Some automakers have cars that get a stupendous mileage, but they are priced or built so that nobody wants them. We won’t name names, draw your own conclusions. A much better metric than the mileage of a car is the mileage of all cars you sell. The combined mileage of all cars sold by a manufacturer or brand used to be a top secret document. Manufacturers with stellar averages sometimes leaked theirs. But what good are these statistics if manufacturers with mediocre averages hide their data? Thankfully, last year TrueCar started tracking the MPG averages of cars sold in the U.S. And it is coming to surprising results.
Not surprisingly, the most fuel efficient cars are sold by smart and MINI. Duh, all they have are small cars.
Once the offerings get a bit more diverse, Hyundai emerges as a clear winner with an average MPG of 27.8 in February 2012. Hyundai is closely followed by Volkswagen with 27.4 MPG. JLR can boast that it affords the luxury of absolutely atrocious mileage, a label Jaguar and Land Rover share with truck-heavy Ram.
With one narrow exception, Detroit cars are below average when it comes to combined mileage. A Volt doesn’t do anything to the environment if people don’t buy it. The only Detroit brand above average is Buick. The German and Chinese influenced brand is a tenth of a mile better than run-of-the-mill.
TrueCar TrueMPG By Brand, February 2011
| Brand | Feb-12 | Feb-11 | YoY |
| smart | 36.2 | 36.2 | 0.0 |
| MINI | 30.3 | 30.0 | 0.3 |
| Hyundai | 27.8 | 26.1 | 1.7 |
| Volkswagen | 27.4 | 25.5 | 1.9 |
| Kia | 26.1 | 25.8 | 0.3 |
| Scion | 26.0 | 25.6 | 0.4 |
| Honda | 24.7 | 24.6 | 0.1 |
| Mazda | 24.6 | 24.3 | 0.3 |
| Toyota | 24.5 | 25.0 | -0.5 |
| Mitsubishi | 24.5 | 25.1 | -0.6 |
| Subaru | 23.5 | 23.2 | 0.3 |
| Nissan | 23.4 | 22.8 | 0.6 |
| Suzuki | 23.4 | 23.2 | 0.2 |
| Buick | 22.4 | 20.3 | 2.1 |
| Industry | 22.3 | 21.4 | 0.9 |
| Audi | 22.2 | 22.0 | 0.2 |
| Chevrolet | 21.7 | 21.3 | 0.4 |
| Ford | 21.3 | 17.3 | 4.0 |
| Lexus | 21.2 | 21.2 | 0.0 |
| Acura | 21.1 | 19.9 | 1.2 |
| Saab | 20.9 | 22.4 | -1.5 |
| Chrysler | 20.9 | 19.5 | 1.4 |
| Volvo | 20.9 | 21.2 | -0.3 |
| BMW | 20.5 | 20.2 | 0.3 |
| Mercedes | 20.5 | 19.1 | 1.4 |
| Dodge | 20.3 | 19.8 | 0.5 |
| Lincoln | 19.7 | 18.8 | 0.9 |
| Infiniti | 19.6 | 19.7 | -0.1 |
| Porsche | 19.4 | 21.0 | -1.6 |
| GMC | 18.9 | 18.9 | 0.0 |
| Jeep | 18.6 | 17.6 | 1.0 |
| Cadillac | 18.4 | 18.8 | -0.4 |
| Jaguar | 18.0 | 18.0 | 0.0 |
| Ram | 15.6 | 15.6 | 0.0 |
| Land Rover | 15.0 | 14.0 | 1.0 |
The YoY column says what manufacturers actually do about mileage. It compares the combined MPG of cars sold in February 2012 with that of cars sold in February 2012.
The star of the MPG improvement category clearly is Ford. Within one year, Ford delivered 4 miles per gallon more across all Fords sold. If Ford keeps up this performance, it will soon be found in the hero category. The company not rescued by the government has the best improvement and the best overall MPG ranking of all Detroit makers.
Top ranking Hyundai and Volkswagen improved their MPG by 1.9 and 1.7 miles respectively. Buick surprisingly improved a below-average 20.3 MPG last year by a class-leading 2.1 miles. Ford and Buick protected Detroit’s virtue: The mileage may still be sub-par. But at least, something is being done to improve it.
Tagged as Bertel Schmitt, Fuel Efficiency, MPG
I wouldn’t consider any of the makes to be “full line” manufacturers until you get to Toyota. Full- size V-8 pickup and SUV sales are going to hurt your numbers, as well high performance cars, even if they sell in relatively small numbers like the Corvette. The only V-8s in Hyundai’s portfolio are in the Genesis and Equus sedans, which are still selling in fairly low numbers and will still get better mpg than a truck regardless. Toyota is the first manufacturer on the list that offers any seriously thirsty vehicles and their share of the pickup and fullsize SUV market compared to GM, Ford, and Chrysler is miniscule. Same with Nissan.
Given the huge numbers of full size trucks that they sell I am actually more impressed with Chevrolet and Ford being only slightly below average than I am with Hyundai and VW being near the top.
Disagree. The Honda Ridgeline may only offer a V6, but it gets V8 fuel economy. ;-)
SUPER ONLINE ATTACK HOW DARE YOU IN 3, 2, 1…
yeah but when you only sell 3 Ridgelines a year, it doesn’t really affect your corporate mileage. :)
Mercedes-Benz gets the grand award for cars sucking more than they should based on sized and displacement.
