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

For the most part today, people want comfort, safety and style and they don’t care about fuel mileage…Half the vehicles on the road in the western states are full-size pick-up trucks. They usually carry just the driver and no cargo…Detroit builds what people WANT…Fuel mileage is just background noise…

@Caddyman You’re right; during a sharp run up in fuel prices people will buy economy cars, and as soon as prices stabilize they get tired of those small cars and want to trade up. Only permanently sky high gas prices, such as in Europe, will provide a steady market for economy cars.

Even Consumer reports, when they tested the highly rated Volkswagen Bug in the 60s, said “This is the kind of car Americans should buy, BUT PROBABLY WON’T”.

I have a friend in Texas whom lives in a retirement community. One of his neighbours is a grandmother who drives a Ford Expedition (aka “Valdez”), she specifically bought it to “take the 2 grand kids safely to Macdonald’s”

As any economist knows, the price mechanism performs wonders. Unfortunately the current EPA program just results in people buying “more car” now that they are getting better mileage. This is called the “Law of unintended consequences”. Like more and better sex education has resulted in INCREASED teenage pregnancies.

Remember about 10-15 years ago when fuel prices were ridiculously low for awhile (think $1/gallon, less if you knew where to look)?

Well, during that time, all my colleagues got rid of their small cars and bought Expeditions, Suburbans and Excursions. Explorers and Blazers were for the losers . . .

I kept driving my small cars, and all my colleagues called me a loser for driving such a car.

Later on, when fuel prices were high again, my colleagues all asked me if I would sell them my stick shift 1995 Corolla.

I laughed and told them I’m not a fool.

Since the late 70,s I’ve not been too concerned with mpg. I get 30 plus with my v6 nearly full sized. Once you approach 30 the annual cost difference at 40 plus is negligible.

The EU circuit used for their mpg ratings is an especially easy one, even more generous than the old EPA circuit that used to go on our window stickers until they started requiring more realistic numbers some years ago. All our window stickers suffered an immediate drop, though the old way of calculating mpg is what is used for CAFE purposes. So when you see those targets of 40 or 50 mpg, that’s not using the current mpg figures. Manufacturers have to calculate/measure the fuel economy several different ways for each car, and they can (and do) substitute formulas for actual measurements. The EPA only samples and tests a very small number of models. There are too many different configurations they could never test them all.

Yes, there were some small cars of yesteryear that produced very good gas mileage, but the mid-sized and large cars that most people drove in those days got pretty awful mileage in comparison to the mid-sized and large cars of today.

I recall that my '71 Charger–equipped with the small 318 c.i. V-8–delivered only 13 mpg in local driving, and the best highway mileage that I ever got was 17 mpg. In the interest of better gas mileage, I replaced it with a '74 Volvo 242, and this gave me the supposedly impressive gas mileage of 16 in local driving and a max of 24 mpg on the highway.

By comparison, my 2011 Outback–equipped with the optional six-cylinder engine–gives me a steady 23-24 mpg in local driving, and it is possible for me to eke-out 28-29 mpg on the highway, while also giving me acceleration that is far better than that of any of my cars of yesteryear.

My 1965 Doge Dart with a 2 barrel 273 V8 got all of 15 mpg around town and the best highway mileage was 19 mpg. Of course gas was cheap then, but this car only weighed 3000 lbs, about the same as our 2007 Toyota Corolla, which gets exactly twice the gas mileage.

My shoebox.buggy spring pickups were worse then that-Kevin

Oh, boy, the good old days. On family vacations in our loaded (with stuff, not options) 1971 Country Sedan wagon we kept an eye on the odometer. 200 miles and we were figuring out a good place to refuel. We got about 12mpg and had a tank that held about 20 gallons. Don’t miss that at all.

Driving south on I-75, Geo Metro going 70mph passes me , blue cloud appears a mile ahead, Metro blowed up.

" Not anymore, guess what, it doesnt take much longer to get there if I just go the speed limit, and I am relaxed"

Depends on the trip entirely. Last year on the way to the beach. I drove myself down, my mother and stepfather drove in their Highlander, we started from the same place at the same time. I was able to make the trip in 5 hours, it took them 6.5 hours. I maintained about 80-85 MPH (the prevailing speed on the highway), for most of the trip (the route is about 80% highway driving), my stepdad, as usual got in the left land and set his cruise control at 65 MPH, which I’m sure pissed off a lot of people.

With the extra 90 minutes I had, I was able to stop by the grocery store, unpack, and hit the beach, well before they even rolled in.