Want To Save Gas? Don't Buy American - Announcing The True Heroes And True Villains At The Pump

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

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

BrandFeb-12Feb-11YoYsmart36.236.20.0MINI30.330.00.3Hyundai27.826.11.7Volkswagen27.425.51.9Kia26.125.80.3Scion26.025.60.4Honda24.724.60.1Mazda24.624.30.3Toyota24.525.0-0.5Mitsubishi24.525.1-0.6Subaru23.523.20.3Nissan23.422.80.6Suzuki23.423.20.2Buick22.420.32.1Industry22.321.40.9Audi22.222.00.2Chevrolet21.721.30.4Ford21.317.34.0Lexus21.221.20.0Acura21.119.91.2Saab20.922.4-1.5Chrysler20.919.51.4Volvo20.921.2-0.3BMW20.520.20.3Mercedes20.519.11.4Dodge20.319.80.5Lincoln19.718.80.9Infiniti19.619.7-0.1Porsche19.421.0-1.6GMC18.918.90.0Jeep18.617.61.0Cadillac18.418.8-0.4Jaguar18.018.00.0Ram15.615.60.0Land Rover15.014.01.0

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.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Otterpops Otterpops on Feb 09, 2014

    Ford was rescued. They wouldn't have survived GM or possibly even Chrysler dying. They would have had poorer terms on credit if they hadn't had the implicit guarantee that the feds would bail them out. They didn't have to actually take direct payments from the government to make money on it. Every company that manufactures cars in the US or used the same suppliers as GM and Chrysler benefited.

  • Billfrombuckhead Billfrombuckhead on Feb 11, 2014

    So TTAC is now hiding behind those experts at Consumer Reports. ROFL. The Cherokee is a world car where that 9th gear will get used on the Autobahn, Autostrada, the wilds of Texas, that lonely stretch of I20 between Atlanta and Augusta, the Australian outback, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the world. TTAC continues to tell everyone that American vehicles get bad gas mileage when a Pentastar Ram gets 100 more miles per tank of gas than a V6 Tundra!

  • Arthur Dailey Good. Whatever upsets the Chinese government is fine with me. And yes they are probably monitoring this thread/site.
  • Jalop1991 WTO--the BBB of the international trade world.
  • Dukeisduke If this is really a supplier issue (Dana-Spicer? American Axle?), Kia should step up and say they're going to repair the vehicles (the electronic parking brake change is a temporary fix) and lean on or sue the supplier to force them to reimburse Kia Motors for the cost of the recall.Neglecting the shaft repairs are just going to make for some expensive repairs for the owners down the road.
  • MaintenanceCosts But we were all told that Joe Biden does whatever China commands him to!
  • Rick T. If we really cared that much about climate change, shouldn't we letting in as many EV's as possible as cheaply as possible?
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