Good one. I thought about the Ridgeline and the Pilot as I was writing my comment, but as others said, their market share compared to the Detroit trucks is miniscule, even smaller than Toyota and Nissan.
Honda’s best selling models are the Civic and the Accord. Ford sells as many F-150s every year as both Honda model lines do combined. If you combine the Silverado and the Sierra figures, GM does the same.
This list is just not an apples to apples comparision, IMO.
The Honda Ridgeline and Pilot are not only selling in small numbers, they are also not what one would consider Full-sized. The Ridgeline being a uni-body is not really even a truck; more like a Japanese El Camino.
Agreed, Dukeboy01.
Well in addition to Toyota’s full line of V8 guzzlers, let’s look at Scion’s line of all I4′s: it’s still below Hyundai even with Hyundai’s having V8′s as well many other cars and SUV’s much larger than anything Scion offers, some still with V6′s.. Truth is much of Toyota’s advantage in the car field comes from Hybrids. Hyundai may be the second biggest seller of Hybrids, but still its percentage of hybrids sold is a mere small fraction of Toyota’s. So if you’re looking for a hybrid and are willing to pay, other than maybe the upcoming Fusion, there’s really no reason to start anywhere other than your Toyota dealer. If you’re not really interested in a hybrid, Toyota is far from a fuel economy leader these days.
Scion iQ has the best mpg out of any other car on sale in USA :-).
Camry 4cly 2.5l engine had the best mpg of 4cly engines in class until new Altima came out month ago. Old V6 in new Avalon is also best performer.
In Europe, where trucks dont play into hand, and there is variety of engine choices, Toyota is #1 full lineup manufacturer, 20% better than VW for instance.
It would be interesting to see a volume-weighted industry average. Although smart and MINI are low-volume at the top of the charts, the set {Hyundai, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota} is a significant chunk of market share above the numeric average. One could have believed before looking at the relative positions that boutique brands would occupy the top and the bulk of cars would be below the by-brand average; it might be with that bunch above the average that we could have an even worse depiction of GM, Chrysler, and JLR — shrinking market share and poor MPG.
Also, does this list reflect the # of each model sold? That is, you could have a 50mpg ecocar that sells 2k but if you have a 15mpg SUV that sells 30k then is the average 32.5 or 17.2 ?
I think The Anointed One and a few hundered GM shareholders are hoping so…just sayin’ :)
Just goes to show… to save the planet, it’s not about making every car a hyper-miler, it’s about changing the mix of the cars sold. VW near the top even though individually, their cars aren’t milage class leaders. They don’t have the volume of larger cars and SUV’s to bring down their corporate average.
Also shows where Honda and Toyata have really strayed… they used to have industry leading average fuel efficiency numbers, but got increasingly dependent on larger cars. Also shows how much more growth potential Hyundai has…as they penetrate the market and start relying on higher margin larger cars, their average will go down as well.
How come the YoY is not the difference between the first 2 columns?
You explanation: “It compares the combined MPG of cars sold in February 2012 with that of cars sold in February 2012″ doesn’t help much neither.
True. The calculation was TrueCar’s. I recalculated the YoY…..
Honestly, this table doesn’t tell me anything new. Companies that sell mostly cars? At the top. Companies that sell a range of vehicles? In the middle. Companies that sell luxury cars/trucks? At the bottom. Detroit sells vehicles that are competitively efficient with the competition, but when demand is high for F-150′s they are still going to sell them.
You’re right, this chart is a real exercise in “No $h!t”
Numbers that confirm what you thought are still very useful.
I concede that it would be more interesting if the numbers didn’t confirm what you were thinking, though. Those numbers are much more fun!
What, exactly, do those YOY numbers represent? They certainly don’t represent the difference between the supplied ’11 and ’12 numbers.
This article made my head hurt. Bertel is my vying to be my spin class instructor. (He probably isn’t as attractive. And teaches a different kind of ‘spin.’) This chart is the trend of the customer. Bertel’s jump to conclusions mat should also have a price/fuel efficiency/make/model analysis to back his claims up if he wants to push his opinion.
Try moving 8 people in a SMART, or plowing a parking lot with a Mini. How about a roofing job with a Hyundai? Going to tow your RV or a boat with Scion or Kia?
What is the point of this story? Consider capability. Houses wouldn’t get built, Camry’s wouldn’t get towed, and people couldn’t drive up piles of cinderblocks without a truck.
This “news article” is a pile of steamy left wing Bull Doo-doo!!! Shame on you TTAC!!!
TTAC left wing?…That has to be a first.
I’m having a hard time imagining a union bashing, free trade loving hippie. Maybe a TTAC tramp stamp would be fitting.
“Try moving 8 people in a SMART, or plowing a parking lot with a Mini. How about a roofing job with a Hyundai? Going to tow your RV or a boat with Scion or Kia?”
Card carrying Prius driver here.
Nobody’s arguing that you should plow a parking lot with a Mini Cooper or a Prius.
If you actually plow parking lots with your truck, or build houses for a living, or haul heavy loads regularly, or travel regularly over unimproved roads in the 3rd world parts of the USA, then you really do need a truck.
