Drivers can remember when cars got high mileage without fancy technology
With gas prices staying well above $3 a gallon in the United States this year more drivers are remembering a time when there were quite a few cars that regularly got higher mileage than some of the high-tech cars available today. In the 1980s, Honda offered versions of the Civic and CRX, Ford offered the Fiesta and GM even had the Chevette, all of which could get over 50 mpg on the highway.
While cars today have a lot more features like standard air conditioning, power windows, navigation systems, power seats, air bags, ABS, Traction control etc, they don't have any better mileage and in many cases get worse mileage than they did twenty years ago. What happened? Well all those fancy new features we have in all of our cars add weight. Each individual one doesn't add much but it all adds up. Cars also meet higher safety and emissions requirements and they are bigger - a lot bigger. You rarely find cars as small and light as a CRX on American roads today.
It should come as no surprise to drivers that cars don't go as far on a gallon of gas as they did previously. They buy larger and heavier vehicles and so manufacturers adjust to meet customer demand. If buyers today actually go out and buy cars like Fit, Yaris and the upcoming small Ford then manufacturers will build more of them.
[Source: Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gary 7:49AM (3/05/2008)
I own a 1996 Cavalier with 5 speed and an engine modified by me. Cruising at 60MPH I have obtained 47 MPG and am currently working on a 10 percent increase. My 1951 Mercury 4 door got 32 MPG in 1962. If I can do GM, Ford and Chrysler can also.
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Joseph 2:47PM (6/04/2007)
Ahh...The CRX, I love that sort of design: the sporty hatchback. The Insight is sort of a hybrid version of the CRX I suppose; with the Insight's smooth design and high mpg, it's even better.
Now, to get to the subject. Unfortunately,the reason we don't see high-mpg cars anymore is because the standard for a "good car" today requires an array of safety features, emmision control systems, and a much larger engine than the ye olde' days of the Oil Crisis.
Great high-mpg cars can be made today, the problem is that they'll have less power and be smaller. (duh!) For some reason the American public doesn't quite seem to understand that. People always say that both power and mpg are very important, but they almost never sacrafice power for mpg. WE just are *too* wasteful. Oh well, that won't stop me from buying a sports car along with my Tesla. HaHaHaHa.
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Randy 1:34PM (6/04/2007)
Unfortunately not even the CRX gets great mileage by today's standards. I own a 1991 CRX Si and with mixed driving, occasionally using the A/C I get roughly 30mpg. Of course there were models with less creature comforts (and a better final drive ratio) like the CRX DX or HF which consistently can achieve over 40mpg. Even the Civics of that vintage (1988-1995) in their lower trim models got fantastic mileage (40mpg+). There's still hope for a 40mpg+ vehicle without some fancy hybrid system!
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amg 2:21PM (6/04/2007)
Ford makes an even tinier car than the one mentioned that was all over England and Germany when I visited there recently. It was called the Ka and I'm sure it gets phenomenal gas mileage. I'm sure I wouldn't like the reasons why they don't offer it for sale in the States.
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MikeW 2:38PM (6/04/2007)
Where is the 6 speed manual [dual countershaft] transmissions for the civic and fit?
4,8,12,16,20,24 for the fit
5,9,13,17,21,25 for the civic.
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MetroMPG.com 2:49PM (6/04/2007)
Cars aren't just heavier, they're much more powerful than they used to be. These two things are only *partly* related (you need more power to accelerate a more massive car at the same rate as a lighter one).
But just look back 15 or 20 years at what the North American motoring press considered "good" acceleration numbers back then. You'll find figures that would be laughed at by many gearheads today.
I'm not laughing.
0-60 mph in 12-14 seconds in an affordable small car fine by me, and I would gladly take the fuel savings that go along with a less powerful engine. Just try to find a manufacturer selling one in North America though.
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Mattias 3:25PM (6/04/2007)
I once had a three door Peugeot 205 Diesel with 60hp and a veeeerrrry long fifth gear. I constantly got 52 to 59mpg. Dropping a large XUD diesel into such a small car was a very good decision.
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Tim 5:20PM (6/04/2007)
My fuel mileage has decreased 20% since they started blending it with 10% corn ethanol AND the cost of the fuel has risen. Of course, this does not include all the tax money that I am FORCED to "give" to subsidize corn ethanol. We now have happy farmers, happy lobbyists and happy ignorant politicians (who will be lobbyists some day) while I’m spending even more money on fuel and our children are dying in a war to change a foreign government thus creating even more unhappy suicidal sociopaths. We’re saying to the world, be free or we will kill you? What’s wrong with this picture? (a rhetorical question)
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MikeW 9:18PM (6/04/2007)
Gas with 10% ethanol still has 97% the energy of plain old gas.
If, more like when, Honda puts the R20 engine in the civic, (it has a three length/stage intake manifold) it could pull a taller top gear, 5,10,15,20,25,30
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Owain Ozymandias Buck 7:30AM (6/05/2007)
Don't worry about being "forced" to subsidize ethanol production. It's good training for when oil really does start to become scarce--which will come much sooner than we think. Likewise, artificially high fuel prices will make it easier to adapt to the real crunch. In a few years, we won't have to subsidize biofuel production, and we'll be thankful we have the infrastructure in place--all of that being built thanks to what else? Susidies. It will pay off in the long run.
Now where's my 1800 lb. skeleton car. I don't need no stinkin' roof or doors, just a roll cage and a good pair of shades!
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BC 10:23AM (6/05/2007)
If anybody has my old metallic blue 83 Civic 1300FE, I'd love to buy it back. After 15 years I still regret selling it. BEST CAR EVER.
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bill 10:34AM (6/05/2007)
Randy is getting 30 MPG out of his Honda CRX Si? I had a 1988 CRX Si bought new, and I averaged 37 mpg over 40,000 miles. Most of the driving involved short trips - 6 miles or much less - with the occasional long drive mixed in. On a long drive I saw as much as 43 miles per gallon. My car did not have air conditioning. I traded the CRX for a new 1994 Honda Civic coupe with a/c and averaged the same 37 miles per gallon. My present car is a 2001 Acura Integra GSR, and I am averaging 29 to 32 mpg. The trick is to get into high gear as quickly as possible and avoid high revs while getting there. Avoiding high revs with a Honda is a challenge, but it does have its rewards when it comes to miles per gallon.
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David 8:36PM (6/05/2007)
Since the late 80's when CAFE mileage peaked, the average car sold in this country has gotten heavier AND faster. So of course it's also gotten much more powerful. We can only wonder what fuel mileage would be like today had acceleration figures remained constant over the last twenty years instead of improving by more than 20% to 60mph (EPA figures).
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