Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Strange Famous
And what kind of monstrosity gets 24 MPG? 3.5 tonne GLW vans get better MPG than that!
|
Believe it or not a midsize 1998 Chevy Malibu with a 3.1 liter v6 engine. Although it does improve to 30 mpg on the highway.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
the CAFE standards have pissed me off since the 1980s when I became aware that we're not doing enough and allowing corporates to lobby for an "easier, softer" way.
|
Agreed. The thing that really pisses me off is the whole scam with E85. That came about when the farm lobby convinced Congress to give automakers a 3 mpg bump for CAFE purposes if they built vehicles with E85 capability. Since the only real cost to the manufacturers was changing from steel fuel lines to stainless steel fuel lines, putting in higher capacity injectors, and writing new software for the computers to recognize when the engine was running on E85. Minimal cost compared to the engineering and use of lighter materials that would have resulted in having to actually make the vehicle get 3 more miles per gallon. The domestic brand automakers have been building in this capability in many of their vehicles for 7 or 8 years now, but have only been publicizing it for the past 2 or 3 since gas prices have shot up.