Toyota increases fuel mileage on Camry, midsize wars rage on
If the late '60s were all about horsepower, the late 2000s are all about fuel mileage. Forty years ago, the muscle car was invented by dropping the largest available V8 engine in a midsize car platform. Today, the volume sellers cut that classic cylinder count in half, though the transmissions now have six forward ratios in lieu of the three- and four-speed units of yesteryear, mostly. More on that in a bit. In short, the horsepower wars have given way to the fuel efficiency wars, and Chevy, Ford and Toyota are locked in a three-way battle for the crown of most fuel efficient midsize sedan in America.
Chevy came out swinging with its redesigned Malibu in 2008, and it's upped the ante in 2009 with a new six-speed automatic, though the base models still come equipped with an antiquated four-speed. Toyota has tweaked its 2010 Camry enough to earn matching EPA ratings of 22 city and 33 highway, though that figure is achieved with a stick shift and drops by 1 mpg on the highway when equipped with an equivalent automatic transmission. Ford's got 'em all beat with its new 2010 Fusion, though, which tops the list of contenders with figures of 23 city and 34 highway. Let the fight continue.
[Source: Kicking Tires]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
BoneHeadOtto 3:42PM (1/28/2009)
Im wishing Toyota paid the same attention to Scion. Scions could get much better mileage with a little tweaking. If a Camry 4cylinder can weigh 3400 lbs and get 22/33 then surely the xB can do better than 22/28. If they put 6speeds across both transmissions and gave it a more modern 4cylinder with DI we would easily see better mileage.
Personally i love that cars practicality and price. It just falls in an annoying spot where it either needs to be sportier (3.5L v6 and 6spd manual please) or more fuel efficient (2.0L 4-cylinder with 6spd manul and 24/34 mpg). Seems like they could have both with that new 2.7L 4-cylinder in the Hylander. If it can get 27hwy with that motor surely a 1000lb less car with the same aerodynamics can be geared to get 30mpg. oh well
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BlackbirdHighway 10:16AM (1/28/2009)
That was more like 40 years ago when the Muscle Car was big.
1978 was certainly NOT all about muscle cars, it was all over by then. That was the era of underpowered cars, I think the 1978 'Vette had only about 180 horsepower.
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Jeremy Korzeniewski 11:34AM (1/28/2009)
whoops, that was a typo, meant 40 years, will fix.
gorr 10:40AM (1/28/2009)
As they increase milage they cut horsepower available to the wheel, that's all and it's not a miracle. They use the same basic technology then in the 1908 era, namelly gasoline. So they didn't invent nothing since 100 years. Yes it's more efficient now a little bit but the basic is the exact same then in 1908. It's not fun cutting drivability and adding costly innovation to a basic flawed design. It's the gasoline that push the car forward and to save fuel you have to push less with heavy vibration and hiccups and a lot and costly add-on like egr, catalytics converters, unresponsive gas pedal, costly transmission, poor traction tires, constricted cabin with low space, windshield put 3 foot in front of the driver, police control if you idle the car more then 2 minutes, police control if you drive too fast, police control to reach downtown poluted area, state control for co2 tax, military protection for oil trading, medicare protection for lung cancer and treatments, political speachs for global warming and control by your personnal carbon footprint that you are the guilty one, tax money subsidise polution researchs.
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sydbot 5:59PM (1/28/2009)
Does the base Fusion also come with a manual transmission? Looks like it does to get the 34 highway; wonder what their 6-speed auto gets?
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nardvark 9:05AM (1/29/2009)
The 34mpg highway is for the 6-speed automatic. The EPA hasn't finished the numbers on the manual yet. Actually, I find this hilarious, I would have thought that they just put the test results into a spreadsheet and have it spit the answer out...Apparently they've got interns with slide-rules doing this the hard way.
Chris M 11:44PM (1/28/2009)
It is interesting to note that the 3 models mentioned (Malibu, Camry, Fusion) also have a hybrid version available, though admittedly, the Malibu Hybrid barely qualifies as a hybrid.
I'm still looking forwards to the plug-in versions...
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Jobu37 8:22AM (1/29/2009)
@sydbot
The 34 hwy rating is with the six speed automatic. Ford has not released numbers for the a manual 5-speed. It's possible that one may not be offered.
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