80 mpg . . .

[franknbeans]

OK, after watching top gear season 12 - episode 4, I'm a little ticked at the US car manufacturers.
Link here.

Long story short. . . they were averaging 60-80mpg. . . Over 700 miles on one tank of gas. . . How come we don't have anything like this in the states?

[2010_5thgen]

govt wont allow it. they make too much money on gas. why would they want us using less of it? there would be alot of people out of jobs too.

[franknbeans]

"Goverment won't allow it"

Yet they bitch about giving loans to the auto industry. One main issue being the cars should have better MPG.

????

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by franknbeans

"Goverment won't allow it"

Yet they bitch about giving loans to the auto industry. One main issue being the cars should have better MPG.

????

They're in big oil's pocket and the environmentalists' pocket. One might wonder if they are the same pocket.

[franknbeans]

true that!

obviously the technology is there. . . don't understand what all the hoopla is about now.

[Speedfreak]

Originally Posted by 2010_5thgen

govt wont allow it. they make too much money on gas. why would they want us using less of it? there would be alot of people out of jobs too.

You actually believe that

[bob2the2nd]

Originally Posted by Speedfreak

You actually believe that

well i dont believe that they "wont allow it" they do have so many forced standards on cars it does make it hard. specifically safety requirements add so much weight to a car it really brings down the ability of the car to get the fantastic mileage seen everywhere else

[knowitman]

Many of the required emissions equipment and standard safety features required reduce the gas mileage. Another thing to consider is that until just this past year, the market has shown itself to not care as much about gas mileage in the types of vehicles it bought.

[Mr. Wyndham]

How much do those cars cost?

And how much does gas cost over there?

Two very important questions. The first, because I don't know of many Americans willing to spend upwards of $30,000 for increased mpg. And the second, because our society has had no long term incentive for building super-high mpg cars. Cheap gas makes gas-guzzling people. There's no two ways about it


I haven't seen the video, but I'll guarantee you that whatever they were driving wasn't a $15,000 cheap little car (like the Cobalt). And again, I haven't seen it; but was it diesel? If it's diesel, that's another issue; because the vast majority of our country wouldn't think of buying a "dirty, nasty, loud" diesel car. But they thrive in Europe.

Anyways, 100+mpg is just around the corner. It's called the Volt.

[Xanthos]

All three cars were diesel... or at least two of them were.
- Xanthos

[Mr. Wyndham]

Well, there's 75% your answer....

fwiw, GM has been building those sorts of cars in Europe for years. They know what it's about...and they know not enough people would buy them here; too expensive, and the diesel stigma.

[MerlinZero]

The primary reason is although they have better gas mileage.... They have lower emissions restricitons.

They can burn dirtier thus get more MPG

[Mr. Wyndham]

From what I understand...or understood, rather...the difference in emissions regulations between the US and Europe isn't that great. And Europe is about to adopt a very similar standard to the US's Bin 5 (Tier 2?) diesel emission standards.

[UCF w00t]

It's all about PPM (parts per million). They release less emissions as they drive however the emissions that they do emit have higher levels of not-allowed stuff.

So we allow big diesel trucks because they have lower parts per million of the naughty bits but they in the end pollute more.

The EPA reaaally needs to adjust how they measure emissions. I think a PPM/mile or something method would be much better off.

at least that's my understanding. I could be wrong.