EPA can drop the city/hwy FE format just give combined far as I'm concerned

I prefer them separately because I almost never see a highway, so I ignore those numbers entirely and just look at the city numbers.

 

I hear you. I have been getting more and more irritated with the way MPG is marketed. I realize it is mainly an issue with hybrids having such a tighter variance than conventional cars. However, look at the regular Sonata vs. the hybrid Sonata. The Hyundai website advertises the turbo Sonata at 32mpg and the non-turbo at 34mpg (highway). They advertise the hybrid at 40mpg. Alot of people will be blind to the real mpg numbers (combined) and not realize that the hybrid gets MUCH better gas mileage overall.

 

Well the difference is always there. It is just a matter of "will 6mpg really make all that big a difference?" Then once they are talked into that, well if I get these options it is only another 2-3mpg worse, and the city expectation is only another 2-3mpg worse ontop of that...

So simple solution, tax the crap out of gas. Then yes, those 2-3mpg will matter as will that initial drop. If my Prius costs $100USD to fill up, then so be it.

 

You're still using less gas. It's overall consumption that counts, not just MPG.

 

I don't think the EPA should do away w/the city and highway numbers but rather perhaps they only allow combined numbers to be advertised. Or, perhaps that the automakers must advertise both city and highway and not just one or the other.

As I've mentioned before, I'd really like a short drive city test in cold weather to be added and reported. It really irks me when people complain about "poor" mileage on their Prius when they have 5-10 minute long city drives, complaining that's it's way below the EPA city number and usually they have no idea what they got on their conventional ICE car over the same route.

Then, of course, they'll compare it to some high sounding EPA highway number for some (usually smaller) econobox, some not so cheap.

The only two portions of the EPA tests w/city driving and a cold engine are 31.2 minutes long!

 

I'm pretty sure they do have to advertise both numbers. If you pause a car ad, in the fine print at the bottom it always says X/Y mpg city/hwy. Usually right before the financing terms and conditions.

Sometimes it is only 16 frames long, so about 0.5seconds and a giant wall of text at 0.nothing sized font. I think something should be done about that!

 

One would be fine for me but when I consider a vehicle I run tons of numbers and always average the two anyway, so I just do the step EPA doesn't.

 

Ugh...I must've accidentally clicked and rated this thread 1*. I can't change as I didn't mean for it to be rated that low.

Hmm... you're probably right, but that's not what I meant.

I want the crap of stuff like TV ads saying "the 40 mpg Cruze" to stop. In radio and TV ads and in large fonts onscreen or in print, they should only be allowed to state combined or both numbers.

 

Apparently they have to display one with "substantially more prominence" than the other: http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/tex...;view=text;node=16:1.0.1.2.23;idno=16;cc=ecfr

Although something else in all those caught my eye:

I thought the Focus (or maybe it was the Cruze) had advertisements of "35mpg" but you only get than on the bottom of the line with the small engine and highway, but then the picture shows the top of the line with the big engine and big wheels. Hmmmm...

 

Sigh... on this note, today on Nightly Business Report, they had an interview w/Hyundai USA's CEO and "we've got four cars now that get 40 miles per gallon, standard...without any extra costs/charges..."

Ugh! How many of those get 40+ mpg combined?

 

Meh...when I was shopping for cars, I noticed the actual EPA numbers were different then the model I had actually owned beforehand. When I was settling on the Prius vs the Fusion...I noticed the previous generations of Prius got quite a few diferent ratings from year to year (many based on how the tests had changed). One thing when it comes to my Prius that's different from all the hearsay I hear on websites and this forum....I've noticed I get a few MPGs better on highways then city driving. I don't know how much of it is that there are hills with the traffic lights I have intown...and how much I can coast and drive (even when driving up through the mountains). The average MPG I seem to be getting with my Prius is 50MPG...as much as 55MPG on highways and 47.8 here in the city.

 

The EPA tests changed starting w/model year 2008. The mileage of every car went down. Most cars had their figures adjusted by formula. You can lookup the mileage of any car at Side-by-Side Comparison.

To read more about the EPA tests, see http://priuschat.com/forums/other-c...uth-about-epa-city-highway-mpg-estimates.html.