I've been shopping for a car lately and something I have noticed lately is that cars in Canada get AWESOME gas mileage. If you look on the Fuel consumption guide in Canada or walk through any car lot (who have fuel consumption estimates from the former), the MPG estimates are crazy high. Example: Prius City: City 4.0 L/100 km (71 mi./gal.) Hwy: Hwy 4.2 L/100 km (67 mi./gal.) Yaris: City: City 7.0 L/100 km (40 mi./gal.) Hwy: Hwy 5.5 L/100 km (51 mi./gal.) Honda Fit City: City 7.1 L/100 km (40 mi./gal.) Hwy: Hwy 5.7 L/100 km (50 mi./gal.) I traced it back to for some silly reason, the Canadian government is using Imperial gallon (4.55 L/G) rather than US gallons (3.78 L/G). What bugs me is let's be honest, if someone in Canada is going to use MPG as a measure, they are definitely going to use US gallons. To me this seems misleading to the consumer. Anyway, seems pretty silly. Caveat emptor I suppose but seems odd the government is party to it.
Nothing is inherently wrong with imperial gallons, nor would there be anything wrong using US gallons. I do however, believe that Canadians assume that the gallons being used are US gallons. It's not that imperial gallons are wrong, it's that by not explicitly stating that imperial gallons is wrong when the natural assumption in Canada is to use US gallons. Not that it's a big deal I suppose because using MPG is a silly measure anyway. Fuel efficiency measured as L/100 Km.is much more transparent when comparing fuel use than MPG. This is reported first but I think most people use MPG (even though it's kind of silly).
Question is: Does Canadian GAS also has 10% Ethanol thing in it? This Ethnaol thing is the main factor to our 'lower' FE.
Are you believing this because you are Canadian? And for the record, the Prius does get 71 MPG US gal.
Uh, speaking as a Canadian, we never use US gallons, when we are talking mpgs. We are generally aware that US gallons are different than "our" gallons. Lastly, we don't officially use non-metric units anymore anyway.
In your dreams. Really? you;re the first person I've talked to who has said that. In Canada there's a weird mix of US and metric. For example, for building stuff it's feet and inches - when's the last time you went to a home despot to buy a 5.1 X 10.2 rather than a 2 by 4? Hey maybe I'm wrong but when I looked at it I naturally assumed that they would use US gallons - I thought most people would assume that as well. Anyway, not that it matters, I think Canada has it right ro focus on L/100 Km anyway - although car dealerships here in Halifax adverise a lot in MPG.
Why would you believe that? Canadians know that they use imperial gallons, just as we know that soda is measured in liters. You get used to whatever system is in use. Tom
If no one has mentioned it lately, your mileage spreadsheet is very nice Tony! Impressive long term trend too! Rob
Perhaps, but certainly no more so that US automakers advertising their vehicles based solely on their highway numbers. Rob
Maybe he dreams about it, but he does it too. See this. Of course what he left unsaid is "with the right driving conditions and technique."
>70 is possible but far from typical. You can get >70 MPG with a hummer with the right conditions as well. When talking about mass markets, I think it's best to focus on the middle of the distribution rather than the hyper milers who get >60 or the drag racers who get <30..
I have never met a person who uses imperial gallons not aware of the different US gallon quantity. But the reverse is rampant. This thread is a rant, simply because no matter *what* volume unit is used, the ratios between cars stay the same. Sticker mpg has always been useful for comparison shopping, not an absolute number that every driver will get. I'd be depressed to get EPA. If fuel stations in Canada use US gallons but vehicle manufacturers used imperial I'd agree that they should pick one or the other and stick to it. The last time I was a bit befuddled by local weights and measures was in Greek Cyprus, when trying to decide how much to buy in the open air vegetable markets. I think I ended up with 1/2 oke at a time. I was just as insular as Tweev; I thought the entire world was metric outside of the impenetrable UK and US measures.
I don't have a problem if Canada uses imperial gallon and US use 'US gallon' to advertise vehicle fuel consumption. I would have a problem if say Toyota used 'US' gallon for the Prius and use imperial gallon for their Tacoma here in the US. Now that can be misleading to some.
But making assumptions about other people's beliefs seems to be the only thing that many Americans are good at. I personally am surprised to hear another Michigan native use the term soda instead of pop. In Southwest Michigan (LP) you tend to get wierd looks when asking for a soda.
It's been some time since I've seen gallons displayed on a gas pump here in Canada---- only liters Gary
That's why I think it's odd for car dealers to be advertising fuel efficiency as MPG at all. Maybe I'm wrong, I live about 6 months a year in the States so I understandably have a 3.78 bias.
Just to add in my 2 cents worth, I do not assume we use US gallons here in Canada. I think though that dealers show both L/100km and MPG because there are still some people in Canada that are not familiar with the metric system. And by the way, we get 4.0L/100km.
