Govt. mandates are bad, but it’s absurd to contend that 35mpg can’t be achieved without enormously expensive technology and resort to tiny, unsafe, slow cars or complex gimmicky hybrid engines. Diesels can achieve that mileage right now without any sacrifice of safety or room. Go to the other FR thread on diesels, and read how the VW Jetta (hardly a flimsy econobox) get 50 mpg on the hwy. and 40 in town, and can cruise at over 100mph on the autobahn. The OP is the kind of ridiculous “anal-ysis” you can expect from the Wall St. Jumble and its crew of engineering-illiterate economists.