It’s the poseurs that drive pristine clean undented F-150s with no wear on the trailer hitch to white collar jobs in the city that annoy people like me. I believe in their freedom to annoy me, but I also believe in my freedom to publicly admonish them on the Internet for using the wrong tool for the job.
P.S. Those people do occasionally do favors for the rest of us. For instance, I co-bought an F-150 from a pharmacist who used it to commute to his job in the city. The driver of the truck (a family member who is co-owner) has used the truck to travel thousands of miles over unimproved roads in the 3rd world parts of the USA for her job. She uses the 4WD regularly, and also travels with the bed packed full of work-tools and survival supplies. I’d like to thank the guy who owned the truck before us, for keeping it in such good shape for us while it depreciated, without receiving any real wear. He saved us a ton of money! And now the truck works for a living.
Luke42,
If the job is posing, then it’s the “right tool” for the job.
Fairly pristine newer F-150 owner here.
Most of its noticeable wear & tear, inside & out, were done by mine and friend’s dogs I look after despite hundreds of Home Depot runs (often for cinder blocks & concrete mix) and taking it deep into the woods. So I like to keep my trucks as dent and blemmish free as possible and so what? Don’t you do the same for your Prius? They both sell for more that way, don’t they? Of course no one would ever accuse a Prius owner of posing but should you drive your’s into the ground otherwise you’re just a poser?
@DenverMike:
We’re working hard on driving the Prius into the ground, but at 140k miles it just refuses to wear out!
But, yeah, if you’re commuting to a white-collar job in the city in an F-150, you really aren’t using the F-150 for what it’s good for. You’re wasting a perfectly good work truck on an easy commute.
Carrying a half ton of gear across the high desert on a dirt trail? My Prius is absolutely the wrong tool for that job, but the F-150 one of several right tools for that job. Very nice truck for the purpose, though.
Use the tight tool for the right job.
Luke42,
My commute is short, I’ll admit, but it’d have to be really long to justify having a second commuter car even though I’m in ‘danger’ of getting accused of being a poser or ‘all hat’ because my 5 year truck looks showroom at least at a distance. Actually some random guy laughed in my face about my truck at the Home Depot. I doesn’t bother one bit and it should last me and look good for 40 years the way it’s going and what of it?
So I’m a poser for buying more truck than I ever hardly need but it’s somehow OK to buy a BMW when a Camry will get me there just fine?
I worked at a Ford dealer as a kid and remember some old dude would bring in his couple years old, two tone brown ’87 F-150 XLT for service and it sparkled, it looked so new. Thirty years later I’d spot him around town in it and it was the cleanest, nicest older truck around. Then I saw some landscaper with it and it went down hill fast. The first thing he did was put stake-bed wooden sides on it and overloaded it to the point of spreading the bed wide open. Thought it was kind of a shame.
F-150s can be classic collectables if spec’d out right, right? Maybe not like Corvettes, M3s or something but seeing a well preserved example makes it all the more interesting because most do get driven into the ground while Corvettes and M3s not so much.
“Luke42: F-150s can be classic collectables if spec’d out right, right?”
Of course they can. And if the figures at auctions are any indication, classic trucks will be the 69 Camaro of the 20-teens.
Here’s an article on this for edification:
http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2012/01/big-for-classic-pickups-at-top-auctions.html
Outside TTAC’s B&B parallel universe, trucks are steeped in the culture and the classic market is beginning to recognize that in a big way.
@DenverMike:
No moral judgement here, but I do think it makes you look like a tool.
But perhaps something like an Escape with a small trailer would be a better fit for your needs? It’s still one vehicle, it costs much less than an F-150, and gets much better gas mileage — especially with the newer variants. The 3500lb towing capacity allows you to haul much more than you can fit in the bed of your F-150. It’s a high-volume car, so parts and service are readily available. AWD is available for weekending and cases when snow removal isn’t up to snuff. The Escape is also just as easy to park as the Prius.
Our Prius is our daily driver, but it can’t do everything. Our backup-car is an Escape with a towing package and a trailer. My 3rd vehicle (which is only in my driveway a couple of times a year, but I’m first owner on the paperwork) is an F-150. It’s a wonderful truck,.
If you want the truck for some non-practical reason, though, that’s your call. If your truck is really about image (just like those BMWs that I decline to own), then you’ve got to realize that the image isn’t universally perceived the way you wish it would be. I’m strongly biased toward just-what-you-need practicality, so I tend to think “who does that guy think he is?!?” when I see a BMW, rather than “wow, who is that guy!”
@86er:
“Luke42: F-150s can be classic collectables if spec’d out right, right?”
Of course they can. And if the figures at auctions are any indication, classic trucks will be the 69 Camaro of the 20-teens.
…
Outside TTAC’s B&B parallel universe, trucks are steeped in the culture and the classic market is beginning to recognize that in a big way.
I didn’t say that, but I’ll engage anyway.
Don’t most people who spend their time with classic cars spend more time working on it than driving it? Seems like a fine hobby to me.
My issue is using a giant and massively work-truck as a commuter vehicle. It’s like you’re driving a smart car — but with an extra 10 feet of stuff bolted on to the back and the front. Why bother?
If you need a truck for work, you’re probably spending too much time towing trailers, hauling lumber, and driving through the mud to keep it clean and/or fix every little dent. I see these trucks in my town. They’re very obviously being used to transport livestock and agricultural products. That’s an excellent use for a big truck, and it’s the right tool for the job. But when you park an actual farm truck (often dented muddy Duallies) or an actual contractor’s truck next to a pristine F-150 Office Worker Edition, the contrast is pretty astounding.
