little plastic car that gets superb mileage. Many of them are basically motorcycles with a body wrapped around them. I bet you could still sell a lot of them in the U.S.
Why don't we build cars like this here, or even buy this one?
A quote from Loremo on this website:
We are quite surprised to see that the Loremo is being well accepted in the US. Due to the complicated and instable regulations we will not offer the Loremo for US markets upon launch in 2009. Should the success and the future market demand from US markets enable us to offer the Loremo we will certainly do so.
Pollution control overkill basically killed the diesel auto in the U.S. some time ago. I remember when diesels were big during the first oil crisis. They stunk like hell. Technology has improved, but the diesel in America is only now recovering.