Rediscovered: Being Streamlined

Engineers in the 1920s (the infancy of cars) understood the importance of streamlining vehicles for speed/fuel efficiency. 

But they veered off that path in the 1950s: the era of ignorantly wasteful American excess.  Instead of have efficient cars, Americans were distracted by shiny chrome and bought hulking cars that were full of uselessness.

Look at all the wasted space, just to sell more steel (and gasoline to move such heavy cars).  It made oil companies happy, as well as petroleum refineries, and steel manufacturers: American industries owned by cutthroat entities who warped reality for profit.  (It's currently why most American homes are full of things made from petroleum byproducts).

Auto-making became worse in the 1970s...

Thanks to the American film industry, such gas-guzzlers were celebrated in fast-moving (often idiotic) plots.

Ignoring its motto of "free enterprise", the American government protected badly-performing American automakers by keeping out more-efficient foreign cars... for decades!  Meanwhile, American vehicles got uglier, costlier, required more repairs, and increased wasted space and gas-guzzling--even into the new millennium!  It is a crappy heritage!

The Big Three automakers--in cahoots with American oil companies and steel companies--didn't care about their environmental impact.  Petrol fumes, junk yards, discarded rubber, and exhaust polluted the nation.  Society degenerated from the potential of having wind-resistant trucks like this...

to big boxy behemoths like this...  

Why didn't the automakers care?  They had everlasting orders from police departments, fire departments, and taxi companies!  Each one acted as an enabler for more wastefulness.

For example, fire chief cars usually carry one person.  In the 1940s, they were a streamlined compact-size... perfect for parking anywhere that was available. 

But since governmental tax dollars are routinely wasted on police and fire departments (without public oversight), those vehicles ballooned in wasteful size... and blocks the road.

As other nations adopted smart choices, America obstinately chose to enlarge its municipal vehicles!

Knowing that governments will pay for their crappy products, American automakers resist efforts to modernize sensibly.

 

Exceeding American taxis, London Black Cabs remained unchanged for scores of years--roomier, more fuel efficient, and more comfortable than American cars.

Additionally, they never lost their design elements, which were successfully engineered in the 1930s for how cars should look.

Suddenly, American engineers are REDISCOVERING the need to streamline!

     Trying to recoup what they had in the beginning, they realize that consumers prefer foreign vehicles for dependability, maximized space, low fuel-consumption, and less maintenance.   

Progress is overdue in this country.  

To see more about automotive history, please use this link:

https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2016/04/where-did-great-american-cars-go-into.html