America’s move from trucks and SUV’s to cars has begun, but there are several reasons why the transition to quality smaller cars will be slow. The decline of the Dollar vs. the Euro and other foreign currencies has made exporting to the US less profitable and less attractive for foreign manufacturers. Rather than benefiting from new technologies, the American consumer is stuck with chassis and powertrains that have been available for years or even decades. To make matters worse, the US consumer has resisted the move to downsize by preferring cars with better visibility, automatic transmissions, more power, and copious cup holders.

Toyota IQ - Image courtesy of Toyota UK

Let’s take a look at Toyota’s successful RAV4. The US version comes equipped with a 3.5 liter V6 or 2.5 liter 4 cylinder gas engine with automatic transmission. In the UK, engine options are 2 liter gas with standard or automatic transmission and 2.2 liter diesel with standard transmission. After converting to US gallons, The UK RAVs combined fuel economies are 25.5mpg for the 2 liter gas engine and 32.5mpg for the diesel option, exceeding anything available in the States. Unfortunately, until the dollar recovers, Toyota has little incentive to make the more costly European and Asian engines available in the US.

Some models such as Toyota’s Aygo and soon to be released IQ are not for sale in the US. Sporting a 1 liter 3 cylinder engine good for 48mpg combined fuel economy, the Aygo would make a perfect commuter car here in the States. But sadly, there are no official plans to make the Aygo or IQ available to the US market.