Ford's Fiesta ECOnetic gets an astonishing 65 mpg, but the carmaker can't afford to sell it in the U.S.
And there is the jist of the problem - they can't make as much money if they sell these cars here.

And a year ago, Toyota was losing money on the Prius. Go figure.

Americans will pay top dollar for a big shiny SUV that says "look at me, I can afford this"...but there is no way (at least a year ago) that they'd pay it for a Ford Fiesta.