Careful taking the moral high ground on this topic and calling out the truck drivers; who’s to say that the people driving those pristine F150s aren’t driving far shorter distances than the Prius drivers? I mean, isn’t it worse for a Prius driver to drive his car 75 miles per day than an F150 driver that works a few miles from home?
@Luke42, sorry about the misattribution. Getting cross-eyed from reading too much TTAC.
+1000000
There are times where I would love to have a full-sized truck… picking up drywall or lumber in large quantities for a project, or a mountain of mulch or topsoil. The people who actually use their trucks for work, though, may not be that high a percentage of the number of full-sized pickups in full zoot that get bought. If you had to prove your hard-working bonafides before buying an F-150, Ford probably wouldn’t sell as many of them.
However, the stats above reveal the known truth that size and weight are the easiest routes to fuel economy. Not surprisingly.
How about a roofing job with a Hyundai?
Not roofing, but I ran a gardening company out of an Elantra hatchback. More secure tool storage, and better mileage then a truck, even when pulling a trailer with 1.5 yards of mulch or a yard of compost or top soil. Unlike any truck that gets better then 16mpg I didn’t have to reload, or leave behind, tools when hauling bulk stuff.
Since roofing tools and scaffolding are lighter and somewhat less bulky then gardening stuff, And bulk roofing materials gets delivered by boom truck right to the roof whenever possible, I think I could do it, if I didn’t hate roofing.
The point of this story, as the article headline suggests, is to bait people into flaming.
“Want To Save Gas? Don’t Buy American”
lol.
thats what TTAC puts out……….. Anti-American B.S.
Absolutely useless info. As has been previously mentioned, Ford and Chevy numbers are remarkable when considering the huge amount of F series and Silverado/Suburban/Tahoe sales.
I agree that this ‘story’ is a complete red herring. Each model in a manf’s range needs to stand on its own merits (which are different for different customers) against its competition. Why does it matter what the company’s fleet average MPG is?
“Why does it matter what the company’s fleet average MPG is?”
Fuel economy in the USA is regulated by Corporate Average Fuel Economy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Average_Fuel_Economy
Those liberals in congress and the presidency have, with my full support( ;-) ), decided to increase the CAFE standard fuel economy over the next few years. So, this list shows us who’s going to have an easy time dealing with the new regulatory environment that car makers will face in the next 5-10 years.
There are some problems with the new CAFE regulation (the tests that they’re using for legal compliance are older tests that are less realistic).
These numbers are still very meaningful even though you rightfully point out that they don’t mean what everybody wants to think they mean.
agreed, this info is fairly useless, it does not take into account # of cars sold and THEN average their usage. garbage.
Even down to the lower middle range, most of the brands can rightly say that they offer high mileage vehicles for those that want them. But what they can’t do is repeal the laws of physics. High gas mileage is not free – there are trade offs and even with gas headed toward $5.00 a lot of drivers don’t want to make those trade offs.
What, like not having an overpowered car?
My last several vehicles have been close to 3000lbs and close to 100hp. That’s honestly enough power for my everyday needs, even for my old Ford Ranger pickup.
I bought a V6 Escape (mostly because the engine has a timing chain, but also because the I4 Escape is harder to find), and it has way more power than I use on a regular basis. I like the smoothness of the V6, but after the fun-factor of having power that I don’t need wore off, I’d happily trade it for an I4 Escape with a fresh timing belt.
I wouldn’t make this tradeoff in a weekend fun-car, but I didn’t buy this car for weekend fun. It’s a family truckster that I bought for purely practical reasons, and it doesn’t agree with my taste. In a weekend fun-car, I’d keep the power. But in this stealth-gray ugly-duckling family-truckster, I want low operating costs (which is why I specified the fresh timing belt on the I4 engine).
“A much better metric than the mileage of a car is the mileage of all cars you sell.”
That’s a big assumption. If I reject it, then the entire article is hogwash.
Wouldn’t a better metric be the overall comparison of the vehicles you sell v. competitors in each market segment? If a car-centric company’s cars have worse mpg than Ford’s or Chevy’s (whose overall numbers are dragged down by their trucks), do they really get better mileage?
We could try grouping class by weight, and if we assume weight is a decent predictor of mileage, we could use that as a metric. First, define the relationship between weight & mpg based on a survey of all products on the market. (E.g., it might look something like mpg = 45 – weight/200 lb.) Then, average each make’s deviation from that curve across all their sales.
The result will be an indication of which automakers do better/worse than others based on the type of car they sell. Of course, this won’t help companies that get excellent mileage through weight savings. For that, both the above results and the ‘weighted’ results can be compared.
I like this idea. Weight/mpg would be a good measure of the overall efficiency of the vehicle’s drivetrain, aerodynamics, etc; but I’d also like to see a stat for interior volume/mpg to show the “utility” of the vehicle (lower number is better). No statistic will be a perfect measure, but it’s always interesting to look at trends.
I like the idea of interior volume. That’s a good measure of the purpose of a vehicle.
Another option would be footprint like the EPA uses.
I would love to see that chart.
A scatter-plot with vehicle mass on the X axis, and Gallons/100miles combined EPA rating on the Y axis. Each auto-maker’s points distinguished with a color.
