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About this site
For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started
blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul
Monday, April 09, 2007
Fuel Economy: Then and Now
Well, this is depressing. MSN Autos:Technologies have advanced in the past 15 years but that doesn't mean our fuel-efficiency has. A flashback to 1992 shows that fuel mileage has remained stagnant and even regressed in some cases.
Five 1992-vintage cars outperform the best gasoline-powered offerings from 2007 while a sixth equals them in highway mileage.
The most shocking of the apples-to-apples showdowns is the Honda Civic. In the last 15 years the Civic has given up ground in a big, nearly unimaginable way; dropping 12 MPG city and 8 MPG highway. How is this possible? The four-cylinder engine has grown from 1.5-liters in '92 to 1.8-liters in 2007. But come on, engine displacement is not the issue, overall displacement, read curb weight, is.
Just as Americans have embraced obesity, the lowly Civic has gone from 2094 pounds in 1992 CX hatchback trim to 2751 pounds in 2007 sedan trim; the additional 657 pounds of girth in the '07 version will certainly make efficiency numbers plummet. Calculating a sedan versus sedan comparison reveals the 1992 edition to be 432 pounds lighter on the scales. Labels: Science
[ Posted at 11:30 AM | Permalink ]
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