EPA: Honda, Toyota fuel economy leaders

[boulder_bum]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Honda and Toyota offered U.S. consumers the highest average fuel efficiency of 2007 model year vehicles, the government reported Wednesday.

The average fuel economy for 2007 vehicles was 20.2 miles per gallon, the same as 2006 vehicles, the Environmental Protection Agency said in an annual report that used new testing procedures. For individual vehicles, the test results are included on window stickers in dealer lots.

The agency said the overall results marked an increase compared with 2004 vehicles, which averaged 19.3 mpg.

Honda Motor Co (Charts). had the highest fuel economy of any manufacturer with 22.9 mpg, a slight decrease compared with its 2006 lineup.

Toyota Motor Corp (Charts). posted a 22.8 mpg average for its 2007 vehicles compared with 22.4 mpg the previous year. Toyota's average was helped by the gas-electric Prius hybrid, which had the highest combined fuel economy of any passenger car with 46.2 mpg.
[/b]

Full article => http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/27/autos/fuel_econ.ap/

None of this surprises me except that GM is only 3.4 MPG worse than Toyota on average. Anyone want to speculate on what is dragging Toyota's average down since the Prius gets 46.2 MPG and Toyota's best-selling vehicle, the Camry, gets 25 MPG combined with the new EPA rating system?

[Tideland Prius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boulder Bum @ Sep 27 2007, 03:04 PM) [snapback]518702[/snapback]</div>

Full article => http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/27/autos/fuel_econ.ap/

None of this surprises me except that GM is only 3.4 MPG worse than Toyota on average. Anyone want to speculate on what is dragging Toyota's average down since the Prius gets 46.2 MPG and Toyota's best-selling vehicle, the Camry, gets 25 MPG combined with the new EPA rating system?
[/b]

Land Cruiser, Sequoia, Tundra, 4Runner V8, 4Runner V6, Tacoma, FJ Cruiser. Those get city ratings above 13L/100km [under 18mpg] (in Canada... except the LC which we don't get). That's appalling. The new Highlander manages 12.3L/100km in the city even with the new 3.5 litre V6! To keep it in perspective, that same engine, tuned to 304hp in the IS350 only does 11ish L/100km. In the IS250 (same engine but shrunk to 2.5 litres) with 204hp, it's 9.8L/100km, LESS than our 02 Camry with the 2.4 litre 4 cylinder

Shows you how heavy the new Highlander is

[kram]

[i]

Among vehicle type, passenger cars averaged 23.4 mpg in 2007 -- unchanged from 2006. SUVs averaged 18.1 mpg, an increase of 0.3 mpg, and pickups were unchanged at 16.2 mpg.

With more consumers driving larger vehicles than a generation ago, overall fuel efficiency has made little progress. The current fleet is less efficient than the new vehicles produced in 1981, for example, and well below the peak of 22 mpg in 1987.[/b]

Even though Honda and Toyota lead the "pack" so to speak, it's very disappointing to see the general lack of progress overall. How high will the price of gas have to go before we can even match the overall fleet efficiency achieved twenty years ago?