Drivers making outrageous claims about their vehicles

I owned a 1988 Toyota Corolla. It was the first car I ever owned. I remember it was very efficient–while it might not have gotten 40+ MPG, it certainly got at least 35, and that was in mixed city and highway driving. It had the 3-speed automatic. I do not doubt that 40+ MPG was possible or realistic with the 5-speed stick.

I also had a 1991 Toyota Tercel, also with a 3-speed automatic, and that was very efficient too.

Of course, economy cars back in the 1980s and 1990s were designed to do one thing and do it well–provide low operating costs and high fuel economy. Also, in those days, gasoline was not diluted with ethanol, further improving efficiency.

Ohh no, I do agree I do! She was lying her tail off. As you say, her mouth was moving!

One of my favorites was when I overheard a car salesman say “And it’s got a turbo so it’s really good in the snow.”

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I find that claim plausible, because this person might have owned a Sixth Generation E90 Corolla, which was sold from 1987 until 2006. You probably owned a Seventh Generation E100 Corolla, which was sold from 1991 until 2002.

“In the US, the E90 Sprinter was built and sold as both the Toyota Sprinter and the Geo Prizm. In Australia, the E90 Corolla was built and sold as both the Toyota Corolla and the Holden Nova.”*

The E100 was bigger, heavier, and was a compact car. The E90 was a subcompact.

*Toyota Corolla - Wikipedia

"One ride in this beautiful MG will convince you that it’s an awesome, reliable car and change your opinion forever!"

Many decades ago, a co-worker bought a fairly new 68 (I believe) MGB. Nice looking white convertible! He would boast about the quality , handling, and reliability of the car and I would tease him about things like Lucas electrics and “positive earth” electrical system.

I wasn’t buying his boasts and kept teasing him, telling him he had better befriend a good British mechanic. So, finally when we got off work at about 10:00 p.m. at the little private airport where we worked, he talked me into a ride.

It was a warm summer night and he had the top down. I slid into the leather passenger seat, so far so good, waiting to have my opinion of British cars changed forever. We started our cruise around taxi-ways and Al, the driver/owner made a turn from one taxi-way to another perpendicular one. He cut it a little tight and the right rear tire dropped an inch or so, off the corner of the intersection, and back up onto pavement.

There was a small bump when this happened and all the lights on the car suddenly went out and stayed out! I bit my tongue on the dark ride back. :smirk:
CSA
:palm_tree::sunglasses::palm_tree:

Many years ago, I had a co-worker who owned an MGB and some kind of Fiat sedan.
He said that the MG was his “more-reliable” car.
Admittedly, that boast isn’t especially impressive, but…

:smirk:

Does it count when ads make outrageous claims?

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I actually got 42 mpg on one tank of gas in my 1973 Corolla (automatic 3-speed trans). The car was packed full of my belongings, including one cat :kissing_cat:, for a cross country move. That 42 mpg came on the downslope western side of the mountains in Pennsylvania. I double and triple checked my math of logged mileage and gallons of gas as that was astonishing even though that little econobox regularly got decent mileage.

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Well, see, “reliable” is a comparative term. The Jags were reliable compared to something, I’m sure.

I think I’ve mentioned this before on here. There was a realtor local to me that decided to generate headlines by selling a house “that comes with a Lamborghini.” Of course, it was a fake Lambo - just a bad body kit on a ratty old Fiero. Not even the V6 Fiero. The one powered by that most awesome of race engines, the Iron Duke that they took from the Citation.

The realtor told reporters that it was “competitive” with a real Lambo.

And it was, because competitive is a vague term. It would finish the drag race in roughly the same week as the real Lamborghini and therefore it was “competitive.”

I have a friend that has gone over 100,000 miles on the oil in his engine in his Suburban. He has some sort of aftermarket toilet paper roll looking oil filter. He changes the filter once a year or so, and leaves the oil. He swears by this set up.
Truck has over 250,000 miles on the original engine.

Ah!! Lucas Electric, Prince of Darkness!

