Fact Check: Motor Trend Needs To Research Fiat's "40 MPG" Car Commitment
At the suggestion of a well-wisher, I picked up the July copy of Motor Trend for my flight back home Iowa yesterday. Though some of the stories showed improvement in that publication’s quality of coverage, the item pointed out by our tipster [online here] was disappointing indeed. The piece, on Fiat’s ongoing acquisition of Chrysler’s equity includes the following paragraph:
Fiat is expected to obtain another 5 percent of Chrysler soon to bring its interest to 51 percent, provided it introduces a 40-mpg (highway) EPA-rated car built in the U.S. wearing a Chrysler brand badge before the end of 2011. With Fiat and Chrysler pulling the plug on electric car development, the 40-mpg car is likely to be a 1.4-liter Multijet-powered Dodge Caliber. The Caliber is scheduled for replacement in model year 2013, so the Multijet version could be a 2012 model only, with the powertrain carried on to its replacement.
So, what’s the problem? Well, as TTAC (and precisely nobody else) has reported, the government’s agreement with Fiat is not for that firm to build “a 40-mpg (highway) EPA-rated car.” It takes some digging through the corporate agreement between Fiat, Chrysler, the UAW and the Treasury, but it’s clear that the government requires that Fiat build a car that tests at 40 MPG combined, using the old “unadjusted” (Pre-1985) CAFE fuel economy rating. Which means that, although Fiat could build a car capable of 40 MPG EPA highway, the government’s agreement requires as little as 31 MPG EPA Combined. Which means M/T’s write-up technically falls on the wrong side of the truth. Although, to be fair, I have yet to find a media outlet that has got this story right…
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You were expecting the dinosaur dead tree-media to do their homework?
Currently, in the real world without a turbo, nor hypermiling, one CAN get above the EPA in the 1.4L MultiAir motor in the little 500 here in the states with a manual. So far I've read of an average of 40-42mpg highway, around 32 city. But with the blunt nose things DO go downhill if you get above 70mph and these are folks who post their mileage over on Fiat500usa blog's forum. So even the base multiAir 1.4 is pretty efficient. But I would agree that perhaps either the 1.3 or better yet the 1.6L multiJet diesel may well be the answer.
You would think that when they said 40mpg they meant 40mpg and not 31mpg. Whatever. I was confused as well and just assumed it meant 40mpg hw. Obvi Motortrend got this wrong (as they so often do).
I don't think that a vehicle of the Caliber's height could achieve 40 mpg ("real numbers") unless it has a diesel - too much wind resistance.