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As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hybrid

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by Rybold, Jun 8, 2011.

  1. Rybold

    Rybold globally warmed member

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    As some automakers advertise and try to convince consumers that conventional 4-cylinder non-hybrids are more fuel efficient than hybrids, Consumer Reports testing supports that hybrids truly are the leader.

    Hybrids Dominate Consumer Reports

    .
     
  2. spwolf

    spwolf Senior Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    lol.... with all the 40 MPG advertising, you get 6 year old Corolla take the Crown.


    Consumer Reports Names the Best New Cars for Fuel Economy -- YONKERS, N.Y., June 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --
     
  3. billnchristy

    billnchristy Active Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    I'm curious what they drove, our Fiesta gets better gas mileage than a fit.
     
  4. stefano5777

    stefano5777 Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    Im sure it does but not at the hands of there racer drivers. Look at there mileage they where getting in the Toyota and Lexus both are well below what the avg driver gets from those vehicles!
     
  5. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    Yeah, their idea of driving a car and our idea of driving a car are very different.
     
  6. tonyrenier

    tonyrenier I grew up, but it's still red!

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  7. adamace1

    adamace1 Senior Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    If you look at site like fuelly, alot of people do get 44mpg average. most do better but alot do get 44. I think people that drive like us Prius owners will always get a little bit better the CR does. So we can be sure the the Cr number will be the lowest we can expect when buying a new car.
     
  8. cyclopathic

    cyclopathic Senior Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    I could not. Drove like yahoo 400mi+ to Cleveland; floor to 90MPH every time truck moves out of the right lane, hard brake, etc still managed 46mpg. Was 51 on a way back keeping under 75mph
     
  9. dhchiang

    dhchiang New Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    actually, the key to getting lower mpgs is lots of short trips. My parents 2007 Prius Only gets about 38-40 mpg because they rarely drive more than 10 minutes. the first 5 minutes is the worst in terms of efficiency. Our 2010 is getting about 58.2 mpg as of last night, with trips averaging about 30-45 minutes long. When I was driving the 2007, I found that we got about 45-48 mpg.
    The best article I ever read was by a detroit reporter who was trying to get the WORST mileage possible. He got 28 mpg, and admitted that it was still better than virtually any other car out there.

    David
     
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  10. cycledrum

    cycledrum PSOCSOASP

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    Fuelly is lacking something badly - you can't even break out charts into the different generations which got different MPGs.

    IOW, all 10 years of Prius are lumped together which IMO is sorta lame.
     
  11. Skoorbmax

    Skoorbmax Senior Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    Those mileage figures are a mess, were they racing some of them and in other cases driving them down perpetual hills?
     
  12. billnchristy

    billnchristy Active Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    I average around 36mpg in the morning and 48 or so in the afternoon so I end up with real world around 44-46.

    Today I got to drive on the highway so its back to 50. Funny how I only get improvements on the highway and not in town where it is supposedly better rated.

    We need to know the average speed for these ratings, mine is usually around 25-27mph.
     
  13. a_gray_prius

    a_gray_prius Rare Non-Old-Blowhard Priuschat Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    The table highlights one of the big disappointments: the Scion xB, which went through some "americanization" and it became bigger, heaver, and its fuel economy went from reasonable to abysmal. In addition, it lost it's iconic angled box-shape. A lot of the tuner market was disappointed.
    2009 Scion xB Review
    My own average fuel economy is 44mpg. This is a combination of long and short trips.
     
  14. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    The seemingly low 44 mpg overall figure for the 3rd gen Prius is no doubt due to their harsh city test and its result. See Most fuel-efficient cars. Last page of http://www.consumersunion.org/Oct_CR_Fuel_Economy.pdf has a rough description of their test.

    Since the above PDF was done before model year 08, the EPA test description is that of the pre-MY08 tests.
     
  15. spwolf

    spwolf Senior Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    what does Scion box on the wheels have to do with Elantra, Focus, Cruze getting less mpg than Corolla?
     
  16. spwolf

    spwolf Senior Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    most important part is that all cars were tested under same conditions
     
  17. billnchristy

    billnchristy Active Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    Funny, if you do their math the fit averages 30.5 but they say 33.

    The fiesta averages 33.5 but they say 33.

    How is 24/37 > 22/45 ?

    They must beat the damn out of those cars because I have a pretty demanding city drive, including 15 stop lights in 9 miles and I get over 30 in the Fiesta and around 40-44 average in the Prius.
     
  18. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    Most fuel-efficient cars says "CR's overall mileage is calculated from equal portions of city and expressway driving and on a 150-mile trip."

    It looks like your math of 30.5 mpg for the Fit is wrong due to Yet another reason to switch to gallons per mile — Autoblog Green. I worked backwards and converted their mpg figures to gallons per mile, summed them up and divided by 3 and got 0.031027979 (US gallons per mile) = 32.2289763 miles per gallon. That's closer to their 33 mpg overall.

    edit: The PDF I cited says "Our published overall mpg estimate is calculated as an equally weighted harmonic average of the city, highway, and one-day-trip results." so I'm not so sure my calculations exactly right either...
     
  19. billnchristy

    billnchristy Active Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    If you add that the fit gets 34 and the fiesta 36, they both averaged 41 during the combined road trip.

    I don't see any logical mathematical way using the numbers they give to give the numbers they gave.
     
  20. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Re: As some automakers advertise that conventional gas cars better than hybrids, Consumer Reports hy

    Doing the same calculations I did for the Fit, here's what I got for the Fiesta SE Sedan: 0.030689004 (US gallons per mile) = 32.584961 miles per gallon. That's close to their 33 mpg overall and is dead on, if rounded up.