<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kram @ Sep 4 2007, 08:27 AM) [snapback]506725[/snapback]</div>

Way to Go Auto Industry! Only took 20 years to get a 0.2 mpg improvement. At this rate we will be free of the petroleum industry by...never.

The disgusting part is that mpg boosts include guzzler SUV's using (or should I say CAN use, though virtually no one does due to POORER actual mpg) grain / flex fuels, because the standards say you only have to count the percentage of the gallon that is actual gasoline

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(adammc @ Sep 4 2007, 12:20 PM) [snapback]506788[/snapback]</div>

I hate to be the spoiler, but the mileage numbers they mentioned seemed way higher than what I recall as the actual US fleet average, which is closer to 20 mpg.

I looked on the NHTSA website (what the article cited). The only thing NHTSA tabulates is the CAFE numbers. The CAFE numbers are increasingly a fiction, due mainly to the ludicrous exception for E85 vehicles (ie, that you in essence double the actual gas mileage of a vehicle for CAFE purposes if you build it so it can use E85). So, you're looking at a bunch of 30 mpg Suburbans in those numbers.

So, the reported increase in fuel economy is baloney. I think that's the CAFE data (which indeed did show a 1 mpg increase). The correct answer is that the CAFE data no longer provide any information about the level or trend in actual fuel economy, due to the E85 exception. In all likelihood, the increase is driven mainly by the E85 exception.

The only way to get a real handle on actual average fuel economy would be to match new EPA estimates to cars sold to get an actual average fuel economy, not the CAFE number.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chogan @ Sep 4 2007, 01:18 PM) [snapback]506822[/snapback]</div>

yes, that's what I was saying, only less eloquently. So, when will congress grow some nads, and do away with the lame & ludicrous E85 exception?! Do the oilie lobbists have to always run the show?

While it is true mileage is about the same as 20 years ago, it is also true that cars are now much larger, much fater, much safer, and have all the bells and whistles. I know because I had a '72 Datsun 510. A great car, but no air bags, no acceleration, and no power anything. All the technology has allowed us to get the same mileage in much nicer (and safer) cars. Not bad really.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hill @ Sep 4 2007, 02:30 PM) [snapback]506852[/snapback]</div>

Yes you sure did. My apology for not reading that correctly the first time.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Sep 4 2007, 10:26 AM) [snapback]506826[/snapback]</div>

Well I'm sure if you ripped of the cat. converters on cars today they could beat that model T value