Regarding the OP, I consider 22 MPG for the Camry/driver to be unacceptable unless the commute is very short. We still don't know what the driving environment is like, so our comments are mere speculation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSH
1. 20.8 mpg to 24.5 mpg is huge. That is 110 gallons of fuel per year for a typical driver.
2. Yes, the trend started in 2004 / 2005. If you think back that is when fuel prices doubled. However, the trend continued in the 2010's when fuel prices flatlined and then fell. Why? CAFE forced automakers to continue to improve fuel economy regardless of the price.
If you follow a specific car the trend is very clear. These are the last 8 generations of the Camry. Toyota kept the same basic 4 speed auto for DECADES. In 2008 they had just gotten back to the fuel economy that they had back in 1988. Then new CAFE regulations come into effect that say Toyota has to increase fuel economy 5% per year and presto, fuel economy takes off.
|
I'm not discounting the effect of the pressure CAFE exerts, but I'm also not discounting the other factors contributing to the improvements. While I'm generally not in favor of government regulation, CAFE is among the best ways of artificially influencing fuel efficiency averages. The best way though is to simply increase the federal taxes collected on every gallon of fuel, and then reduce income tax in proportion.
Like everything, fuel economy improvements are subject to diminishing returns. Boneheads regulators think they can look at a rate of improvement and extrapolate that out into the future like magic. Every doubling of fuel economy saves much less fuel than the previous doubling.
The example I always use to illustrate this point is the early CD burners. When I doubled my burning speed from 2x to 4x, it saved me 20 minutes. When I doubled again to 8x, it saved 10 minutes. Going from 8x to 16x saved 5 minutes, and doubling again to 32x saved a mere 2.5 minutes.
I'm all for improvements in efficiency, and current averages are a joke, but there are already fantastic vehicles out there that get great fuel economy. The Ford Fusion hybrid gets 45 MPG easily, and doesn't suck.