Fuel Economy Stickers For Dummies
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) represents a strange agglomeration: BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen. Getting all nine members to agree to any given PR plan must be Hell on Earth. And yet, as any Star Wars fan will tell you, you can't be a proper Alliance if you just hang around waiting for the Death Star to appear. For Death Star, read the federal government, which has emerged as the single most important force in the American auto industry. Anyway, someone at the AAM got their members to fund a new website called YourMileageMayVary.com. The site tells consumers all about the new EPA fuel economy stickers. It's a terrific little corner of cyberspace: concise, user-friendly and useful. There's nothing controversial here– other than the fact that the tax-payer funded EPA couldn't do it nearly as well. But it's definitely geared towards the intellectually challenged. In the Q & A bit: "How effect will the new labels have on the cost of a fill-up?" Answer: "These updated estimates are about updated information for American drivers, not worse fuel economy." Glad we got that straightened out.
More by Robert Farago
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You're right KixStart. What the site needs is some real-world advice, such as "Scrape the ice off your windows before starting your car, then take it easy for a few miles until you see the temp gauge at normal." See, we're collaborating to improve the site already.
It's often taken as an article of faith (especially among gearheads) that the MPG estimates are inflated. However, I've never owned a vehicle in which I was not able to beat the EPA estimates. All it really takes is a lighter right foot, especially on the freeway. My last two vehicles (a Subaru and a Toyota Pickup) have been blessed with cruise control, which is very helpful for MPG improvement. And contrary to the info on that web site, I have never experienced a measurable loss of MPG due to the use of air conditioning. Of course, there are other factors that the web site doesn't seem to mention, the biggest one being ethanol. Around here (CO) we get worse MPG in the winter time, but it's not because of the weather, it's because of the E-10 we're forced to run in our vehicles.
Did I miss something? That whole website is built in Flash(tm). Let's count the ways in which it is a terrible website: 1. not searchable by my browser or by Google 2. can't send a link to a specific part of the sight 3. can't see the whole site at once 4. can't use tabbed browsing to explore different parts without losing the main navigation part 5. can't increase/decrease the size of the font for my aging eyes
SunnyvaleCA, Flash sites are usually an accessibility nightmare. If you're a blind end user, forget about it.