No Progress

The Detroit News reports: Trucks hurt fuel economy.

Nine of 13 major automakers have a fleet-wide average fuel economy that is lower than a decade ago, according to a study released Monday by the Consumer Federation of America.

Man, not further ahead and not even the same. Lower. Talk about living high on the hog.

The federation also looked at the percentage of vehicles in an automaker's fleet that meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFÉ, mileage standards. In 1996, the standards were 27.5 mpg for cars and 20.7 mpg for trucks. In 2005, they were 27.5 mpg for cars and 21 mpg for trucks.

WTF! So, we can point a finger at Clinton and Bush. Weak, dudes.

Eight of the 13 major manufacturers had a higher percentage of vehicles that met CAFÉ standards in 2005 compared to 2006, with Honda Motor Co. showing the biggest gain, 86 percent to 94 percent. GM and Ford had moderate improvement, with a 4 percentage point gain for each.

"It is significant that Ford and GM showed only marginal increases in the percentage of vehicles meeting CAFÉ standards and have suffered severe financial setbacks," the report said.

It is significant, so go, Honda! We give a lot of credit to Honda for making its engines better all the time, something we don't see from Detroit.

Comments

[richard]

You know what's fun? Reading the article.

Then you would might not have been so quick to praise Honda, which, of the 13 manufacturers mentioned, had the 3rd biggest *drop* in average fuel economy from 1996 to 2005 (after Hyundai and Kia).

Quick! Someone remind me of how awesome that ASIMO robot was! Ahhh, that's better...

[Brian]

It's not fuel mileage that sells cars, though. At least, not entirely. Detroit knows this. So they pump out cars that they feel we, as Americans, want. Big, bloated, high-horsepower vehicles. They'd sell a lot more of them, too, if not for the real reason people buy honda civics - reliability. Build Quality. Upscale interiors for budget prices. All this affects re-sale value. I can sell a 5 year old civic for twice as much as a 5 year old pontiac.

I don't know why it is that the big 2.5 can't push their cars beyond decades-old technology...