Car mpg performance. Can anyone explain this? (page 3)

garybuss

You wrote: I know that the SL1 wasn't really a popular car...but it has been really good to me... I'm keeping it as long as possible....hopefully another year at least.

Why couldn't you keep it 10 more years? Is the body shot? I thought they had plastic body panels. Aren't parts available? Or does your company furnish a car? Here in South Dakota, parts are much cheaper than a new car.

I have a friend who uses 3/4 tom pickups for his roofing business and they put on a LOT of miles. He just replaces parts as long as the bodies are good. Several of his trucks are on their third new crate engine.

If the frame and body are good, everything else just bolts on. I don't drive a lot of miles but I tend to keep good vehicles. My pickup I bought new in 1987, still drive it every day. My car I bought used with 29k miles on it for 11k, 7 years ago.

If I was on the road, I'd probably buy $5,000 cars with 100,000 miles on them. We don't own anything less than 10 years old. I don't invest much $ in depreciating assets.

My .02

Jim_TX

"hard to belive we dont have 60 mpg available in small cars right now"

Well... they exist... we just don't have them here in the states.

I own a 1998 VW New Beetle TDI diesel. It gets 47mpg city, and 51mpg highway - (doing 70mph easily).

VW has a couple of diesels in europe that get over 60mpg (70-mpg Polo) and one that gets close... real close.. to 100mpg (VW Lupo)

Rumor has it that they may introduce the Polo here in the states in 2010.

Regards,

Jim TX

M.J.

The constantly increasing safety regulations keeps making cars heavier. More weight, of course, eats away at the gas mileage. This is a factor.

Caedes

Generally because cars are getting heavier due to the number of gadgets and gizmos that are expected as standard.

Generally match or selective assembly isn't something that is used in modern engineering companies, car companies in particular wouldn't tolerate having to match or selectively assemble components in a production line since it isn't very cost effective.

Having said that the tolerances that components are built to would explain the variances in performance between two identical cars.

It all depends on how you drive as well, I can get much better mileage out of my dad's car than he can, I regularly get 55mpg out of it.

Dagney

I just went through this. Yikes...every night researching MPG etc.

What I don't get either is it seems like the standard/average MPG for everything was 30, no matter what I looked at. (Excluding hybrid and SUV.) I am taking a trip in a vfew weeks with a lot of highway driving, so maybe I will get a good reading with the real MPG. I'll "try" not to speed...lol. I did hear one could drive behind a big truck in the slow lane and pick mileage there.

I was wondering the same thing, why did all those cars back in the day get such good mileage, and now when we need it, the same Civic or whatever doesn't get it anymore?

Maybe it is a conspiracy!

PrimateDave

Interesting article on "hypermilers"- This Guy Can Get 59 MPG in a Plain Old Accord. Beat That, Punk.

On a midsummer Saturday in a sprawling Wisconsin parking lot, about a dozen people are milling about a candy-apple red Honda Insight. They're watching Wayne Gerdes prepare for his run in Hybridfest's mpg Challenge, a 20-mile race through the streets of Madison. Wayne is the odds-on favorite to win the challenge, in which drivers compete to push the automotive limits not of speed and power—a desire those gathered here consider old-fashioned and wasteful—but for the unsexy title of Most Fuel-Efficient Driver in the World. More...

Dave

Dagney

"hypermilers"

Yeah, saw that...pretty interesting.

My hairdresser was telling me that his Explorer that normally gets like 13 MPG while he is hauling his kayak, got like 21 when he did the wind draft thing following behind a truck. Nooooot sure I can be faithful to the speed limit of 55...which is a major factor.

Dagney

"hypermilers"

Yeah, saw that...pretty interesting.

My hairdresser was telling me that his Explorer that normally gets like 13 MPG while he is hauling his kayak, got like 21 when he did the wind draft thing following behind a truck. Nooooot sure I can be faithful to the speed limit of 55...which is a major factor.

Jim_TX

"Interesting article on "hypermilers"- This Guy Can Get 59 MPG in a Plain Old Accord. Beat That, Punk."

Well... when I was younger, this used to be called 'drafting' - and was usually done behind a semi-truck. Dangerous.

Here's one fore you... I couldn't locate the original article I was looking for - which happend back in 2001 or so... but this one ought to do. Same concept.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/hypermiling-honda-insight-hybrid-car-jack-martin.php

Indo_Dude

People also go crazy over stuff that really dosen't matter a whole lot.

Even if you drive A LOT, and put say 20,000 miles a year on your car the difference in cost per month between one that gets 26 mpg on the highway vs. 32 mpg is $48 per month @ $4 per gallon. Even if your car/truck only got 20 mpg that would only be $96 more per month, which you could be mitigated by cutting your driving by 10% or 15%.

Car mpg performance. Can anyone explain this?

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