I bet The Best And Brightest would have a field day with this one. I can make some guesses about the outliers on the small-car end of the spectrum, but I’d be really curious to see what the big-vehicle part of the graph has to say.
WOW!
Now – I want to see this same information broken down by the first letter of each model name.
I bet there is as much to discover doing that, as there is with this list right now.
I betting on the letter, “J”! I just have a hunch that the greenest, most bestest vehicles are the ones that have model names that begin with the letter “J”!
I’ll chime in and agree with most other commenters – what’s the point of this? Doing a ranking by class makes sense – ranking a company by fleet average simply reflects the vehicles they offer and who buys them, not necessarily how efficient the vehicles they produce are for their relative utility. You might as well rank companies by how much gas X brand cars consume every year in the USA. Isuzu would probably win!
Because environment. If you want to regulate emissions while letting manufacturers have free market control over what they produce, you cap their average emissions per vehicle. This type of regulation has a powerful effect if it’s done properly. I’m more familiar with medical/pharmaceutical, but in countries where the total cost of treatment is capped versus regulating the cost of each individual medical device, the regulatory effect can be quite profound. In Germany, prices for surgical devices fell substantially the year their capitated system was introduced.
This doesn’t have anything to do with emissions because miles are not a constant.
Framing the discussion as if they were shifts the blame from the end user burning the gas to the faceless scapegoats of “big oil” and “big auto”.
Worst. Headline. Ever.
OK, maybe not, but it’s up there. True, if a buyer were to choose a car by blindly picking a vehicle at random from the dealer’s lot, he’d have a better chance at getting decent mpg by eliminating American manufacturers. I’m pretty confident that the number of people who shop like that is exactly zero.
Also, TrueCar’s number for industry average is somewhat misleading as it is unweighted, so it’s not really representative of the industry as a whole, it’s the average per manufacturer. For instance, if the industry consisted solely of Ford and Smart, and Ford sells a million vehicles that average 20 mpg, and Smart sells ten thousand that get 40 mpg, the industry average would be 20.2 mpg.
[1,000,000 Fords*20mpg + 10,000 Smarts*40mpg]/1,010,000 vehicles.
But using TrueCar’s math, it’s 30mpg ([40mpg+20mpg]/2 Brands).
Both numbers are significant, as long as you understand how they were determined.
Bashing aside, that’s some interesting data and I’m glad Bertel brought it to our attention.
People don’t buy the whole manufacturing line-up of any auto company, do they? Highdesercat, CJinSD, or Volt 230 maybe?
Bertel Schmidt is starting to stand for “BS” with your anti-American auto industry sentiment.
I’d bet that Torque/MPG GM beats them all!
I’d give Bertel far more credit than that. From reading his posts, he does work (or has worked?) for Volkswagen, is German, currently lives in Japan, and apparently reads a lot of Chinese car blogs, and writes for an English-language car blog — so there’s no really reason he should favor American cars just because they’re American.
I do wonder sometimes, though, if Bertel Schmitt is a penname chosen specifically for the initials — it seems like it would mesh with his sense of humor.
I’m a fan of his posts, even if I do take them with a grain of salt most of the time.
But you do make a point about people buying individual vehicles, rather than the corporate average fuel consuming vehicle!
On the bright side Bertel has put more effort in than simply regurgitating a random and typically inconsequential blog post from some Chinese web blog.
On the down side he did what many journalists do, present the data in such a way as to permit him to generate an attention grabbing headline. No matter that he is required to give praise to Ford and Buick (in direct contradiction to his title) or that the context of the statistics drastically favors low volume producers of small vehicles while penalizing full line producers and ostracizing niche luxury markets. I would expect that many more SMART buyers are concerned with the “Want to save gas?” theme of the title than your average JLR buyer. The data can be significant but in this context it isn’t particularly useful or surprising as others have explained.
I’m desperately waiting for a Greasemonkey script that auto-hides Bertel’s submissions.
As for the member who suggested a political slant, I think that’s going a bit far. But if you were to infer that this particular contributor has an affinity for certain Asian producers and prefers to prop them up at the expense of US based firms then you would be correct. It’s an opinion that he is of course entitled to but after a while becomes a bit tedious.
This is a pretty lame article. Overall MPG has to do with the cars that you sell, or in this case, the trucks that you sell. Go figure that the American brands that sell big SUVs and trucks in large numbers have a worse overall MPG rating. A+ reporting right there.
Luke42:
All Ford Escape(and Mazda Tribute) 4-cylinder engines from ’05 on had timing chains, not belts. The same 2.3 found in the Fusion, Mazda3, Mazda5, and Mazda6. The last 4-cyl w/timing belt in the Escape was the 2.0 in ’04.
I was looking in the 2001-2004 category of Escape, because I’m a cheap bastard and don’t mind doing some maintenance.
Since I couldn’t find anything close to my ideal car, I just went for the cheapest family vehicle that had LATCH and a trailer hitch. A 2002 Ford Escape V6 fit the bill, and there was one for a no-payments price within a 2-hour drive of my house when my wife finally agreed to it.
I would have pursued a different course of action if my ideal vehicle were on the market.
Add a ton of efficiency features, though, and suddenly I’m willing to pay more for the vehicle.
