EPA's dirty lil secret

[coldmm803]

i really dont know where to put this so a mod can feel free to move it but i wanted it to be seen and i know the lounge would get attention. it explains why we dont get the milage the sticker shows.http://news.yahoo.com/s/kcra/2...52610

[Mrizzle05]

nice find... just one question, how true is that with most cars.a lot of people here say they get about 32-34 with the base on long trips and some with GTs say they average about 28-30 on a good trip. isnt that close to what our stickers show? Im not tryin to disagree... but just wondering how it suits our cars with what some genvibers have already posted.

[ZubenElGenubi]

Nice post. Kinda ticks me off that the EPA has continued to kowtow to the automobile manufacturers in this way.Here's exactly how the government test fuel economy:http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/how_tested.shtmlThis link shows graphs of the simulated "city" and "highway" runs:http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg...shtmlKinda ridiculous..the highway speed never exceeds 60 mph and the average speed of the run is only 48 mph.If you want more realistic numbers, look at real world mileage estimates from other car owners:https://www.fueleconomy.gov/mp...eList

[coldmm803]

mrizzle i dont think its much of an issue with highway miles or at least not as much for the vibe, my highways range from 28-42. its more of the fact that city mileage is much lower for some cars the vibe is advertised 26-30 city and around campus here outside phily i get 20. i know that my driving style doesnt change that much, the highway stuff i got that 28 avg when my cat was bad back in november and i honestly got a 42 a few weeks ago traveling the same area (home to college 120 mi trip) before i left i topped off my tank about 3-4 gallons and put in 89 octance for the heck of it, i still was goin 70ish. the only major difference i know of was i watched my rpms in the begining with the one hill that goes for a few miles and is kinda steep. i'm either gona start switchin to 89 octane or alternate between that and 87. now i'm no longer gona question why i'm getting lower than sticker

[joatmon]

I dunno, I've averaged about 36 mpg over the 100K miles I've put on my vibe so far.so many of the threads here are about how to get more power, to make the car go faster. People say they want a bigger engine in the VIbe, or they're trying to figure what to bolt on to the existing engine to get it to have more power. More power comes at a cost of more fuel, and people want good gas mileage, but not at the expense of performance. the article says that people's real world mileage is less than in the idealistic EPA test, and they are advocating altering the test to reflect the inefficient way people drive in the real world. An alternative solution to the problem would be to change the real world so people operate the machines more efficiently.

[ToolGuy]

Yep the test standards are old and most stickers are 15% higher then what the vehicle actually gets....

[JustinVGT]

Quote, originally posted by Mrizzle05 »nice find... just one question, how true is that with most cars.a lot of people here say they get about 32-34 with the base on long trips and some with GTs say they average about 28-30 on a good trip. isnt that close to what our stickers show?In my GT I average 26-27 mpg in my daily commuting which isn't ever open highway, and there is quite a bit of stop and go traffic. On the open highway cruising in the 65-70 mph range I get usually right around 30 mpg. Before I had any modifications, my best mileage was 34 mpg and I used to almost always get 32+ on road trips.So maybe the ratings are off sometimes, but I'm getting the rated MPG and used to get better before my mods.

[coldmm803]

joatmon, i understand what you said and agree some what but i think its more that a teadmill cant accuratly reflect real world conditions because there are so many variables that it cant create. city wise the distance between lights, # of potholes, weather conditions and the (removed) in front of you that just cant drive or the person that cuts in front of you cant be mimiced by current testing procedure.i've had my vibe for a lil over a yr and put 10,000 mi on it and averaged 28mpg, i was getting better milage in the begining and then it droped for whatever reason and then on top of that my cat went badi think the best way to get the #'s for the stickers is to have 3 ppl drive the same car through a specific area and avg their mileage. but having every manufacturer create the same course is still not perfect