Yep. Most people don't need or use the better heat dissipation of rear discs, and many FWD economy cars are so light in the rear end that (in the salt belt, anyway) the rear discs rust enough to require resurfacing long before they wear out the rear brake pads to the point of needing replacement. Also, the cheaper…

I'd also suggest - not having a passenger side lock cylinder. I think this started with the Germans, as a 2000 GTI VR6 a customer had was the first car I'd seen to omit the passenger side outside lock. My '13 Fit Sport also has no lock on the passenger side door. Neither of these cars are el-strippo penalty boxes, and…

Look at it another way: At 15,000 miles driven per year a hybrid Tahoe saves 223 gallons of fuel per year, per vehicle, over a non hybrid Tahoe or other comparable conventionally powered SUV at a relatively small price markup. There are about 750,000 similar vehicles on the road in the USA right now; if they all …

I disagree; the 426 Hemi and other big blocks like it disappearing in production cars had a lot less to do with emissions controls and a lot more to do with those cars getting 6 mpg during the gas lines of the OPEC gas crisis, increasing insurance rates for those cars as insurers caught on, and overall changing…

Well, yeah. "Engine design" is a very broad term, but when you look at the major reason why today's engines are more powerful and more efficient at the same time, advances in combustion chamber/cylinder head design are what made the biggest difference.

Yes and no. Engines make power through combustion chamber and cylinder head design as well, which are just as important if not more so than modern electronic engine controls. Bolting up modern SFI and coil pack ignition to an otherwise dead stock 1973 350 isn't going to radically increase your HP but bolting up a pair…