[decafninja]

Probably truer of the US market than most other countries. Unless you're really living close to poverty or a pennypincher, I feel most people in the US don't care about minor MPG differences.

Sure, they'll care about the MPG difference between Tiny3CylSubcompactHatchback and GiantThreeSeatV8SUV, but not between two GenericMidsized4cylOrV6FamilyCUVs.

Which is why you'd see something like 4cylinder BMW 5 or 7 series in Europe a long while back, but in the US until relatively recently a 4cyl 5series would have been seen as a joke for an expensive luxury car.

Even now I don't think the smallest engine size tier of vehicles get imported into the US - we get (at least) one level up as our "entry" trim.