Wish the U.S. got this! (Honda Civic diesel 2.3 LHK / 102 mpg US) record

[92civicvx]

If this is in the wrong area please move.
Diesel Honda Civic Records 83.52 mpg Through 24 European Countries - HybridCars.com
Very impressive mileage from this honda wagon. Anyone overseas have one?

[Eddie25]

impressive stuff factory car in real world averaging those figures over 13 000 km of driving.

Honda Civic's frugal 13 000km record drive | Wheels24

[RedDevil]

I don't, but see this guy's Civic hatch fuel log. It has the same engine as the tourer.

His economy is not as impressive as the record attempt but still envyable, to say the least.
What is really impressive is the comparison to other Civic diesels...

The bad thing on articles like this is that it makes people believe they can buy that car and get that kind of economy without a lot of effort.
But the Civic 1.6 diesel on Spritmonitor averages 4.9 l/100 km, Tourer 5.1 l/100 km.
More than twice the record attempt fuel usage. By people that are economy conscious enought to maintain a fuel log.

Nonetheless, kudos to Honda, and this may raise fuel economy awareness overall.

[seifrob]

I must second to the bit of scepticism expressed above. Not to MPG record of that particular car (seemingly supported by whole team along the journey), but also to posted MPG rating (but I admit it is very good).

All European sold cars (afaik) are rated according to NEDC (New Europen Driving Cycle), not EPA methodology.

Wikipedia has a nice writeup here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Eu..._Driving_Cycle

NEDC is notoriously known to be far off the real-world performace (sometimes as much as 20%) - so if the official stats says 61.9 U.S. mpg, real figures would be around 52 U.S. mpg)

(I am no expert, this is common experience. For instance my car has official consumption rated at 4.8 l/100 km (49 MPG) and I almost managed to achieve it (using all the tricks i can safely use during my daily driving). My father with similar car gets around 5.7 to 6.1 l/100 km (41.3 to 37.3 U.S. mpg)

- so nothing wrong againts the car nor the record. Just take the impressive MPG numbers of european cars with grain of salt.

[MetroMPG]

Admin note: I combined another thread (single post by Eddie25) with this topic.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

It's kinda impressive to see how quickly Honda evolved in the Diesel field, anyway, considering their relatively short time making their own Diesels.

[ThePrudentNinja]

I would like to see more small diesel cars and trucks in the USA. In my 30 odd years on this planet, I've only personally seen two small diesel trucks (when I say small, I mean about the size of a modern small car). One was in California (the owner didn't want to sell it) the other was in North Carolina (the owner also didn't want to sell it). I've seen less than a hundred diesel cars in the same time period (typically Mercedes). I'm not totally sure why Americans don't really want diesel cars. Europeans have shown they can work in virtually all common situations. Maybe it's because we have really crappy diesel fuel (that has supposedly changed in recent years). I for one would love to put a tiny diesel engine in a small car with a manual transmission.

Anyway, I have no trust in any "fuel economy estimates" given by any company or government. The real life numbers are never in line. 102MPG US? Probably drove like most of us do the whole way lol. Put a tiny diesel engine in a small car and I bet just about any of us could reach 102MPG. Real world figures (driving it like you stole it it seems) would probably bring it down between 35-45MPG. Maybe mid 50s.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by ThePrudentNinja

I'm not totally sure why Americans don't really want diesel cars. Europeans have shown they can work in virtually all common situations. Maybe it's because we have really crappy diesel fuel (that has supposedly changed in recent years).

At least the quality standards for Diesel fuel back there are enforced more tightly. Here in Brazil there is still S-500 Diesel available in places where it was supposed to have been already phased out in 2012 with the introduction of S-50 (this one already replaced by S-10). And there are also other options to consider such as biodiesel, or even veggie oils for some older engines. You know, since Americans usually eat more processed meats (hamburgers, sausages, chicken nuggets) than non-processed meats, an enormous amount of fats can be recovered from the meat-processing plants to be used as a biodiesel feedstock