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Few things capture the imagination like the unknown future. Cartoons and TV shows have shown us some pretty inventive possibilities of what cars 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? We imagined better, faster, cooler cars than ever. That isn’t the direction that technology has taken. 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. Cars already have sufficient speed that the highway patrol has to try to slow people down. In fact, in many places there’s so much traffic that cars can’t use the speed they already have. Although we do want good looking cars, consumers are choosing cars that look good, but pretty boring. Even spoilers are usually understated and painted the same color as the car. Huge improvements in reliability and safety have become more important than other considerations. Is there anything we need that our current cars don’t offer? Even more practicality, in the form of 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. None of these technologies is perfect yet, especially economically. In the last few years, one technology has taken the lead and reached the car dealership: electricity. Hybrids have been here for a while, and fully electric cars are appearing now. The Toyota Prius was the first to be offered at a price that large numbers of consumers could afford. The other automakers followed closely on their heels. Choices now include the Infiniti M35, Nissan Altima, Ford Escape and Honda Civic. Cadillac’s Escalade and GMC’s Sierra prove that hybrids no longer have to be only small, lightweight cars. The government has encouraged the use of cars that consume less gasoline and don’t cause as much damage to the environment by offering financial incentives. You can go buy one of these cars today at your local Riverside Ford Dealer or Car Dealers Des Moines with no problem. The fully electric car is the next development we’ll see. They’ve been out in very small numbers until now, seen at car shows or as part of a fleet of cars driven by the local electric company. Finally cars like the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt are hitting showrooms. There are still some hurdles to overcome, like limited range and price and longevity of batteries, but this is clearly the direction that new cars are headed. Good old fashioned fuel efficiency is getting overlooked to some degree. Even gasoline powered engines can be greatly improved if they just use less gas. This is a technology that’s been slowly but steadily improving for many years. There are gasoline powered cars getting 34-35 MPG - the Honda Civic and Ford Focus to name a few. This was unimaginable back in the 80’s when gas was only $1.35 a gallon and we loved our V8s. 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.

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