Power Cars

Power is back! No more gas shortage (a distant memory), no more need for those wimpy gas-saving compacts! If you’ve gone to the Auto Show or heard the latest out of Detroit, the “power cars” are the big story. Bigger, faster off the blocks, and sexier than ever.

To hear it from the auto makers, we need these power cars to satisfy our driving needs. Who’s driving needs? Danny Sullivan’s?

The last time I checked, the speed limit on most freeways was still 55 miles per hour. It’s the acceleration that’s needed for today’s driving, those auto-marketing wizards will tell you. Accelerate to what? Accelerate to the next signal, the next stretch of gridlock, or the next scene of a turbo-charged Mustang or Corvette slammed against a concrete wall?

What does it say about the mentality of our nation when auto makers sell speed and power in cars like we were all back in high school trying to impress our peers?

I don’t care that the gas shortage is long gone. Where is the auto maker who takes a stand for an alternate way of powering a vehicle? Where is that “sexy” car that doesn’t pollute the air?

The auto makers aren’t stupid. They know our love affair with automobiles runs deep. Our love is selfish and our feelings hard to change. They’ll keep feeding us this power trip until we as a nation realize that there are more important needs to our transportation than supplying race cars to the race car drivers in us.

ALEX MURASHKO

Laguna Hills