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The Japanese haven't actually advanced much in the automotive industry in recent decades, so I'm not surprised there.
And yes, extra airbags, bigger crumple zones and noise insulation add weight and since.
My 2019 C class did about 60 mpg extraurban and it's significantly bigger. 30 sounds about right for urban. Cars have gotten better. Hondas? Ehh.
Even my diesels have started heating up the windshield in 5 minutes at most. You let it idle for 2 or 3 while removing the snow anyway. Or use webasto. Petrol engines of any real size heat up quicker so they don't usually need such things.
The only real breakthrough has been hybrid, for mpg and efficiency. I suspect internal combustion engines will be around for some time, but almost all cars will move to hybrid (hopefully plug in hybrid).
Cars heat up quickly now because, aside from the heat from the car engine, many have small electric heaters to overcome the first few minutes of cool air in the cabin and on the windshield. But all this tech comes at an expense to cost, simplicity, and repair-ability.
N. America really needs more public transit. Better trains between cities. Legislating pick-up trucks so they are safer to pedestrians. Allowing smaller companies to manufacturer cars, to break up the monopolies.
Direct injection becoming commonplace has done a lot too, espegially with piezoelectric injectors that can do multiple injection events per combustion cycle for diesel. Modern transmissions have more speeds, quicker shifts and less efficiency loss with fewer moving parts.
Hybrid in comparison doesn't do much for mpg unless it's plugin hybrid which of course can be a true game changer.
Resistive heaters aren't particularly fancy or expensive tech, but that's irrelevant, 90s cars also heat up fast (since the engine thermal efficiency is usually worse), I'm more interested in the UTV comparison here since you literally can't drive without heat here half the year.
Agreed on the transit. But is there any real need for new car manufacturers? It's very expensive to get started with a new one.
There's exactly one thing America needs to get smaller and cheaper cars. Proper taxation on fuel. Right now there's no incentive to sell cheap small cars if everyone wants a brodozer and crossovers are seen as tiny.
Proper taxation on fuel might help.
One massive problem is all the advertising of pickup trucks and muscle cars ... advertising works. So many people can only see themselves needing and driving a large pickup/suv or a Dodge Charger.
I'd like to see an advertising campaign for medium sized sedans pulling utility trailers ... as being macho. It shocking how few people use utility trailers, they are not a thing in N. America.
North America needs wagons back. Diesel especially. It's all I drive anymore.
Imagine this, you've got 5 people in the car, a full boot and a trailer. You're still getting 30 mpg on the highway. That's a diesel wagon for you. Sedan body size with slightly more cargo space.
And the ad could be that an empty truck pulls into the fuel station twice as many times on the same journey as the loaded wagon with its trailer.