Car Rentals

There aren’t too many things that capture the thoughts like the unknown future. TV shows and cartoons have shown us some pretty inventive possibilities of what automobiles would become. What form did you think transportation would take in the year 2010? Floating space speeders like on The Jetsons? Hovering craft like in Star Wars? The sky was the limit, literally, for what cars would look like. Technology has taken a completely different direction. Our needs are already met by the cars that we’ve had for years. No purpose other than extreme coolness would be served by having cars that hover. The police are busy trying to slow drivers down because our cars already go more than fast enough. In fact, in many places there’s so much traffic that cars can’t use the speed they already have. Aesthetics are still important, but rather than buying the flashiest possible car, people are choosing streamlined, attractive cars. After market upgrades are made to blend in with the original – boring – look of the car. Auto makers tout the vehicles’ reliability and safety records, which has improved exponentially in recent years. Is there anything we need that our current cars don’t offer? More practicality – fuel efficiency. Driving our cars is hard on our wallets because the price of gasoline has risen so much. Cars that run on less gasoline, or none at all, are the hot sellers. There are a lot of options for accomplishing this goal, from propane to hydrogen to biofuels. All of these technologies have challenges, especially in keeping their costs down enough that they will be economically comparable to gasoline powered cars. One technology has taken the lead in the last few years and reached the consumer via the car dealership showroom: electricity. Hybrids were the first to hit the market and fully electric vehicles aren’t far behind. Toyota was the first to get its hybrid, the Prius, to consumers at a reasonable price. The other automakers weren’t far behind. The Ford Escape, Infiniti M35, Honda Civic and Nissan Altima are just a few of the offerings. Hybrids don’t have to be small anymore, either, as evidenced by GMC’s Sierra and Cadillac’s Escalade. The government has helped by offering incentives to those involved in manufacturing or buying cars that use less gasoline and are less damaging to the environment. You can go buy one of these cars today at your local Los Angeles Honda Dealership or Car Dealers Des Moines with no problem. The fully electric car is the next development we’ll see. You’ve seen them for quite a while, in experimental cars owned by the local power company or as spec cars at car shows. The Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf are finally hitting showrooms. Limited range and battery price are not completely resolved yet, but clearly this is the direction that new cars are going. One innovation that gets a lot less attention is just good old fashioned fuel efficiency. Even gasoline powered engines can be greatly improved if they just use less gas. Though less flashy, fuel efficiency has been slowly and steadily improving for many years. There are gasoline powered cars getting 34-35 MPG – the Honda Civic and Ford Focus to name a few. I never would have imagined such numbers when I filled up my first V8 muscle car when gas cost only $1.35 a gallon. So while we’re unlikely to see cars like the DeLorean from Back to the Future or Kitt from the Knight Rider, cars will continue to evolve to meet our ever-changing needs. America’s love affair with the automobile is far from over.

Related posts:

1. Great Advantages of Electric Cars over Conventional Cars
2. Battery Electric Cars: Why This Type of Car Is Fast Becoming Popular
3. Where to Buy an Battery Powered Vehicle
4. How You Will Save a Lot of Money by Owning and Driving an Electric Car
5. Midsize Hybrid Cars on the Market