Why aren't cars as fuel-efficient as they were 20 years ago?

Gogomobile may have been good for 50mpg.

Higher compression ratios worked best - with leaded gas. Open the hood and admire all the slick pollution devices. And, under all that, somewhere under all that, is an engine.

Polution devices, you say. How ironic.

Most of the high mpg cars were either tiny or extremely lethargic. The Geo Metro pushed the 50 MPG area but they were tiny, didn't move and were terrible from a reliability standpoint.

Almost every single car that has been introduced over the years as a high mileage alternative grew in size and power the longer it stayed on the market. At the same time the MPG dropped.

Consumers apparently buy high mileage cars when there is a fuel crisis of some sort and as soon as that dissipates they go back to wanting room and performance.

'goggomobil' - boy , oh , boy , it was a germen status symbol of the early 50's ; it came with a 250cc engine or you get it souped with a 300cc engine .
i couldn't afford one , so had to do with a 99cc 'imme' (bumblebee) motorcycle :wink: .
hbg

...GOGGOMOBIL...

my pride and joy ... IMME motorcycle (note that the wheels were mounted automobile style and not in a fork )

Tiny cars seem like fleas
when driving in lanes
next to SUV's.

The Honda CRX got close to 60 mpg and was pretty damn zippy. There was even room for a friend and you could put your bike (or a ton of mulch) in the hatchback.

But the short answer is that cars aren't more efficient because they don't have to be. Fuel efficiency used to be important to American consumers and it probably will be again one day. It just doesn't seem to matter to them right now.

BTW, I get 32 mpg in my Scion XB. It's not quite the 40-something I got in my old civic, but my kids don't have to climb over the front seats, tripping over the seatbelts as they go, to get in, and there is plenty of leg and head room.

my 'imme' motorcycle gave pretty good gas-milage , but it chewed up sparkplugs like crazy . it was a very high revving engine and after about 200 miles of driving the plugs had to be scraped and re-gapped .
so what i saved on gas , i spent on plugs .
hbg

Diesel cars gonna' getchew
Diesel cars are gonna' getch you!

"In a move that may presage diesel's Cinderella-like-transformation, the Environmental Protection Agency on (June '06) required U.S. refineries to begin makling ultra-low-sulfur- (USLD) a fuel with 97 percent less sulfur than ordinary diesel that, as a result, slashes soot emissions."

"For as long as people have cared what wafts from vehicle tailpipes, diesel motors have had the rap as thje dirtiest, smelliest, noisiest engines on the road. That could soon change."
Christian Science Monitor, (June '06)

Some analysts predict diesels will account for 7 to 15 percent of the market.

------------------

OLD DIESEL/ NEW DIESEL

Diesels are slow. As the old joke had it, "Diesel cars don't accelerate, they gather momentum.":
Reality: An Audi TDI Diesel just won the LeMans 24 hour race.

Diesels don't start in the winter.
Of course they do. My '96 Passatt diesel, with 240,000 miles on it, started below zero. Left outdoors with no block heater
or any other device.

Diesel fuel is smelly.
I agree. However the new diesel fuel, Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel
has very little smelliness.

MPG.
Diesels have long been recognized for having better MPG than gasoline engines. The EPA listed the top ten economy cars.
VW diesels took four places of those top ten.
Hybrids? Great in city driving. So, so on highways.

Small/ medium diesel cars consistently get between
40 and over 50 mpg.
EPA methodology for determining MPG leaves something to be desired.

?? Do all diesels need glow plugs ??
Not all. Many diesel trucks (i don't know about cars)
use a method called Intake Manifold Heater. The heater heats
the incoming air to where it will fire from compression.
How hot does it have to get? About 60 degres. No glow pugs
involved.

Diesels are noisey. DIESELS WERE NOISEY. The newest diesels are as quiet as gas engines.
--------------------------
I'm not trying to convince you to buy a diesel,
I'm just explaining what's to come.

One for the road: Germans used to call Volvos,
"The fastest tractors in Europe."

One for oldtimers like me. Why do the British drink warm beer?
"Because they use Lucas refrigeraters."

i had a VW-RABBIT diesel from 1970 to 1980 .
while not the fastest car on the road - i belive it had about 50 hp - using the four-speed gearshift plenty , i had no trouble keeping up with highway traffic .
never any engine trouble . when it finally started to rust badly , i had to get rid of it .
the mechanic who had maintained it bought it from me for a few hundred dollars and took the engine apart . he said that the engine showed no wear . he and his son rebuilt it as a training project for his son and after about a year of working on it as time permitted , it was on the road again for a couple of years .
problem was that european cars weren't able to withstand canadian 'road-salting' .
i'd buy one again if a good and reliable diesel would come along .
(driving it stateside , we often had to fill up at truck refuelling stations ; the little rabbit amongst the long-distance truckers caused plenty of commments :wink: )
hbg

Re: Why aren't cars as fuel-efficient as they were 20 years

They can, and in Europe, some of them do. The problem is that 50mpg cars are small cars. Americans, on the other hand, prefer large cars. They don't mind trading size for fuel efficiency. So car companies react to those preferences. Why would they make 50 mpg cars if nobody buys them?

The smart makes 60 miles a gallon - my 2 liter, 150 hp Opel Astra Diesel does 42 mpg at an average speed of 75 over 950 miles (tested that recently on German, Belgian and French motorways [including about 120 miles on some normal rural roads]).

Re: Why aren't cars as fuel-efficient as they were 20 years


I don't know if that's true. I think Americans will, like docile little lambs, take any piece of crap that is offered to us, especially if we see ads for it on TV while we're drinking beer and watching dumbass jocks beat each other up for fun. I believe that if major car manufacturers were not only making, but actually MARKETING small, fuel-efficient cars, the response would be not an outcry, but a collective, "duh...okay."

Re: Why aren't cars as fuel-efficient as they were 20 years

Actually, Americans are already making vehicles giving them infinite gas mileage. They're called bicycles, and they're much less popular in America than in Europe.

Engine efficiency has gotten better... and engines and vehicles have gotten consistently larger.

It takes energy to push those SUVs around.....