Living Car Free - The least fuel efficient cars are made in America...

A not surprising article about the least fuel efficient cars...

Least Fuel Efficient Cars Article (http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/gasguzzler_1.html)

Stories like this are just plain lame. The vehicles
this story villifies were NOT designed to get good
gas mileage. They were all designed for a different
focus market.

The sad part is most people are brain dead enough that
they fully believe that EVERY vehicle should get 100mpg!!
They either forget, or never learned, any basic laws of
physics or movement of mass. :( :(

I think it's an interesting story. What's interesting is that most of the vehicles listed are not "work" or utility vehicles. They are merely wasteful, silly fashion statements.

I don't understand the previous poster's remark about physics. I think fashion statements should consume little or no gas. I am afraid I don't see how that is more than only tangentially related to physics.

I'm not sure what the point of this thread is. Of course American cars are among the most wasteful - isn't that what America is all about?

I'm not sure what the point of this thread is. Of course American cars are among the most wasteful - isn't that what America is all about?

The preferred word is Freedom, not wastefulness.

The real bad thing to note here is mileage ratings have largely stayed roughly the same for decades, the gains theyve made in efficiency have been used to make cars bigger,heavier, and more powerful while keeping roughly the same mileage ratings. For example, the 1977 or 76 honda accord which was the first accord model imported to the US had about 68hp and got in the high 30's MPG range, maybe low 40's on a long highway trip(best I ever saw my dad's do was about 44mpg), today's accord has what about 200hp? Its also bigger and heavier but gets about the same mileage. This may be one form of progress but its being applied all the wrong way IMHO. Even when going for all out mileage like the honda insight for example they really havent seen anywhere near the mileage gains most assume are possible, and thats because like the above poster pointed out, you still have to fight the laws of physics. Mass takes power to move, and internal combustion engines waste around 85% of the energy created from burning fuel-------it goes out the tailpipe and radiator as unused heat. 100 MPG vehicles arent gonna happen anytime soon, maybe never. Ive had motorcycles that didnt even do close to 100 MPG.

Nobody gets it at all. A car is not a car unless it has over 300 hp.

100 MPG vehicles arent gonna happen anytime soon, maybe never. Ive had motorcycles that didnt even do close to 100 MPG.

That's the thing- if you want a 3000 lb car that gets 100MPG in real-world conditions- it may never happen. But an aerodynamic 2 or 3 wheel vehicle with one seat could get 100 MPG with today's technology. (would it be much cheaper to make than a 5-seat Scion xA? certainly not, if it wasn't mass produced. even mass-produced, such a 1-seat vehicle would cost a lot more than a fifth as much as a 5 seat vehicle. Some people would claim that it was therefore not economical.)

Putting more gears in a car generally raises the fuel economy, as the fifth, sixth, and seventh gears can get pretty good mileage...if the gearing ratio was set up for fuel economy for those higher gears. Car makers can engineer cars to get better mileage, but so far there has been little incentive considering Americans continue to buy and use gas guzzlers.

My dad's Corvette has a six speed manual transmission that has a light that comes on, telling you the best time to shift from 1st to 4th gears based on engine torque. This lowers fuel consumption considerably as you skip two gears that were mostly made for racing purposes or stop-go driving. So there is hope, and that sports car with a powerful v8 gets fairly decent gas mileage at 19/27mpg.

But there is hope: SUV sales are slowly declining.

MPG is a false god. Stop wasting your time praising this golden calf. The resources and infrastructure that are needed to support the car culture is unsustainable no matter how many MPGs cars get.

MPG is a false god. Stop wasting your time praising this golden calf. The resources and infrastructure that are needed to support the car culture is unsustainable no matter how many MPGs cars get.
True. Oil is a non-renewable resource - that means it will be used up someday. The only thing higher mpg will acheive is to delay the inevitable.

Stories we'll never read in newspapers or see on TV:

- the number, makes, models, and fuel efficiency of vehicles used in the Tour de France

- the number, makes, models, and fuel efficiency of the cars, trucks, limosines, and SUVs of Hollywood celebrities

- the number, makes, models, and fuel efficiency of the cars, trucks, limosines, and SUVs of Democratic congressional representatives

- the number, makes, models, and fuel efficiency of the cars, trucks, limosines, and SUVs of CEOs and management of PETA, Greenpeace, and umpteen other non-profits...

Stories we'll never read in newspapers or see on TV:

i suppose if one regularly listened to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly, this would be logical, on topic, and pass for argument.

That's the thing- if you want a 3000 lb car that gets 100MPG in real-world conditions- it may never happen. But an aerodynamic 2 or 3 wheel vehicle with one seat could get 100 MPG with today's technology. (would it be much cheaper to make than a 5-seat Scion xA? certainly not, if it wasn't mass produced. even mass-produced, such a 1-seat vehicle would cost a lot more than a fifth as much as a 5 seat vehicle. Some people would claim that it was therefore not economical.)

of course it could happen. but only if the oil companies could benifit in some way. lost profit is the only thing that has kept cars from gettign far better gas milage. hey we have to keep the idiots I mean directors at exxon in the red now don't we?

Stories we'll never read in newspapers or see on TV:
There's another reason you won't be seeing much of that on TV:
the same people/corporations who bought and own your politicians, also own and/or run the media and/or run the industries in question or play golf with their buddy who does. In a system like this it's blatantly not in their interest to inform the public. Sadly the USA lacks a law demanding that news programs actually contain information the public needs to know. An informed public is essential to a functioning democracy, and look who you voted in... :( (Michael Jackson's trial was just so much more profitable than global warming)

That's the thing- if you want a 3000 lb car that gets 100MPG in real-world conditions- it may never happen.


of course it could happen.

Help me understand where you're coming from on that one.


but only if the oil companies could benifit in some way.

I'm no physicist, but I do know that it takes a certain amount of energy to accelerate a 3000 lb mass to 60 miles per hour, and a certain amount of energy to counteract air resistance at that speed for a car-sized object. Unfortunately, current technology doesn't allow the majority of the energy contained in gasoline to be converted to movement-energy. That may or may not change. Do you have an engine design that gets better efficiency? Do you have a process for recovering energy more efficiently than the electric-motor-and-battery system of the Prius and Civic? Do you have memos or recorded phone calls or something showing that Honda and Toyota, for example, are being paid not to improve gas mileage beyond current levels so that demand for oil stays high?