This thing is the “everything the Prius can’t do” vehicle. Prius is a near-perfect daily driver for us, but it doesn’t do everything. Like tow a trailer to the hardware store, for instance.
“The combined mileage of all cars sold by a manufacturer or brand used to be a top secret document.”
The EPA reports this information to NHTSA every year. It’s public record.
http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/rulemaking/pdf/cafe/October_2011_Public.pdf
It isn’t quite apples to oranges, since CAFE fuel economy measures involve some, er, interesting math that generally overstates the results. But it’s all available for those who are interested.
And if you want to see who the violators are, then you can also see which companies get fined. Most of them speak with a foreign accent: http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/rulemaking/pdf/cafe/CAFE_Fines-Jan2012.pdf
Hyundai only wins by not making trucks, if you look at the segment averages it loses in every segment versus Toyota except the one for which it makes no vehicles.
You’ve got that wrong. Toyota wins only by making Hybrids. And you didn’t read the full report. In mid-sized SUV’s, where Toyota sells few hybrids, H/K wins. Minivans, where Toyota sells NO hybrids (though H/K sells no I4′s), is also a lose for Toyota. And lastly there’s small car, where Toyota also has no hybrid. Another lose for Toyota.
Bertel, the company fuel economy ratings only start to make sense if you show separate averages for light truck and cars. I don’t buy a weighted fleet of cars. I buy cars or trucks individually and the company separate car and truck average relative to separate CAFE requirements helps determine what they can sell to me.
For those who want sales-weighted data: You are looking at it. A click on the link above would have shown you that the data are sales-weighted.
For those who want the data according to trucks, cars, large trucks, small cars, midsize cars etc: A click on the link above would give you the desired (but probably likewise unwelcome) data.
For those who want it (yeah, sure) broken out according to how many miles each car drives: Sorry, don’t have. The price of your subscription doesn’t cover that expense.
Following your link does show that Ford and GM are making fuel efficient cars. Of the 11 auto-makers listed Ford’s small cars MPG only trailed Toyota. Its mid-sized cars VW, Toyota and Hyundai. Its trucks are the most fuel efficient. Ford’s buyers skew more toward mid sized cars and trucks. GM is a little worse. Chrysler is pretty bad.
Obviously, a person buying a car looks at individual car mpg ratings. Thus, this ranking is not relevant to that situation.
But I was wondering, what does a automaker’s overall average mean? These rankings don’t necessarily mean one is working harder to save the environment than another since it is sales rated. A company could make the best mpg car in every class except for millitary-use tanks, and if the only thing customer buy are the tanks, their corporate average will look awful.
So, sales weighting incorporates public sentiment. I’m sure something insightful can be gathered from it, but I don’t know what that would be.
If we were serious about helping the environment and bending the curve on climate change, we should tax the full size gas guzzling truck until it bleeds. If you need it for work, then you should be willing to pay the piper.
It is only lifestyle changes like this, where people are forced to do things they might not want to do, that will allow the US to do something about climate change. The rest is just feel good window dressing. It might be a regressive move, but you will need to have a good reason to guzzle gas. Australia seems to be doing ok as a massive country without full size trucks and with more expensive gas.
Wow for a pro-car website I’m quite surprised to see a statement like this. Even if I bought into the global warming fraud, I’m for less regulation and taxes than more on general principle. We have thousands of meaningless laws still on the books and hundreds of taxes already upon us in society, taxing even legitimate ‘working trucks’ will only cause price inflation for the services those trucks perform, all while the gov’t coffer pisses more money away on failed endeavors like Solyndra. If we’re going to tax cars, tax obnoxious ones like the Prius, and put the money toward some green fantasy. Libs don’t usually like money taken out of their pockets for dreamy climate change projects, but they’ll be happy to rob those they disagree with lifestyle wise.
Global warming is not a fraud. It’s a scientific truth. I hope you get the same kick out of calling people who take climate change seriously “Libs”, as you will when the coastal cities vanish under the rising tides, and last forest in the Rocky Mountains succumb to pine beetles, and the wars start over water. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it too, when the Chinese government-funded corporations monopolize the solar cell industry, since our Solyndra-not getting nearly the back the Chinese gave their own companies–failed.
I’m sure your hero Rush will give you more to cheer about even as our economy collapses.
Want to really save gas?
Buy a Bianchi, Trek, Giant, GT, Specialized…etc.
or
a good pair of walking shoes.
Go Jeep! My lifted Jeep gets 12 to 14 mpg… depending upon which way the wind is blowing. In July I’m driving it out west for a camping/ Jeep trip. Driving it 3,000 miles is going to be expensive. But the rest of the year, my DD is a Civic. (laugh)
Just happened to think about this. Could Ford doing so well in improvement be down to the new v-6 hair dryer equipped engine in their pickups?
If I was to guess, that would be a likely reason for their improvement.
The big trucks are American car companies downfall here, not individual vehicles.
+1
While Toyota may be doing better, that’s because us truck owners laugh at their “offering”. (The Tundra with questionable frame and engine, and a mid-size pickup that guzzles more than a fullsize – and oh, tops out around 38K.)
Toyota seems to make money on their cars, because there are lots of “kool-aid drinkers” who still believe the hype about their supposed reliability. Won’t change this guy’s mind, who’s had two ‘yota piles of junk.
