WSJ: Why Your Car Has Lousy Gas Mileage

There's a million ways to make numbers tell any story you want, but the fact remains, the Prius moves us in the right direction with double the fuel effiency of most of Detriots answers to vehicles.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Proco @ Jun 1 2007, 08:10 AM) [snapback]453136[/snapback]</div>

This brings up a comment I wanted to post recently. We just returned from a 2400 mile trip over Memorial day from Florida to Ohio and back and saw only one Prius on the highways....I meant to ask, "Do the majority of Prius owners also own a gas guzzler?" The majority of vehicles on the road were gas guzzlers.

Duane

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JimN @ Jun 1 2007, 05:10 PM) [snapback]453680[/snapback]</div>

E6 ?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bsd43 @ May 31 2007, 10:10 PM) [snapback]452966[/snapback]</div>

I haven't been here long... can you tell me why this dude hates Prii so much?

When my Prius arrives (Monday, according to the dealer), our overall mpg will increase from 22 ( a very generous estimate with a CR-V and a Ford Ranger) to about 38 (using a conservative 45mpg for the Pri), as we will be selling the Ranger. Right now, I drive the CR-V, and we put at LEAST twice as many miles on it as the truck (probably 3x), and expect that the Pri will now be our go-to vehicle, with the CR-V getting to rest in the garage more.

If I go with a more realistic estimate of driving the Pri 3x as much as the Honda, we will move from 22.2 to 42.2.

If using the figures as a 1:1 driving ratio, we STILL move from 20.5 to 34.5... I really don't get his math, as I believe when most people buy a fuel-efficient vehicle, they get rid of their least-efficient one.

Problem is, most people won't know that the guy is obviously biased, and believe the article at face value.

 

Interesting. The version of the article at http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...309/1148/AUTO01 doesn't have any of the CNW crap in it.

Either WSJ decided to give them a different version or one of them decided to remove it.

 

This Prius Houshold:

~ 35k miles/year on the Prius at 51 mpg.
~ 8k miles/year on a Sabaru Legacy Outback at 26 mpg.
-> household average of 46.3 mpg

But Mr. Spinella never contacted me for my numbers. <_<

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(You me and da Pri @ Jun 3 2007, 08:45 AM) [snapback]454413[/snapback]</div>

It may be that CNW Marketing Research receives funding from Toyota's competitors.

 

As you can see by my signature, my motorcycle is our gas-guzzler. It also eats a set of tires in 5K miles too. All in all it cost about 3x more to ride the bike than to drive either car. But still, 40 mpg as our least efficient vehicle isn't too bad. My wife's bike gets 80 mpg.

 

My household:

2006 Toyota Prius - 48 MPG
2001 Mercedes ML 320 - 20 MPG

Average - 34 MPG.

I guess we are ahead of the curve...

 

I saw this article a few days ago as well. One thing that struck me is that they're comparing EPA ratings of the 2008 Scion with those of the 2007 model without mentioning that the rating scale has changed. So yes it would seem that the Scion gets poorer gas mileage, but actually according to the old rating scale it would still be rated at 25-31 mpg and so not as bad as they make it seem.

 

BTW, regarding the WSJ article w/CNW's crap (it now has shown up own a news entry on Yahoo news for Toyota [TM) http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=TM&t=20...23:55:00-04:00), his supposed household fuel economy numbers sound like nonsense if you run the numbers.

He doesn't mention the # of vehicles and where he even gets his fuel economy figures from for each vehicle. Assuming a 2 household family and MY 2007 and earlier EPA combined numbers, to achieve 29 mpg across two vehicles, w/one being a Prius, the 2nd vehicle would have to have 3 mpg. The Dodge Ram Hemi guy would have to have a 2nd vehicle that gets 37 mpg combined to achieve the 27 mpg combined. There's not many non-hybrids w/that high a combined EPA rating. Neither scenario sounds all that likely.

The Yaris w/a manual has 37 mpg combined, but the Yaris auto and Corolla, Fit and Mini Cooper w/manuals all fall short.

 

I'm amazed that WSJ would incorporate Spinella's quote. It lacks any detail at all and the reader must assume so much to come to his conclusions. BS!

 

The numbers sound plausible. My wife and I own a V8 Toyota Tundra which we use to get hay for our horses, concrete for building, etc. We also move the horses with a trailer. We only use the Tundra for work, but when we do, I'll bet it's only getting about 12 mpg max, fully loaded. That would impact our average family fuel economy rating severely, even though I get a fantastic average of 53.7 MPG with the Prius. I couldn't be happier with the savings!