US automakers vs competition

In todays news I read that the Indian auto manf Mahindra will be introducing a diesal mid size pk up with mpg in the 30 range and the following year a diesal hybrid in the 40 range. If there is dealer support and the trk has a good record, I'll buy one if I can get two 18' canoes up there!. (Trucks are used in my lifestyle) I personally believe that this country has a mind set that keeps big vehicles on the road, attributted to Americian spending habits and credit cards. GM makes announcements about their so called hybrid vehicles coming to dealerships but I bet the engineering has more to do with advertising than anything else. By the way, GM took a big hit on monetary losses! And who is making all the money, Exxon!, $40+ billion up from 39 billion the previous year thanks to American auto manuf and their gas guzzelers. Exxon should share its' profits with Am auto manfs!
I saw a photo of a VW single seater on another thread, really cool. Looks like a bullet. Know nothing about it.
I used to work just to travel, starting in the seventies. (got married at 50 and now have two kids) and one of my keenest memories was all the small cars. Like the Fiat 850 with 4 men inside going to work. Or the Fiat mini mini truck, with a cow in the back. Morris Minors and Minis in England; I just took a trip around Great Britian and what did I see?, mid size to large cars on the roads. And the secondary roads aren't even wide enough to accommodate them. I was told that in the last ten years under Blair many people got rich, and of course went out and bought big vehicles - even thou the cost of gas is out of sight. Same thing happen in Costa Rica when the gov't lifted the surcharge on vehicles imported into the country. Before that, people used buses.