However, it’s almost a sport bashing domestic cars, even though they’ve made remarkable progress. Fine example is TTAC itself: The “new” Yaris does poorly on EVERY mark. Yet it’s still acceptable. The Sonic is “getting up there”, even though it beats the ‘yota in pretty much every department.
Toyota gets the benefit of the doubt for their 3 decades treating the Big 3 like their personal whipping boys.
How many times over the years have the domestics come up with some halfway competitive car to let it fester or fail to improve it?
The Sonic may look good now, but the better bet is on the reliability that Toyota is known to provide.
I think people forget America has some crazy weather and driving conditions all across the country , we don’t just have sun all the time , we have 12ft of snow , massive flooding , Twisters , hail , Rain , Mountains . We have more to deal with then any other place on earth . When was the last time you see a Smart car go off road in the backwoods of Ky? A lot of places need a V8 just to get around and Miles Per Gallon takes a back seat .
I wonder how much of the average improvement is due to direct injection?
A couple of things to point out;
I don’t think, firstly, anyone is disappointed or surprised at the Land Rover performance. When your core product is available only with a 5.0 litre V8 with or without a supercharger, you’re not really trying to challenge Smart.
Secondly, your posts always interest me, Bertel. I’m not American so I don’t take offence, but it is highly noticeable that they always seem to have some anti American(or, more usually anti GM) bias.
LOL @the guy who thinks 140k is a lot of miles on a car.
As I see it, this is a very basic informational chart that depicts something we already know. Americans, because we’re individually based over society based, believe that gas mileage is not that big a factor in buying a car. We all know that there are plenty of ‘Muricans with Napoleon complexes that just cant be seen in a small car and that bigger is always better and why buy the base engine when you can get a Hemi?
Not picking on Dodge, they are only selling what they believe, through focus groups and real-world consumer base, the American customer will buy. Sometimes they get it wrong as with the GMC Enovy XUV or Pontiac Axtek or Mercury Cougar (post millenial). I myself cannot shame the fat-a** in the Suburban to get out of his truck that’s burbling in line at the DQ getting horrific mileage and polluting the air around him. I do relish watching his expression at the gas pump when my Saturn Astra burps it’s full at 10 gallons and his ‘Burban is still sucking down another week’s pay.
TTAC this has to be one of the most ridiculous articles you’ve ever posted, seriously, you just hurt your reputation for posting it. (insert face-palm image)
That Jeep mpg is too high.
The logic of this article is stunning. Might as well say “Want to save money? Don’t hire a man” and then show all the attendant statistics that demonstrate gender pay inequity.
Logic. Not your forté.
Funny now that the Korean gas mileage champs are now Korean fraud champs! ROFL!
So the Chevy Cruze Eco 42 highway MPG is worse on gas than the Toyota Corolla 34 highway. The 4WD 5.3 V8 Silverado/Siera 21 highway are worse than the Tundra 5.7 17 highway? Even the Sonic turbo at 40 highway is better than any Yaris or Fit. Even the much maligned Colorado 4 door pickup with the optional 5 cylinder at 21 highway is better than the Tacoma’s 19 rating with the V6 engine. Ford posts similar high numbers with there Fiesta/Focus of up to 40 highway. The hybrid is what is totally carrying Toyota’s fleet average and that isn’t representative of the whole. And lets see what happens when the lies over at Hyundai result in re-adjusted/lowered MPG ratings on several of there main stream vehicles.
Our Cruze got about 48 mpg out on our the last 1000 mi trip although on the way back it got 40… slightly down hill vs. up hill. You cannot get that turbo going much to get that mileage, but that’s a lot of fun. It matches our friend’s old Civic hybrid with the infamous manual combo. That Civic is on its third HV batt btw. Yike$.
As I type this, I am LEGALLY DRUNK which entitles me to ask a stupid question. I’m drunk on a Sunday Night, you ask? Hey, I used to crack the books EARLY when I was a youngun’, so naturally, when it comes to my drinkin…
Anyways, During WWII (You know, the big one? The one President Nixon freed the slaves?!!!), America used to force American air craft and auto companies to Collaberate. [No, you ain\'t putting that Allison in the P-51, you\'re putting in a Limie Rolls Royce Merlin and kicking Heine Heine!!!] Why can’t we do that with Automobile ENGINES today? Does anyone REALLY CARE if their Jimmy is really a GMC under the hood? I don’t and I guess 99% of Americans don’t.
So why doesn’t the government hold a contest that whoever submitts the winning engine for the class (SUV, TRUCK, SubCompact) gets 4 years TAX FREE plus royality cheques every year from those American Car Companies FORCED to build their engines? Why does EACH car have to have its own kind of battery or its own kind of wiper or its own kind of XYZ? Why can’t everything be standardized? Why can’t the Government use its rocket scientist to build a Modern, Fossel Fueled Internal Combustion Engine that get 100 miles a gallon regular or that gets 100 mpg Diesel (no soot)? You know, where we all hold hands and sing Kum Bah Ya, My Lord?
I drove (rental) the Dodge 1500 Ram from Ft Benning to ATL & back at a sipping 11mpg!!! I l-o-v-e-d the cushy feel of that truck (almost car like) but 11mpg, my God?!!! Why isn’t there a gas guzzling tax of wasteful designs like that. OK, call me a Tree Hugger but why should I support the stupidity of people who’ll put a four tyre split axel on a Ram 1500 Crew Cab so that they ‘can look cool/coolio?!!
