It’s no wonder the American car industry is melting down. They were late to jump on the small car/hybrid bandwagon and it’s showing now.

• GM is contemplating discontinuing their Hummer line. They’ve already discontinued their H1 line.
• Car dealers are refusing vans/large trucks for trade-ins because used car sales lots can’t get rid of them.

Let’s play a game and try to guess which tank is next. Escalade, Suburban, Navigator, Tahoe, Armada, Land Cruiser, Sequoia? Which brings me to another question: why do Hummer owners get so much more guff than these other vehicle owners? Those tanks get about the same fuel mileage, and some even less than Hummers. Actually, I have no idea. I can’t seem to find the fuel economy for Expeditions, Hummers, and Escalades on their websites. Embarrassed? To be generous, I’m just going to figure they’re similar to the Armada, Land Cruiser, and Sequoia - about 12 to 18 miles a gallon, brand new off the dealer’s lot. It’d cost me $14 to get to work and home in a new tank. Give it a few years and the mileage will only worsen.

When the rest of the developed world was signing the Kyoto Accord, we snubbed our noses. When the rest of the automakers were making rinky dink cars, we scoffed and bought bigger and bigger tanks. When Europe and Asia were building high speed rails, we were paving and repaving roads. What am I talking about, we’re still paving.  And we even went to war for the almighty barrel. Pay back.