It's a conspiracy

[Fat Charlie]

No. They try to entice people to buy their products with commercials that have nothing to do with their products' merits.

[dwtaylorpdx]

ANd certain classes of vehicles are way down, IE small mini trucks.

Both 4 cyl trucks.....
85 Toyota,, 24 MPG with a carb.
2005 Toyota 15 on a good day...

I'm on for the conspiracy theory... LOL

Dave

[ProDarwin]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

brucey - don't forget that 54 number is uncorrected. The actual EPA figure will be quite a bit less (in the 40's - don't remember exactly what).

Yup, 54 MPGe

The actual figure varies. The new CAFE # calculation is quite unclear (even though the tests are published), and varies based on the "footprint" of the vehicle.


OP: Part of it is the numbers fooling you.

CX-5: ~29 mpg http://www.fuelly.com/car/mazda/cx-5
06 Corolla: ~31mpg http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/corolla

Still pretty impressive though.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by shovel

Whoah whoah whoah now... hold on a second here...

Do you honestly expect me to believe that manufacturers try to entice people to buy the products they make by making them better year after year?

Just because something is new doesn't mean its always better for you the consumer.
I have found that all too often "new" means better for their bottom line, not yours.

New also means more expensive. When adjusted for inflation, the price of a new car has more than doubled in the last 30 years.

[Slasher]

Originally Posted by dwtaylorpdx

ANd certain classes of vehicles are way down, IE small mini trucks.

Both 4 cyl trucks.....
85 Toyota,, 24 MPG with a carb.
2005 Toyota 15 on a good day...

I'm on for the conspiracy theory... LOL

Dave

2000 or 220 cc vs 2700 cc? a lot more truck as well... I would love to finda decent old toyota diesel truck...

[ProDarwin]

Originally Posted by dwtaylorpdx

ANd certain classes of vehicles are way down, IE small mini trucks.

Both 4 cyl trucks.....
85 Toyota,, 24 MPG with a carb.
2005 Toyota 15 on a good day...

I'm on for the conspiracy theory... LOL

Dave

Huh, my roommate has a 2010 Tacoma 4cyl. He gets mid to upper 20s, and yes, its a lot more truck and an 85 model.

FWIW:
2010 is rated at 20/26
1985 is 23/29

(best case for both)

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

New also means more expensive. When adjusted for inflation, the price of a new car has more than doubled in the last 30 years.

What you get for a new car has also increased radically. 3 or 4 catalytic converters, 10 airbags, crumple zones and whiz-bang electronics all cost money and they weren't included back then. Cars have gotten a lot bigger. They have horsepower numbers that would have been unbelievable 30 years ago and emissions numbers that would have been unbelievable 30 years ago. Fit & finish, NVH and reliability standards back then were practically nonexistent compared to today, and that's without even getting into mechanical reliability. Does anyone today know who Earl Scheib was?

I read a comparison once that used the first Accord as an example, but they had to compare it with the (then modern) Civic because both cars had grown so much in size and weight that they had to switch in order to compare apples to apples. Using the auto industry's "forcing us to add this feature will add $200 (or whatever) to the cost of a new car" statements and then adjusting for inflation, the two cars compared very well on cost.

[UltArc]

Does anyone watch Top Gear BBC? I remember a special comparing the first Golf GTI, to the new one. Basically, the early cars had low standards which saved weight on air bags, electronics, so on, people were smaller, around the waste and genetically, also read in an interview regarding the Italian Job about thw difference in Cooper sizes over the year, also size for spac, such as cargo.

And there is pretty darn good reason to not build a perfect machine. Sure, we can get drag into the teens, maybe singles. Sure, we have 8 speed gear boxes. Sure, super high efficiency engines. Sure, dual turbo chargers, and super AND turbo combinations.

But if ONE vehicle was made this way, they would only make it for one year. Sure, more people will buy it, and sure, at some point wishy washies will switch over. But they will have a hard time making it better, and he new models worth buying.

A similar concept is seen in the Datsun GTR. Originally, it was a claimed 475 hp super car, all wheel drive, special aero design, and was the fastest car around the Nurghburgring forna long time. For 75k, the cheapest thing on the market.

So now each year, it is harder and harder to improve the vehicle. Their solution? They now make just slight changes each year, really jacked the price up.

And for the trucks, really there is only one small truck, the Ford Ranger, which is going to be dropped for a new vehicle in a few years. Thinking of the most reliable vehice in the world, a toyota tacoma, over the past decade has drastically increased in size.

[Diesel_Dave]

Originally Posted by bandit86

Why is it that there is such a drastic increase in FE in about 2006-2010?

Before we get into too many conspiracy theories, this might have something to do with it:

[Fat Charlie]

I don't think so. In 02, gas was still around a buck. In 03 it was just over $1.50. I didn't have to buy any gas in 04 and in 05 I was too busy tearing it up to notice what gas cost. I really don't think that the rise in 03 made the whole industry suddenly reform its ways and I don't think they could respond much more quickly than that.

Those price spikes affect the kind of cars people are trying to buy on any given day, but I'm still watching quad cab pickups fly out the door.