How much does reducing a cars weight really affect fuel economy? Are we doing enough to to reduce the size or weight of our cars? Will gas prices force this eventually?
From the article, "One hard and fast rule of fuel economy is that heavier vehicles take more energy to move down the road and thus consume more fuel. Reducing weight will improve both fuel economy and vehicle performance. But with all the additional comfort and safety equipment that goes into today’s vehicles (some of the latter federally mandated), taking weight out of a vehicle is a major engineering challenge."