mileage figures fudged?

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bill_michaels Associate Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 50	mileage figures fudged? 01/13/2009 1:43 PM
	Between the time mileage figures were calculated for the 2007 and 2008 model cars, there seems to have been a change in criteria resulting in the 2008 figures being less than actual. As a case in point, a 2008 Mercury Grand Marquis is rated at 11 city and 16 higway, while the same virtually identical car was rated at 15 and 22 which the 2007 would actually do. General motors seems to have done the same thing at the same time.. Why? bill michaels
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emc_c Power-User Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: since 20 Jan 09, the USSA Posts: 375 Good Answers: 81	#1 Re: mileage figures fudged? 01/13/2009 2:42 PM
	There was a change in how they specified the mpg numbers between 2007 and 2008 model years. Here's your answer in detail: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/02/under_new_epa_m.html It appears they tried to make the test more like the way they assume people drive on average. If you drive for high mpg, the earlier method should be a better predictor for you. I don't know about you, but I tend to drive small, high mileage cars, and I drive for high mpg. But these are very old cars - can't see the ROI on buying new to get a few mpg better. But I look around me, and watch people drive, even when gas was over $4 per gallon, and I recall telling my wife on several occasions, "What price will it take to get people to slow down?" I'm not talking about absolute speed as much as city driving- jack rabbit starts, weaving in and out of traffic only to come to a screeching halt at the next traffic light a block up the road, that sort of thing. I'm no fan of the EPA, CAFE standards or any of that, but it seems that this move to measure mpg at higher rates of speed and acceleration is reasonable, overall.
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Shadetree Guru Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Milky Way galaxy, Sol solar system, Earth (not Giaha), USA, WA, N.E. Posts: 691 Good Answers: 13	#2 In reply to #1 Re: mileage figures fudged? 01/13/2009 4:12 PM
	Yep, I gotta agree there. Maybe there should be seperate 'kiddie-car' roads for all the idiot drivers. They could be toll roads of course. Let the people who want to throw money away pay for roads for the rest of us. But then, of course, you have the opposite side of the coin. People who have to drive 10 mph slower than whatever the posted speed is. A good mass transit system would be handy for them. Oh well! I guess there just isn't money enough to properly protect us all from ourselves all the time. Y'all be careful out there y'hear. __________________ They that do not learn from history and apply those lessons to the present are bound to repeat its failures.
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emc_c Power-User Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: since 20 Jan 09, the USSA Posts: 375 Good Answers: 81	#3 In reply to #2 Re: mileage figures fudged? 01/13/2009 4:33 PM
	Along these lines is one of my favorite bumper stickers: "When I grow old I'm going to move North and drive slow."
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user-deleted-13 Guru Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 4513 Good Answers: 88	#4 In reply to #3 Re: mileage figures fudged? 01/13/2009 10:23 PM
	Along these lines is one of my favorite bumper stickers: "When I grow old I'm going to move North and drive slow." -- Way back when 55 MPH was imposed on US highways presumably to save fuel, a bumper sticker appeared here in Texas: "Drive like hell and freeze a Yankee!"
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emc_c Power-User Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: since 20 Jan 09, the USSA Posts: 375 Good Answers: 81	#5 In reply to #4 Re: mileage figures fudged? 01/13/2009 10:39 PM
	Back in the energy crisis days when I too lived in oil country and the northeast was bitching about the price of fuel oil and screaming for windfall profit taxes, I recall this popular bumper sticker: "Let the bastards freeze in the dark."
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user-deleted-13 Guru Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 4513 Good Answers: 88	#6 In reply to #5 Re: mileage figures fudged? 01/13/2009 11:31 PM
	Oh yeah! I remember that one! In the interest of balance I should include one Yankee's take on Texas (and, as a Texan, I really shouldn't be posting this, but it is just too darned clever to pass up): "Alaska has the **oil. Texas has the dipsticks**."
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Pretendgineer Power-User Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 265 Good Answers: 4	#7 In reply to #1 Re: mileage figures fudged? 01/15/2009 9:15 AM
	That sums it up. They must assume all Americans drive like a******s. My dad drives a Grand Marquis and he is the stereotypical old man driver. He gets close to 20 MPG out of his. I've got an '04 Saab 9-3 and get 31-34 mixing some city with mostly highway. It's rated 28mpg highway under the new system. I'm not a conservative driver either.
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