Gas mileage in the cars of the past. Some things don't seem to have improved much!

Even in Europe, where gas costs twice as much as here, these econoboxes are not selling well. Today can still buy a small car with a 1.1 liter engine and 5 speed stick shift and “power nothing”. But they are even hard to rent.

I owned a 1975 Civic, '81, '85 and '88 Accords.
Each was bigger, heavier and a little faster than the last one.
They all got virtually the same gas mileage: low to mid '30s on the highway.
Now my 2006 Matrix is taller, heavier and a little peppier than the '88 Accord, and it gets the same mileage too.
Now there are several non-hybrid compact sedans that get 40MPG highway, according to the EPA.
My 1976 Nova got 22 MPG highway and its straight 6 motor was rated 100HP, about 1/2 to 2/3 what today’s compacts run with.

Here’s one plot that seems to show mpgs back on the rise, and much better than the '70s:

Here’s a slightly different one, same story:

Looks to me like the first chart is average MPG and the second is highway MPG.
Notice how the “both” line diverges from the “cars” line in the early '80s, about the time pickups became very popular and the Ford F150 became the best selling vehicle in the US.

I bought a 1990 Dodge Shadow from a friend of mine several years ago to use as a work vehicle. It had the 2.2 engine and an automatic transmission. The little car got about 30 mpg consistently on the interstate and had a little zip for such a small engine. I thought the fuel gauge was broken for the first month because I had been driving a 1998 Chevy extended cab Silverado. A neighbor of mine now owns the Shadow and his son still gets 30 mpg driving back and forth to school at UK.

I had that at first with the Geo Metro. I drove and drove the thing and I just never needed to fill up. The gage finally got towards the bottom and I filled it up. Surprisingly, I had barely used 1/2 the tank and the gage was biased low. This is a common problem on the Metros, especially when they have been sitting/neglected for a while like mine was. Better fuel and fuel system cleaner has cleared this up some.

The 50+ mpg of the car is nice but I cannot argue that it is made of thin and light metal like a beer can. As someone else indicated, at least a car is safer than a motorcycle.

I can show you example after example of cars that were smaller/slower/lighter from the 70’s and got MUCH WORSE gas mileage then cars today. Yet the cars of today pollute a LOT LESS/better handling/faster…pretty much all around better vehicle.

My 64 Pontiac Tempest automatic got 19 in town and 22 hwy with its 215 6 banger. It would carry 6 people and all their luggage. No power anything, no air, 2 front seatbelts (no rears) and 0-60 had to be 13 seconds! Jump to a 72 Datsun (Nissan) 510 1.6L 4, 21 in town, 25 hwy and then to a 92 Saturn twin-cam 122 hp 5 speed 4, 0-60 in 8.4 seconds and 40 mpg hwy with air, no airbags and cruise control. The Saturn only weighed 2460 lbs Faster, better mileage, handled better, safer. Find a car that weighs less than 3000 lbs today and you can put into your pocket. The posted charts should should chart MPG/pound to be more realistic. We are getting a BUNCH more efficiency out of our engines but they carry so much more weight. Using the Datsun as an example, a modern version would put out 130 hp NET compared to the 96 gross hp but weigh 3000 lbs rather than 2160 AND get better mileage!

Although Americans cannot accept it, the Honda civic hybrid with a 5 speed stick was rated for 51 mpg. That was a much more substantial car than that little Suzuki

Cars are not generally designed for 50+mpg anymore, but efficiency has improved. We had a 92 corolla with powered nothing, no a.c. and a 3 speed auto. It burned a gallon of PREMIUM for every 30 miles on the highway. Flash forward 17 years, we have a roomier Honda fit with a.c., powered everything, 8 air bags, and 5 speed auto. It gets close to 40mpg on the highway. This is progress.

As someone else indicated, at least a car is safer than a motorcycle.

read oblivion’s post where a motorcycle pretty much totaled a Metro clone when it broadsided the car

My mom refused to buy an new car for awhile after renting several cars in Scotland on different islands of the Hebrides and got 50mpg or better out of cars that she would loved to be able to buy here in the US. After some back problems and the lack of A/C in her 19 year old car she bought a Prius in 2009 and has been very happy. Her basic Mazda Protoge would get 40mpg on the highway and not much less in mixed driving, she had hoped the new cars would have improved on that but at the time the 40+mpg non-hybrid compacts were not on the market yet.
She gets 45-60mpg (lower in the winter months) from a safer car with more creature comforts than she ever could have dreamed of.

I wonder if she was calculating her Scottish mpgs using Imperial gallons, which are 20% or so bigger than ours.

Cars I owned in the 70’s

1972 Chevy Vega - 2,760lbs 21/24mpg
1972 Chevy Monte Carlo - 3506lbs 19/22mpg

Wifes current car.
Lexus ES 350 - 3,549lbs 24/32mpg

The mileage graphs begin at the time of the OPEC oil crisis and the steady rise in fuel mileage was the result of the desperate struggle by American motorists to deal with the shortage and high price of gasoline. At that time 3 year old Cadillacs were being sold for near scrap iron prices to make a down payment on a Datsun B-210 that was sold with a $500 markup for the dealer installed floor mats and rust proofing. In the mid 70s the V-8 was being phased out while the Big 3 rushed to rebadge Japanese and European compacts to fill their show rooms with marketable models. The sudden jump in mileage in the late 70s was the result of downsizing, not technical innovation.

And the speed limit was lowered to 55mph. And no, general speaking Cars do not get better mileage the faster you drive over highway speeds.

@dagosa There is an optimal speed for best gas mileage that depends on the car, the gearing and a few other factors. Above 50 mph air resistance starts to take a big toll. Too low a speed and the engine does not operate optimally. For most cars today, a steady 40-45 mph give good mileage. And you should stay in the slow lane, since you want to keep driving at that speed.

It’s easy to get decent mileage on long trips on the Interstate. Just tuck yourself into the truck traffic in the right lane and do a steady 65 mph. Or whatever they’re doing. Any less and you’ll be driven insane by trucks tailgating you. If you’re not getting tailgated and you’re only having to pass the real slowpokes, life is easy. You’ll never get a speeding ticket and you’ll get to your destination relaxed. No, I don’t like roller coasters, either.

I don’t need to drive 90 MPH to my destination. (though I might at times if it weren’t rather frowned upon by the authorities) But 40-45 is a tad slow unless I’m riding in a limo while getting a massage and sipping champagne.

On a 500 mile road trip, going 45 instead of 70 would add 4 painfully tedious hours to the trip. And probably get you pulled over for driving too slow on most highways.

I suppose if I wanted to save money that badly I could reuse chewing gum and make sure I only used one square of toilet paper too…

@markm +1

It's easy to get decent mileage on long trips on the Interstate. Just tuck yourself into the truck traffic in the right lane and do a steady 65 mph. Or whatever they're doing. Any less and you'll be driven insane by trucks tailgating you. If you're not getting tailgated and you're only having to pass the real slowpokes, life is easy. You'll never get a speeding ticket and you'll get to your destination relaxed. No, I don't like roller coasters, either.

Amen brother! You totally summed it up for me. I used to always be in a hurry. Not anymore, guess what, it doesnt take much longer to get there if I just go the speed limit, and I am relaxed.

@texases
The calculations were in Imperial Gallons but the mileage was still considerably better than what you would see on the window stickers of new compact cars (in 2009), the cars they rented in Scotland were either diesel’s or smaller gas engines that would get 45-50mpg on the back roads and more like 60-70mpg is now expected from small cars in the UK