I thought cars got better gas mileage

I get around 21-24 city and 28-30 highway in my car, a 2006 BMW 330i. It's the bigger engine inline 6 and I've only seen it dip below 20 if I'm really heavy on the gas. My girlfriends 2008 mercury mariner is a v-6, and she gets around 16-18 city (she's got a lead foot). I can get her car to give me around 22 though, so the driver has a lot to do with it.
 
I get 19-20 on my Ford F150 Supercrew 4x4 with a 5.4 V8 on the road. It gets around 15 in the city.
 
The magazine testers don't drive their test cars in an ordinary manner. Most new cars DO get pretty good mileage, some better than others. Several years ago my daughter and I took a trip from Texas to Colorado in a new Ford Fusion, we got slightly over 30 mpg on almost all highway driving. Right now I am on a trip through Utah and Colorado ina new Ford Escape crossover SUV. On highway driving we got right at 30 mpg. It doesn't have much power and it isn't fancy but it is comfortable, has a good amount of room.

OTOH my car with chevy LS2 V8 maybe gets 22-24mpg highway.
 
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this thing getts 22mpg city and 20 highway. i have 4.56 gears in the rear.

my 08 jk wrangler unlimited gets 17 city and 23 highway.

now heres what gets me most, my buddies bmw 318i from 99 i think gets 22mpg, as does his 2012 6.7 twinturbo diesel ford f350. how does this make sense?



im with the OP shit doesnt add up ha
 
spyder10 said:
Not sure which article you are reading. The test I found on C&D shows 24-26 mpg with a similar list of cars.

Car and Driver

Maybe it was just the drivers have some fun? Any car can get single digit MPG if you have enough fun while driving.
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Car & Driver, November, 2012, "Masters of the Middle" at page 77. C/D 300 mile trip.
 
Keep in mind those little 4 bangers are working pretty hard in those larger cars. A lot of times, a stronger engine that doesn't have to work as hard (if it's designed properly) will get better mileage- witness the Corvette and the BMW (although I never get better than 27 hwy- but I don't spend much time below 80, either).
 
Yup, my BMW accelerates effortlessly, and while my previous car, 2005 Sentra SE-R spec v had a lot of kick for a 4 banger, it still struggled which I feel affected the gas mileage. I could only get max 28 all highway at 75. Any variation and it dropped.
 
My wife's 2012 VW Passat SE TDI w/six-speed stick and 2.0 liter turbodiesel is EPA-rated at 43 mpg highway. We took a trip in August (500 mile round-trip) and got 52 mpg highway. With the stick, the big diesel torque (236 lb-ft) makes things like merging onto interstates a blast.
 
It's crazy the way cars waste gas these days, and we think some of the numbers are good.

VW built a car to prove a point. It got 285 MPG. If that's possible, there's no excuse for a car getting 20 :grumpy:

(Edit: Granted, it was a 1 seater that wayed under 700lbs, but still. You'd think getting 100 MPG on a normal sized car would be easy enough.)
 
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Check some of the European magazines and their economy vs ours especially for diesel. Big difference.We have to use additives that reduce economy.
 
MVF said:
Keep in mind those little 4 bangers are working pretty hard in those larger cars. A lot of times, a stronger engine that doesn't have to work as hard
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Yes. My '95 Lincoln got 30-32 with the cruise control set at 77-ish and driving all day. My '02 Honda two-seater gets about the same under the same driving conditions. The difference, the Lincoln was idling along at barely 2,000 rpm and the Honda runs at twice that.

Similar situation with the trucks. My '94 F150 (5.0, 4x4) got 13 mpg when traveling, 13.1 on a bad day and 13.8 on a good day. My 'new' truck is an '04 F350 with the V10 and it also gets 13 mpg. Not much of an improvement you might think, but the F350 is ten-times more truck - heavier, higher, faster, stronger, larger...
 
DougB2 said:
My wife's 2012 VW Passat SE TDI w/six-speed stick and 2.0 liter turbodiesel is EPA-rated at 43 mpg highway. We took a trip in August (500 mile round-trip) and got 52 mpg highway. With the stick, the big diesel torque (236 lb-ft) makes things like merging onto interstates a blast.
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Those things are hard to find. With my daily commute increasing, I need to get something to complement my pickup for grocery getting and normal driving where I don't need 400+ HP and high ground clearance while hauling stuff in the bed. Why VW doesn't make a few more each month escapes me because they are wait listed and generally require dealer swaps to get one out here.
 
Mike G said:
My '95 Explorer with the 4.0L gets 10 MPG if I'm lucky.

It runs good; good filters, plugs, no trouble codes, and still 10 MPG. Had a front brake caliper dragging earlier in the summer, so I redid the brakes, thinking it may have a little effect.

Some of that is the Ethanol in the gas, but not all of it.
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If its an automatic my bet is the tranny is slipping badly or at the very least never locking up. Other than that check the o2 sensor.
 
You have to take into account all the new emissions equipment, safety equipment/steel, etc. that is required on new cars.

All that junk costs mileage. I could make a car get 50mpg using modern motor designs, but it wouldn't pass inspection (safety or emissions).
 
I know here in Kalifornia it is partially gas. I don't know if the rest of the states use same blends as us. Years ago, 15+ they mandated a different blend here for "less emissions", I think it was 10-15% lower, supposedly. Problem was (my dad tracked everything vehicle related meticulously) that mileage decreased by about 20%. so net result was more pollutants. Of course nobody pointed that out in the media.

I also believe vehicles are designed to get bad gas mileage. Look at a lot of the Japanese car companies that made their reputations initially on economy, many of them now get horrible gas mileage. I think this is the gas companies and car companies in bed with each other. we all know stories of the guy that had the carburetor that let him get over 20mpg on his big block whatever 40 years ago. There is a grain of truth there somewhere. Why did my 69' cadillac convertible that must have weighed upwards of 7k pounds and had over 300hp in a 472 get the same kind of gas mileage (about 12mpg) as my 2003 trailblazer with a 265? (not sure) hp straight 6? I have friends with suburbans, 4ft longer than my trailblazer with bigger engines that get the same gas mileage. Chevy by the way is one of the companies that deserved to go out of business during the whole bailout debacle. Before that they didn't make an effort obviously to make vehicles that got good gas mileage. A lot of the other companies didn't/don't either.

I've decided that when money allows I'm gonna go ahead and get another classic car as my daily driver. For in town, considering distance I drive, I see no advantage any more to my newer cars. Add in that it's easier and cheaper to work on the old ones, well, sounds like I have a 50 ford coupe in my future. :)

Red
 
They must have been driving like idiots to achieve MPG that low with those cars. My 2007 Rabbit gets 28-30MPG and my 400hp RX-7 gets an average of 17 with me driving aggressively, there's no way an inefficient rotary engine gets better mileage than a friggin Passat or Altima. The Altima is rated for 27/38MPG.
 
mete said:
Check some of the European magazines and their economy vs ours especially for diesel. Big difference.We have to use additives that reduce economy.
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They also measure mpg using imperial gallons. 1 imp. gallon= 1.2 US gallons. That accounts for some of it.
 
Modern vehicles have comparatively large rims and brakes, a sure way to destroy mileage by increasing rotational mass. I think some of the other culprits have been identified above.
 
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