I will say straight off that building small cars that get 30-40 m.p.g. is not the answer, at least it's not enough. In our current automotive market, OIL is a monopoly, because let's face it, you can't run a car on ANYTHING ELSE.

Since oil is set at a global price, even if we ALL junked our large SUV's and sedans, and all drove SMART ForTwo's, we would still be paying $4.50 for gas and $150 for Oil...Why you may ask?

If we cut our consumpton by 1/3, that would simply be 1/3 MORE Oil for some other country to purchase at the same price, and our price for Oil wouldn't change, either. Oil is priced high because it's the ONLY GAME IN TOWN.

What we need to do is build cars (or more accurately, JEEPS) that that run on dual power sources IC and electric, so that there is a monopoly-breaker in the cycle. A full electric charge would cost less than $1.00 a day, and most drivers drive under 45 miles per day, and mostly city driving, well within the EV range of a Plug-in Hybrid.

Running a PiHV on BioDiesel or E-85 would further break the Oil monopoly by running the IC engine on domestic sources of fuel, if and when it is needed, like long road trips or highway driving. This would keep our money HERE in the U.S, in the hands of AMERICANS, not in the hands of terrorists

As these PiHV's make it market, the infrastructure will follow, like fast-charge stations, agricultural-waste Ethanol, and reprocessing of waste oil in to Biodiesel.

What the American market needs are Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles, and what JEEP needs is a 4-5 seat PiHV, and my vote goes for the Willys2 archetecture.

The Renegade was a great exercise in mileage and off-road capability, but was only a 2 seeater...

The Willys2 concept was a great exercise in economical off-road capability, with a small 4 cylinder (basically the MINI Cooper 4 cyl.) It would probably get decent mileage and be profitable in this economy (mabye mileage in the 20's)

Unfortunately, we are in an ECONOMIC WAR with all countries that hate us, and even the countries that like us don't like us too much, Specifically the O.P.E.C. countries.

We need a Small Jeep thats seats 4-5 like the Willys Concept that runs on an electric drivetrain, with a Diesel or Ethanol-burning range extending engine.

Even a nation of fullsize Wrangler 4-doors with electric motors sandwiched between the trans and the transfer case (Like the upcoming Porsche Cayene Hybrid) and battery packs that can propel them 45 miles at 45 mph on pure EV power would be more effective at conserving gas than an entire nation of Smart ForTwo's

Remember the JJ Project? Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it looked like anything but crap, but any chance of reviving something that'd get great mileage and actually behave like a Jeep too? Goes to prove yet again, that AMC continued to fail because they were ahead of the times.