Could Detroit be coming around?

"Cheaper Gas? No Thanks, Says Detroit"

In a recent entry on Wired.com's Autopia blog, Mark Durham wonders if the investments domestic automakers have made in eco-friendly vehicles could be at risk as fuel prices descend. If that's what it takes to force the no-longer-appropriately-named "Big Three" to abandon their seedy affair with cash cow, gas guzzling SUVs then I say, "Bravo!"

Even if their interest in greener, more fuel efficient vehicles has less to do with genuine leadership than with capitalizing on increasing consumer awareness of the link between automobiles (and the euphemistically categorized "light trucks") and climate change, it can only be seen as positive. With consumers being offered more and more high mileage vehicles each model year, almost exclusively by European (diesels) and Japanese (hybrids) manufacturers, the increasingly archaic domestics need to act decisively and responsibly, and post-haste, if they hope to survive. Hopefully this will mean more eco-friendly transportation choices at prices that everyone can afford. It's only a part of the necessary effort, but an exceedingly important part. I say to GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler, "Let's see some good old fashioned American ingenuity!"