Originally Posted by
tarwheel
By that logic, you would need to factor in the production costs of automobiles when quoting their MPGs. When people speak about their car's gas mileage, they are referring to how much fuel it consumes from driving it not from all phases of its production.
They should do that, but it doesn't give the same warm and fuzzy feeling to read '1.7 mpg city/2.0 mpg hwy' on the window of your new Prius.