Vehicles have been electroplated with all body panels dipped since prior to around 1997. I live in the rust belt too, but I don’t see any significant rust in vehicles younger than around 12 years. If you have something 15-20 years old, sure it is going to start rusting, but most people don’t keep their cars that long.

Nice comedy, but check this for the facts:

why is it that no one is talking about high strength steel? The newer steels are much more comparable to aluminum in terms of weight and are much more durable as well.

Another factor your discounting is performance. Your 90's vehicle is a low power slug compared to a modern car. If a car maker could sell a car with 80's to 90's performance levels, they could get a lot more mileage out of vehicles, but people don’t want that in a new car.

I would rather change a tire and be on my way in 20 minutes rather than wait for assistance that could take hours.

This is incorrect. You can fix a fairly large hole with a plug (up to ~7mm in my experience). A fix a flat can won’t seal that.

Where do you people come up with your political propaganda? I don’t see the Trump administration imposing any barriers to renewable energy. Please cite a source. Also, the liberal author comes out with this nonsense in his first sentence. How about a little journalistic integrity and professionalism?

An exhaust with no mufflers can cost a lot of torque compared with the same setup with mufflers. Some amount of back pressure is oftentimes good. Also, if you are comparing turbo mufflers with an open exhaust on a 300 horsepower car, you are looking at loosing maybe 3 to 5 hp at most. Not worth the noise.