What's Wrong With This Picture: 40/40 Vision Edition

by Edward Niedermeyer

Updated: March 19th, 2023 Published: May 25th, 2011

Surf on over to hyundaiusa.com and ford.com, and the two momentum-blessed automakers will greet you in a remarkably similar fashion: with a lineup of 40 MPG Highway-rated vehicles. Of course, Hyundai would, in its inimitable “asterisk-wrangling” style, point out that Ford’s 40 MPG requires more footnotes than a David Foster Wallace book. But then Ford might shoot back that Hyundai leaves out any reference to City or Highway ratings in its lineup, leaving consumers to play “hunt the legal disclaimer” itself. And as Autoobserver recently noted, highway ratings make for good ad fodder, but combined EPA ratings are much more helpful to consumers.

Meanwhile, it’s interesting to note that while Ford and Hyundai are pushing 40 MPG on their main splash pages, GM is touting “an approach to the environment as ambitious as our cars” (with a big, glossy Volt picture) and Toyota is sticking with its simple “number one for a reason” tag. Chrysler and Nissan have devoted their pages to pushing lease and incentive deals, while Honda’s stripped-down site simply features the new Civic (with significant space devoted to Tsunami aid donations). Each site says something about the automaker behind it, and based on Ford and Hyundai’s strong sales momentum, their shared emphasis on miles per gallon is probably instructive.

#3WTP #Advertising #Branding #Marketing #PR

Edward Niedermeyer

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7 of 29 comments

Tincanfury on May 25, 2011

So my girlfriend needs a car for her new job and I've been looking at both these companies as options for a new car purchase. Her commute is roughly 10mi but in Boston traffic/winters. She has about $6K banked for either a down payment or the outright purchase of a new car. It needs to be an automatic (left ankle issues make it very difficult for her to operate a clutch on a day-to-day basis), get excellent gas mileage, and hopefully not be a clunker. She likes hatchbacks, dislikes SUV's. Any thoughts on options? I'm looking mostly for advice on what to look for in the used car market since I feel she'd be better off buying a used vehicle even if it's only for a few years until she is better financially situated. thanks for the help!

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John_K on May 25, 2011

But a Ford Fiesta is still about 20% smaller than a Hyundai Elantra. Plus the Fiesta already has a history of transmission failures. What's wrong is that there isn't a non union pure American car company that's hungry.

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- SV on May 26, 2011
  
  Why are you comparing the Fiesta with the Elantra? Apples and oranges. Fiesta = Accent, Elantra = Focus. All 4 of which feature on the "40MPG!!!" splash pages by the way. I think Ford is plenty "hungry", with just about the most impressive lineup right now that they've ever had, bar a few glitches, and increasing market share.
  
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Advo on May 26, 2011

Do those automobile magazines ever drive cars slower than what they can get away with? There's going to be a big drop in their fuel economy compared with the EPA's as a result. That's not to say I don't agree with the thinking that the automatic transmissions are geared towards the mileage tests. Consumer Report mileage has always been better in the same model with a manual transmission over the automatic.

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- Rpn453 on May 26, 2011
  
  You should see the ridiculous shift points that the EPA requires for manual transmissions: 1-2 at 17 mph 2-3 at 25 mph 3-4 at 40 mph 4-5 at 45 mph 5-6 at 50 mph They slowly take my car to 3300 rpm in first before shifting, and then barely use second.
  
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Junebug on May 26, 2011

I have checked my actual mpg vs what Car & Driver reported they got on the same car many times over the years and they are always much lower than what I get. Why, maybe I don't drive like the fast and the Fuzzynuts everytime I get behind the wheel. 2008 GTI, 6 speed DSG - 29 mpg 2010 Madza 3, GT 2.5 automatic, 28 mpg 2008 Toyota Highlander Ltd, 23 mpg

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- CJinSD on May 26, 2011
  
  If you look at their 40K tests wrap ups, you'll see numbers at the high end of what is possible for a car. That's because they try to put 40K miles on a car in one year, so the mix of use is heavy on long trips. If you look at comparison tests, you can be comfortable that the ones that do well are more efficient in the real world than the ones that do poorly. BTW, my friend that has a 2008 GTI DSG gets mpg in the high teens. How much of that is crummy California reformulated gasoline and how much is driving mix I don't know. 29 for that car here requires a long highway trip with the cruise control set at something reasonable.
  
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