Do you think the auto industry will make fuel efficient cars on their own or does the govt need to intervene?

The auto industry will make what the consumer wants to buy and can legally sale in the market place. There may be a place for some regulation to make more fuel efficient cars. The cars that most Americans want are big and heavy and do not get the best fuel economy. The U.S. market will have to go to much smaller B segment cars like most Europeans drive. We don't want politicians telling engineers what can or cannot be done. We will get a mess like our government. If the politicians really wanted to solve the problem they would just raise the gas tax and the market would demand more fuel efficient cars. The auto company's would respond fasted to the market rather than politicians. The politicians are not interested in doing the right thing. They are interested in winning elections.

NO and NO

The auto industry is in the oil business.

Think about it a 1980 VW rabbit got 55mpg.

So what kind of new technology do we need? A Pries only gets 51MPG in their dreams.

Even a Model T Ford got better gas mileage than most new cars.

Big Oil & Big Car, are laughing at us.

Go Team Oil Cartel Go

Ah, this is interesting. Go to a newspaper that published ads for cars back in the early 70's and you will be amazed to find ads for cars that got 50 - 60 mpg! What happened?
Two things:
The Govenment demanded (and got) catalytic converters (it is a Federal law to remove or alter these things). When they first showed up on cars and pickups, some models had them some didn't. Those without them got twice the mileage that those with them got. Do the math; if one car gets twice the mileage and puts out twice the pollution, they are both equally polluting.
The other big thing is that consumers demanded, and got, high performance vehicles. Any old cheap car can now go 0 to 60 in 6 seconds or so. My old Ford that I had for more than 20 years would take almost a mile to get up to highway speed! Now, just step on the gas, and VROOM!
Also, along with this high performance, have you noticed how big pickups have gotten?
To answer your question, the auto industry did make fuel efficient cars, but the public and the Govenment did not want them. The auto industry is there to make money; they will produce what people want.

The government is already regulating them and they have minimums they have to meet with each new model year. If they were smart they will do what they can about giving us fuel efficient cars that look good AND last us longer than 2 years. They've gone though this before in the 70's. You'd think they would learn.

No. The government doesn't need to intervene. You, the consumer, needs to intervene. There are more fuel efficient vehicles on the market today. If people would start buying them, more would be produced and the price would come down.
You can get hybrid that get 55 miles to the gallon now for just $23,000 or so. If everybody in the country did so, national fuel consumption would be cut in half. With less demand, gas prices would drop.
That's what happened in the 1970s & 80s. People dumped the gas guzzlers that were only getting 5 miles to the gallon for 5 times the effeciency of 26 miles to the gallon. Gas prices quite rising as a result.

The government has to quit intervening in business. They have to clean their own house before they start messing with someone else's business.
If the people stop buying American gas guzzlers the American car companies would be stupid not to come out with more fuel efficient cars. Why would anyone want the government involved in things they don't fully understand. They can't even run the government without raising, or creating new taxes.

Japanese car manufacturers are wiping the floor with the big three right now. Ford stock is $8.40 right now (just checked) other stocks are plumiting. If they cannot make a fuel efficient car, they will be out of business in three years.

And the government does need to step in a deregulate some. Part of the problem is there is so much safety regulation that they have to put in bigger engines just to move the cars. It needs to be legal to make lighter vehicles.

No. The US auto industry will do whatever they have to in order to sell cars. People are not interested in buying fuel efficient cars. There are too many powerful lobby groups who will beat on Congressmen if such a bill is proposed again.

Remember the meeting between the President and the three dudes from Chicago at White House a while ago?

They were making a "illegal/unfair competition" case against Japanese car makers because Japanese cars are way more advanced when it comes to fuel efficiency.

In another word, our auto industry will not make fuel efficient cars. They will ask for governmental intervene instead, unfortunately.

The price of gas will increase demand for more fuel efficient cars therefore the american auto industry will either follow the trend or continue their spiral downward and allow foreign automakers to take over entirely.... either way fuel efficiency is becoming more and more of a hot topic and you will see many more fuel efficient cars

I don't know about anyone else's areas but where I live I have never seen so many 100mpg scooters on the road in my life!