Shouldn't there be a law mandating fuel economy indicators in all new cars?

More government regulations? No thanks.

 

I had seen that in a 2009 Nissan Ultima. It has instantaneous MPG indicator and a push button start just like Prius, but unlike Prius when you press the button the same sound of turning a key is audible.

I dont see why this should be mandated.

 

All the information is available on all (modern) cars anyway. A $100 scan gauge will reveal it. I am not sure I would mandate it, but when they are installed, people have a cognizant connection to what they re actually burning, and many change their behavior for the better.

I would argue that as a society if we were serious about reducing energy use, something as simple as this, that would have a net positive effect at little or no cost would be a good thing.

It is pretty easy to educate people when they can see a direct cause and effect of their actions.

Icarus

 

And I would submit that as a society we should ask people to return to what should be the main focus of driving....DRIVING. Not text messaging, not cell phones, not looking at fuel economy gauges.

 

Good idea: one very simple way to increase fuel economy, not by any mod to the drivetrain, but just by education. Fuel economy displays are migrating from hybrids to regular cars: Honda Pilot is a case in point. Pretty depressing though, LOL.

 

Most cars here have them. Guess it's a market driven option.

 

I think the law should mandate everyone on the road go to a fuel efficiency driving school. Can not figure why people need to race from red light to red light with there 8,000lb trucks?I think they should Have a gas guzzler tax on any non commercial new vehicle that gets a combined 20 mpg's or less on a yearly basis. Would get rid of all the unnecessary drivers who need there f2/350 trucks just to drive around town!:der:

 

Cycledrum for President!

I think it's a good idea. We already have a radio, speedometer, climate, etc., that are there, one more number doesn't strike me as the same as the problems with texting and cell phones. This number can save resources and money, it's better than all the others.

 

I think it is a good idea. My old 1996 Jeep GC had an instantaneous and an average mpg readout. You had to scroll through several other items to get to it. I used to use it some but not very often.

But it was not front and center the way the Prius is. If it was front and center, more in your face, I would have paid more attention to it. It is hard not to drive the Prius more reasonably with the mpg readings staring you in the face all of the time.

 

By driving carefully, we can routinely get Gen2 Prius tanks ~ 55 mpg. Not trying to hyper mile, but just paying attention. If we don't pay much attention, the mileage drops to ~50 mpg. Having the gauge right in fron of your face makes a huge difference.

Icarus

 

I agree w/the OP and that it's a good idea. But, there will still be a percentage of people who can't be bothered or unwilling to learn how to use it...

Case in point is my mom w/her NAH. It's similar to jdcollins5's Jeep. The instantaneous mpg doesn't give you a specific # but rather it's a bar graph that moves left and right and has tick marks for values between 0 to 60 mpg. You do get your average mpg until you reset it but, if you're not on it, you need to cycle through a bunch of screens in order to get to it.

My mom leaves the trip computer on outside air temperature and can't be bothered to switch to the mpg screens or reset it, let alone learn how (despite my telling her a bunch of times when I was still in CA, where she is). The UI isn't that complicated. There are only 2 buttons, one to move to the next screen and another that you press + hold to reset.

My 350Z and former 02 Maxima have no instantaneous mpg but do have average mpg. Again, if it's not up at the moment, you'd have to cycle thru a bunch of screens to get it to it. Again, the UI is a whopping 2 buttons: go to next gauge/screen, reset when you press + hold.

 

Good to know. When I am run down by someone while they were looking at one of these numerous numbers, I can have the psychological solace that I'm not as dead as I would have been had they been using a cell phone.

 

Some of us must be better at multi-tasking than others .

I do not think the mpg screens distract me any more than the speedometer does since they are both in my line of sight. I agree with the cell phone, texting, etc. However, personally I would not put reading a mpg reading on the dash in the same category .