There is a greater problem though that is more to do with changing a consumer mindset, which is hindered by the manufacturers not offering suitable alternatives to their consumers and also the price paid for fuel.
In Europe as of now (09/04/2013) the price for a US gallon of leaded fuel is $7.97 and diesel $8.40, if the US was affected by these prices, manufacturers would have no choice but to offer more fuel efficient cars.
My comparison is this, let’s take the Ford Focus available pretty much worldwide, but lets compare European Ford Focus engine availability to US engine availability.
European Available Ford Focus Engines
Petrol Engines———BHP-CO2/KM-MPG–MAX-0>62MPH
1.0 EcoBoost———-100—109–58.9—115—-12.5
1.0 EcoBoost———-125—114–56.5—120—-11.3
1.6 Duractec Ti-VCT—-105—136–47.9—116—-12.3
1.6 Duractec Ti-VCT—-125—149–44.1—120—-11.7
1.6 EcoBoost———-150—137–47.9—130—-8.6
1.6 EcoBoost———-182—137–47.9—139—-7.9
Diesel Engines
1.6 Duratorq TDCi——095—109–67.3—112—-12.5
1.6 Duratorq TDCi——105—088–83.1—116—-11.8
1.6 Duratorq TDCi——105—099–76.4—116—-11.8
1.6 Duratorq TDCi——115—109–67.3—120—-10.9
2.0 Duratorq TDCi——140—124–57.7—129—-8.9
2.0 Duratorq TDCi——140—134–54.3—127—-9.5
2.0 Duratorq TDCi——163—124–57.7—135—-8.6
2.0 Duratorq TDCi——163—134–54.3—134—-8.9
US Available Ford Focus Engines
Petrol Engines
2.0L Ti-VCT GDI I-4—–160——–33
2.0L Ti-VCT GDI I-4 PZEV-160——–33
2.0L GTDI EcoBoost I-4—252——–26
Electri—————–143——-105
Diesel Engines
None
Now the Europeans have vastly more options to choose from, and if we compare fuel economy between European and US available engines it’s day and night. The worst European engine gives 44.1 MPG whereas the worst US engine gives 26 MPG; the best European engine gives 83.1 and the best US (excluding electric) gives 33 MPG.
I appreciate that the US has yet to adopt the diesel engine in their cars as they see it as the preserve of “big rigs” and not family cars, also there is the infrastructure to take into account, in that filling stations are more set up to serve petrol rather than diesel.
US cars are getting better in terms of economy, but they are still miles behind what is actually available, I would hope that the average American would jump at these engines if they were available in the US, please correct me if I’m mistaken.
I disagree. Just because it points out faults that the blind allegiance group doesn’t want to face, all of a sudden, it’s anti American. If you throw out bigotry toward Asian brands that’s perfectly okay right?
Ford is kicking butt and taking names and they have been improving more than any other. The fact the other domestics needed to be bailed out shows just how behind they were. They have made major improvements in the last few years, especially Government Motors, but pride was lost in the car building process for the last 30+ years. Looks like they are coming back on track, but to say they are already there would be a false statement.
Chrysler seems to still be junk (eventhough it isn’t American owned now) with Ford and GM making awesome strides. GM and Ford trucks never lost their touch, but I rememeber back in the 90′s when the domestic brands admitted to investing more in their truck,SUV lines than their passenger cars. So their cars suffered. Buick has always impressed me even if mostly old people drive them. They’ve always been generally reliable (except for a few disaster in the 80′s). There’s still hope for US brands and they are improving, but so are everyone else.
I, for one am Pro Ford. Ford was the only car company in the PANIC OF 2008 without its hand sticking out to Congress and the Socialists Stooges Bush-Obama. I am quite impressed with the FORD FOCUS and the FORD F150 as the benchmark for all mid size trucks.
The thing that I hate about Ford is the thing that I’ve always hated about FORD—they have THE WORST CAR WARANTEE OF THE CAR INDUSTRY. What is it? 4 days, 36,000 miles what ever comes first and oh, here’s the list of exceptions?!!! And as far as corporate ‘sneakiness’ goes, can anyone beat FORD (Ford Flipp-overs/Firestone Fiasco), the BS they pulled when Goodyear wanted to do a tyre recall, etc. etc. You’ll never see the new 2014 Ford Integrety because it doesn’t exist, now does it?!!!
As far as still being on the Suicide Watch, Cryco never left, now did it? It’s not that they deliberately set out to make the world’s worst cars, their mindset is to make it once and keep making it cheaper–so that you get carpet that needs to be replaced in two years or seats that lose their cushiness after a year of light driving or door panels whose gaps are so huge that they let light through them.
Chrysler ought to pull a Studebaker and build a cost is no object Avanti (or something that looks like that new 2017 Madza RX7 concept car—MAN, I WANT THAT!!!).
And GM, well-GM is busy being GM and everyone’s screaming. Why doesn’t GM team up with Google and make DRIVERLESS CARS for Drunkards like myself and Senior Citizens like my parents who are wheel chair bound?!!! Why must America put out the same old, same old…
Wow, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Ford took $5.9 BILLION of taxpayer dollars. And all we got in return is low quality hybrids that don’t come close to their EPA fuel economy rating.
Meet the new Ford, same as the old Ford.