> > Hi all;
 > > Soap Box switch set to 'ON'
 > > I'm going to barge in here and state that something is being
 > overlooked.> The thing that is being overlooked is the greed of
 > the politicians
 > > in Congress.
 > >
 > > Case to point:
 > > In 1993, while working at Lawrence Livermore National
 > Laboratory, I found
 > > myself in a 50 mile commute - one way... Being ever the
 > engineer (is that
 > > how that word is spelled?), I decided to get a classic commute
 > car. The
 > > car of choice was a Honda Civic VX (the VX is important) hatchback.
 > > Reasons for buying it were the essence of simplicity.
 > >
 > > It had, (the VX model,
 > > that is) at that time, the highest EPA estimated millage of
 > any car on the
 > > market. The figure I was interested in was highway mileage
 > because, at that
 > > time, most of my commuting was done at 55-65 mph. This changed
 > by the time
 > > I sold the car to absolutely awful Los Angeles style stop and
 > go for 50
 > > miles
 > > each way. I digress. Back in those days, there was a lot of
 > chit chat about
 > > the EPA estimates not being accurate, so after buying the car,
 > I dutifully
 > > recorded every fill up with mileage.
 > >
 > > I sold the car ten years later with .25M miles
 > > on it.I tallied up on my trustee Excel what I actually saw,
 > for my driving
 > > style,
 > > tires, etc. Here's the results: The EPA estimated mpg was 51
 > highway. The
 > > best
 > > recorded mpg I got was 58. The worst mpg was 35. The mean was
 > 45 mpg over
 > > ten
 > > years of mostly freeway (bumper to bumper driving). The 58
 > figure was early
 > > on when you could still travel at 65 mph. So, what's this got
 > to do with
 > > politicians?
 > >
 > > Just show me, today, a car that gets the average mpg that mine
 > > got for the highway, which is not a hybrid, can carry 4
 > comfortably, 5
 > > uncomfortably,  has large cargo and easily exceeds 120mph
 > and could drive
 > > from San Jose, CA to San Diego, CA without a fill up. I don't
 > think it's
 > > out there. I don't think anyone would suggest that the failing
 > car companies
 > > who desperately need high mileage cars to stay in business are
 > not building
 > > them because they're in cahoots with the oil industry? Or am I
 > all wet here?
 > >
 > > It's simply a case of environmentalists doing everything they
 > can do to get
 > > greenhouse gases down, ignoring the fact that much more
 > gasoline is being
 > > used to supply these somewhat cleaner, low mileage vehicles.
 > Does anyone not
 > > think that whatever technology breakthrough us techies come up
 > with that the
 > > gov won't come down on the industry with yet cleaner
 > requirements? Not to
 > > mention the need for an excessive increase in fuel tax to
 > "balance" it all
 > > out and, of course, replenish the king's coffers? If you
 > disagree, I invite
 > > you to look at yesterday's news about a two phase  tax on
 > cng fueled
 > > vehicles,
 > > the tax so high that their relatively cheap $0.88/gal cost
 > will more than
 > > double. Ah well, all in a days work.
 > > Soap Box switch set to 'OFF'
 > > -- Keith
 >
 >
 >
 > We can blame the car companies on one hand - for lack of
 > planning and
 > foresight (and imagination), but at the same time, we, the consumer
 > share much of the blame as well.  We're the ones that have been
 > choosing big gas hogs over the vehicles with better efficiency.
 > Capitalism dictates that suppliers produce what consumers
 > demand.  If
 > consumers had been leaving the gas hogs on the car lots 5 years ago,
 > Detroit would have slowed down production of them, and Toyota/Nissan
 > wouldn't have entered the market for these vehicles (full size pickups
 > and SUV's).  Similarly, if demand for the lower powered and more
 > efficient cars like the Ford Focus had been greater, production of
 > those vehicles would have been increased.
 >
 > My gripe about the American car companies is that they seem to have
 > long only paired high efficiency with poor quality - from the Chevette
 > to the Malibu.  In my opinion, none of the high efficiency
 > Americancars have had very good handling, looks, nor
 > fit/finish.  In most
 > cases, if you wanted a "nice" American car, it would get relatively
 > poor mileage - Explorer/Tahoe.  Nothing comparable to a
 > small Acura,
 > Lexus or BMW in the American car ranks.
 >
 > The dynamic (unstable) nature of our economy leads to some producers
 > being stuck in a corner when things go awry.
 >
 > As far as ultimate MPG (40-60mpg), I think it's a bit of a red herring
 > for most people.  We (as a consuming body) would be far
 > better off
 > improving the fuel economy of the worst performing vehicles by ten
 > percent than improving the best performing vehicles by
 > 30%.  Far more
 > fuel would be saved.  The miserly vehicles already burn so
 > little fuel
 > compared to the hogs that improvements in efficiency in that group
 > yield a small total amount of fuel saved.  I probably need
 > to give
 > Peter Garrison credit for this thought from one of his articles in
 > Flying a few months ago - talking about how mpg as a fuel efficiency
 > metric makes some aspects of fuel use less obvious.
 > gallons/100mi or
 > the European equivalent makes more sense...
 >
 >
 > Regards,
 >
 > Matt-

 A Mercedes-Benz G is the most polluting vehicle on the planet.  At
least it was 2 or 3 years ago.  Please note this is not an American
vehicle :))

Mercedes-Benz G 55 AMG
 >

Marc Joseph

Almost every car make builds at least a few gas hogs - there has been
a market for them..  Mercedes also builds some quite fuel efficient
cars.


Matt-