 

I guess it was about three decades ago that the cafe standards were adopted and because the manufacturers were crying, these standards were dropped. Had we continued with the standards we would have been much further down the road on saving gasoline. This was about the Same time as the double nickel, 55MPH. The teamsters union agreed to abide by 55 IF, They could haul 80,000 lbs (40 tons). On their trailers. Well everybody reneged on everything, including the American people. Jimmy Carter may someday get credit for trying to do something fair and right for everybody. For those of you who were not alive or too young at the time, it was pandemonium! Long lines ( for blocks ) at the gas stations. Then the station running out of gas when you finality the front. People fighting over who was first and cutting people off at the pump. Poor gas station youngsters they were caught in the middle. Because of the confusion, some people would leave without paying. To get back to your subject, all this comes under the heading of rationing. We have already experienced it and I predict that someday it will get worse and history will repeat itself! I was overseas at the time and it was just as bad over there. But no panic as in the US.

 

Errr... if you think extra numbers are dangerous then why are you driving a Prius, which has LOTS of extra numbers and complex screens? Do you ignore them, or maybe cover part of the display?

If someone can't handle two or three more gauges (average and instantaneous mpg plus perhaps load) maybe they shouldn't be driving?? Certainly pilots routinely scan a lot more gauges than that.

I just bought a 2011 Prius and I think the displays could be simplified for fuel economy purposes. The energy flow screen too complicated for me, at least as a beginner. The horizontal pictograph showing various zones seems most useful, but as far as I can tell it's really a sort of load gauge combining the outputs of the gas and electric motors. A simpler load bar display would be fine for me. I don't see the point of average speed so that could be eliminated, and I'd like the bar graph of the instantaneous mpg to be bigger, maybe horizontal rather than vertical. And larger digits for the average mpg would make it more readable. I'd also prefer to have the display directly in my line of sight rather than centered on the dash.

Here's a shot of the Insight-I instrument panel. It could be improved, but the basic info is there and easy to read at a glance:
http://priuschat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=30233&stc=1&d=1305160373

I think that the problem with NOT having mpg information is that people have come to assume that no matter how they drive they'll get EPA mpg ratings. As a result, they began speeding and doing hard accel and braking. They couldn't see the effect of how they drove until they refilled (assuming that they hand calculated their mpg at all). Some complained that they weren't getting EPA (which was never the point of the EPA standards), so the EPA lowered the standards. The reality is that the EPA standards can easily be beaten by simply driving slower and more carefully, but people don't learn that because they don't have any way to gauge it. More or less like driving without a speedometer.

I used a ScanGauge on the Subaru I traded in, and I loaned the gauge to many friends. All of them said that having average and instantaneous mpg info in front of them made them drive more economically. So I think requiring just those two gauges would help to get a lot of people driving more efficiently.

 

Anything that will wake people up to the real situation whether it is consumption guages or all vehicles with engine stop capability at lights, gliding, etc. We have so many totally selfish people that think they can drive any kind of gas hog they want, afterall they are buying the gas! But it is not that simple anymore. It's probably going to take a couple of more gas crisis before all of America catches on.

 

I'm one of those that are too young to know this first hand, but I have read about it and the studies.

Cafe was created during the ford administration in 1975 and implemented in 1978. They were not repealed, but were weakened under Reagan. Clinton promised to raise them, but did not. They were raised under bush, and rules set under the current administration.

The 55 mph speed limit did not save the gasoline or lives it promised. Cafe standards have improved mileage, but rules have shifted consumption to SUVs and trucks, and the cafe rules are responsible. Changes under Obama may help.

We need to learn the lesson that when government creates a shortage through regulation the consequences are bad. I'm sure the price controls were done with good intentions, but a failure of understanding supply and demand. These shortages were caused directly by Nixon and Carter policies.

If we don't learn about the failures of Carter and Nixon, then they will repeat. I hope we understand enough to not repeat these mistakes.

Like the nixon price controls that created gas lines, I don't think we need more government mandated gadgets in our cars. I vote no!