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Feds: 36 mpg for cars by 2015
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Increasing standards through legislation is a good thing IMO. However, it can also be tricky because you don't want to decrease standards in one category in order to increase them in another. You also do not want to raise the bar too high too fast. This is a problem which is facing Europe right now. I don't claim to have the answer to this issue. However, I will say that the first company that gets it right will be raking in the dough.
I bought a 2001 BMW 330i for $13.5k two months ago. I get 22mpg average and pay about $200 per month for gas. If I had purchased a Prius, I would have paid $23k now and saved maybe $100 per month in gas. It would take me at least seven or eight years to recoup the price difference, and by that time I'll be looking at a fuel efficient minivan or something similar anyway.
The short answer is that they can, but no one has dumped the money into the engineering to do so along with making a serious effort to get them out on the streets until very recently. For a long time, people were concerned about safety records. Everything was about safety. All of the TV commercials showed crash test dummy demonstrations and they boasted about where their vehicle ranked amongst the safety records. Increasing safety meant increasing the weight of the car which meant lessening mpg. These days, you hear them boasting about mpg. It's all about marketing and putting the spotlight on what people want the most so that the most profit can be made. Engineering designs like this are extremely expensive so they really can't afford to start a project which increases the efficiency of a vehicle in any way unless there is good reason to believe that the sales of the new model will justify the costs.
The article I posted talks all about this stuff. Give it a read.
I should also mention that while new engineering designs to increase fuel efficiency might be expensive, enforcing standards through legislation that result in most companies being forced to create those designs all at the same time will greatly help when it comes to balancing the competition. This will help lessen the potential challenges and risks that come with spending that much money in such a short period of time.
JulesMaximus
No Lifer
Of course there needs to be a balance and I think this legislation is a good start.
kalrith
Diamond Member
What I don't get is why driving any minivan or SUV is automatically looked down upon when discussing mpg. Of course, there are gas-guzzling SUVs and minivans, but there are also ones that get good gas mileage. The Mazda5 and the Ford Escape both get 22/28; however, the Nissan Maxima gets 19/25. I see everyone posting about how it's so terrible to drive an SUV or minivan, but no one mentions that it's terrible to drive a medium-sized car like the Maxima, Camry V6, Accord V6, Mazda6, etc.
Two things:
1. You are correct about the V6 argument. Anyone who is against SUVs/Trucks should only support V4s or else it is pretty hypocritical. Personally, I refuse to drive anything but a V4.
2. While some SUVs and Trucks may have good mpg. The vast majority of those that you see driving on the road daily do not. One can only hope that will change sooner than later, but that will be especially hard due to the size and weight without seriously impacting safety.
LTC8K6
Lifer
"1. You are correct about the V6 argument. Anyone who is against SUVs/Trucks should only support V4s or else it is pretty hypocritical. Personally, I refuse to drive anything but a V4. "
You mean I4.
Several V6's in modern cars become 3 cylinders at cruise these days. Several V8's become 4 cylinders.
You mean I4.
Several V6's in modern cars become 3 cylinders at cruise these days. Several V8's become 4 cylinders.
EarthwormJim
Diamond Member
Honestly in some large trucks, the V8 variant gets better all around mileage. Mainly due to low end torque and gearing that would not be possible on a V6.
Also there aren't any modern V4 cars (some motorcycles use them though). The closest would be the boxer 4's used by subaru. Most 4 cylinder engines are inline 4's.
My gripe with SUV's and Minivans is their classification. They don't have to meet the same safety standards as cars, and they don't have to meet the same emission requirements. They are better than older cars on the road still though...
It's also ridiculous the way their bumpers are designed (SUV's mainly). Because their bumpers are so high, they have a tenancy to drive right over regular sized cars. That's supposed to be remedied by 2009, but automakers were reluctant to redesign bumpers to prevent this.
Headlight level is also an annoyance (is a little better in newer models). It really doesn't make much sense to me why the headlights on a tall SUV are proportionally in the same place as a car. Since it's proportional this results in headlights that are too high up, blinding people in front of said tall SUV. Headlights should be at similar heights as cars (2-3 feet from the ground). Just because you sit higher up, doesn't mean your headlights also need to be higher up to see as well in the dark as a car.
Yes, it does matter when people piss and moan that we haven't seen any increases in efficiency when that's an absolutely incorrect statement. Cars are 1000 pounds heavier, can run circles around older ones, are safe enough to drive into a brick wall, and are still as, if not more fuel efficient than similar size/styles of any other era and produce a fraction of the emissions.
Fuel economy is a formula that is increased or decreased depending on a number of factors(weight, power, gearing, emissions restrictions, turbo's, ect). It's not a magical number that can be significantly altered without serious compromises made in any one or several of those areas.
We have made incredible strides in many of those other areas while maining, if not advancing ecomomy. People have voted with their wallet. That's what matters to them.
Chadder007
Diamond Member
Yeah, WTF is with Diesel costing more than even regular gas now?
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