OEM makes mid model colder air intake mod 'for fuel economy'
 

I recently got my hands on some dealer training material for the 2017 updated Mitsubishi Mirage. They made numerous little changes to improve power and fuel efficiency. This one puzzles me a bit though and I'd like any help you can give that might explain it. They claim that adding this 'air guide' lowers intake temperatures (that makes senses) and that increases fuel economy. I have my doubts, but I'd like to hear any theories.

http://mirageforum.com/imgs/2017update01.jpg

Buzzwords?

Possibly, but this is dealer tech training (as far as I know). The public wouldn't ever really hear or see it. I'm not sure the salesmen even see this?

It's common knowledge that CAI increases fuel economy. While it's common knowledge, it isn't common reality. Same with dirty air filters. A moderately dirty air filter isn't going to affect MPGs in the least.

One possible reason for the confusion is the ambiguity of the word "efficiency". Cold air intakes improve the efficiency of cramming more air into the combustion chamber and boosting peak power, but power efficiency isn't the same as fuel efficiency.

It may be possible that in the epa test cycle, where acceleration rate and shift points are set the old car required full throttle to achieve. That full throttle would put the car into closed loop and fuel enrichment. Maybe this give just enough more power to do it at say 90% throttle and in open loop. The test is the problem, it forces good cars to be bad... and let's automatic beat manuals where they never would with a good driver. The test forces idiot mode. This whole process is like no child left behind. Teachers reach toward the test and carmakers build for the test rather than the real world.

Ps, where I fear this the most right now is on the 2019 Ram 1500. That mild hybrid my be perfectly designed just small enough to work on the test and show limited gains in real world pickup use. Hopefully it will be a hypermillers perfect tool with regen braking, auto start stop, and dfco in all gears but i worry it's a gimmick for the epa test cycle.

Wouldn't it be GREAT if EPA Fuel Economy numbers for cars ALSO contained feedback AVG-values from owners (ie: realword numbers)!

That's why websites like fuelly.com and fueleconomy.gov exist. People interested in driver reported fuel economy will seek out that info, and people who are only interested in what the manufacturer claims is the MPG will be content with the EPA sticker.

I like to observe what some of the user submitted high values are, because this informs what is possible with diligent driving practices. Some cars have large variance, and others like the Prius have less variance.

Every car is different.
Test it.

I have noticed on fuelly they don't do anything to weed out the obvious wrong inputs. If there is a large sample no big deal, but on some of the less common cars that guys 200 mpg tank (more common) or 1 mpg tank (less common) throws everything off.

Yeah, thats kind of what I was thinking too. I also doubt that I'd be able to test with that kind of resolution to really see what is best. But, if I get the chance I will try it out.