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Speaking of cat’s the one in your picture would make a heck of a good jig saw puzzle.

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I would be skeptical about 26 MPG. But after witnessing a 7.3L Diesel Ford Excursion achieve an honest 22 MPG (nearly all highway) with 6 people and their stuff aboard. I wouldn’t say it’s an outright impossibility. The early 90’s diesels weren’t saddled with the kind of emissions equipment modern diesels are and they were tuned more for fuel economy than today’s diesels are. I I want to say the early Cummins I6 used in the late 80’s early 90’s Dodge Rams only made something like 160 HP.

Thanks @Renegade. That was Frisky. He was a sweet cat. I had him fourteen years before losing him to cancer. He loved getting on that quilt which my sister-in-law made.

To keep things car related, I have a waterproof seat cover I put on the rear seat underneath the pet carrier when transporting a cat to the vet. Then I run the seat/shoulder belt through the carrier handle to buckle the carrier securely from flying around in the event of a hard stop or accident. I’ve been doing that for years.

But when I drove cross country moving with the cat I had then forty years ago I only had a cat harness with the leash tied to the center console shifter and a beach towel on the passenger seat. But Scamper spent half the trip crawled into my lap. One quick lunch stop at a small town Arby’s, I left him in the car with windows cracked open a couple of inches since it was very cool outside. I was sitting inside the Arby’s beside a window right by the car where the cat could see me. Everyone inside was amused how Scamper was standing in the driver’s seat with front paws on the steering wheel like he was driving. Then his paw found the horn button… :rofl:

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If I recall from that Stacey David show “Trucks,” some of those performance kits you can install on a diesel have an economy setting, don’t they? Sure, few people install them for that purpose or use that setting, but it’s there, isn’t it?

Yes, a couple of guys at work have aftermarket tuners/programmers on their Cummins equipped 3/4 ton service trucks and claim mpg in the mid 20’s. I believe some of the programmers have settings for towing, performance, or economy. I’m skeptical of mid 20’s, but I’ve heard countless diesel truck owners claim a large improvement in mpg by adding an aftermarket programmer. I’ve heard those claims made by folks with newer diesels as well. Delete the emissions equipment, add aftermarket tuner, and gain substantially more power and better fuel economy.

The current emissions equipment on a modern diesel kind of remind me of the “smog pumps” in the gas powered engines of 30 years ago. Would be very tempting to remove. Maybe they’ll eventually get the diesel emissions equipment where it doesn’t interfere with the performance and the economy of the engines, as they seem to have done on gas engines.

What did those old smog pumps do, anyway? Inject air via the exhaust back into the engine? Sort of an early EGR system? I recall removing one from a 1980 model Jeep. The belt had already been removed from the pump when I bought it, so the pump was just added weight and in the way by the time I got the Jeep.

My 1984 Mercury Marquis had an emissions pump that seized, so I drove without it until I had the money to replace it, and I noticed no improvement in fuel economy.

Coincidentally, my first motorcycle, a 2005 Honda Shadow Aero, was pre-fuel injection, and was able to pass emissions testing by injecting air into the exhaust ports. Therefore, one of the maintenance tasks involved replacing the “sub air filters.” It was a real pain to do it because they were hard to get to in the space right between the motor and the rear wheel, underneath the seat. That’s one reason I wanted to trade up to a fuel injected motorcycle.

The most false claims I see people making about their vehicle is the gas mileage. I’ve heard many people claim their full size truck or SUV gets 25-30 mpg. Obviously they never actually computed it or if so, they’re doing it wrong.

The EPA says I can expect 27 City/35 Highway with a 1.8 liter engine and 4 speed automatic: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymodel/2009_Toyota_Corolla.shtml. EPA estimates tend to be optimistic but that’s pretty close to what I actually get, and I sometimes get a bit more in town. 40 is a bit optimistic though, IMHO.

My 03 traliblazer was getting 24/ 18 for a while maybe 6 years ago, down to 20-22, 14/16. L6.