http://www.boston.com/cars/articles/...+National+News

 

'bout time. This should make hypermiling (or whatever it is called) be easier

 

The real story here is that if the numers are, for example, 12% lower, then it has the effective outcome of raising CAFE by 12% across the board. They already have gotten real agressive with the new CAFE rules on truck/SUV's, so by making the test more difficult to score well, they will be basically raising CAFE on cars too and in fact making it even harder on trucks and SUV's. I see this as a good thing, even though many of us have no trouble meeting and exceeding even the EPA highway rating as it is.

 

Great; Now everyone might see what (Real-World-Mileage) is and not what the manufactures (HOPE-IT-WILL-BE) and as we all know , they would not mislead the public now would they ?

Yes, I realize that the manufactures don't set the Mileage estimates the "EPA" does but I'm sure that the manufactures have not complained to much about the over stating over optimistic ratings for FE either.

Terry

 

This is gonna be great. Instead of the usual 21/29 for a smallish SUV on the window sticker. The dealer stooge has to sell an 11/19. Then right below that, where it estimates the average yearly fuel cost it says $12,000. HA!

 

Yup. I bet GM is going to lobby to have this not happen. They can barely say with a straight face that they have cars that average about 30mpg.

 

Actually, GM cars overall "do" perform pretty well, considering their engine sizes. There are Big Buicks that get 29 MPG hwy real-world, and the Corvette does pretty well at highway speeds. GM is indeed full of gas hogs, but on some engines, they have done a decent job.

But agreed, a revamp of EPA mileage tests will look bad for all companies, GM especially.

 

While it's true this will make many companies look bad, and they'll lobby against this change... successfully, in this administration... it would help some of them. Specifically I'm thinking of Honda being forced to state the new Civic Hybrid has a 5% mileage gain over the current one. Indeed, the EPA estimate 50/50 is 5% better than 47/48, but from what I've read it sounds like the car's real-world mileage will be alot better than the current one's.

 

The sticker on my '93 GM said 19/25. Ever since May of '93, I've consistently gotten 19/25. Sometimes the city ranges 18-21 and sometimes the highway ranges 23-27. But pretty much stays at 19/25. This is even after 12 years and 177K miles.

Of course, this isn't as good as my HAH, but good to know my mileage isn't decreasing with the age of my vehicle nor lower than reported EPA figures.

I definitely don't drive slow, either. Heck, the first three or four years I owned my GM, I usually did 15-20 over the speed limits. Lots of hard acceleration and quite a few burn-outs.

But after I did a little growing up, I drove 5-10 mph over the limit with regular accel and no burn-outs. Even now with my HAH, I drive at or up to 10 mph over. I'm definitely driving like a grandma now! My mileage meter is currently reading 26-27 mpg city and 34-37 highway. As I learn to drive the car better, I hope to see those numbers improve.

 

Hey if they hurry up with the new test they can counteract the 2006 energy bill tax credits and save the government a lot of money. Have fun, Rick