News story: "Hyundai, Kia overstated gas mileage estimates"

[JDgreen227]

As my wife and I have always been low mileage drivers with only a 12 mile commute distance to our worksite, we never really paid much attention to fuel mileage estimates on the window stickers of new cars when we were shopping. The last new car we purchased in 2004, a Buick Lesabre, had a mileage estimate of 20 city/29 hiway and we usually got 17-18 mpg during the commute and 30-31 doing a steady 70 mph on the freeway. Surprised me how accurate the estimate turned out to be. But I really wonder if the purchasers of Hyundai/Kia vehicles who are said to be "misled" by the window stickers even realized the fuel mileage thay were actually getting was that much worse than the estimates.

 

[LD1]

But I really wonder if the purchasers of Hyundai/Kia vehicles who are said to be "misled" by the window stickers even realized the fuel mileage thay were actually getting was that much worse than the estimates.

I have my doubts that the estimates were that far off. Has more to do with driving style IMO. Case in point, my wifes 2008nissan sentra had a claimed 35mpg highway at the time according to the sticker. (I notice now on the EPA website they list the 2008 @ 33).

Anyway, she commutes about 90% freeway and only manages 28-29mpg. I can drive her car a week and get 35mpg+. While she doesnt realize she is doing anything different than me, she is one of those drivers that accelerates hard, waits longer to brake, and drives faster on the freeway.

My driving style is much more relaxed. Easy accelerations, no sudden changes in speed, and generally slower (but still @ speed limit or a tick over). When she drives, there is almost never a time in which she dont have a foot on either the brake or gas. When she has to stop, its straight from the gas to the brake. Where as I lift off the gas well before a stop, unstead of maintaining full speed until the last moment.

These small cars are really sensitive to driving style IMO. If you drive like my wire, you will never see anyting close to the estimate. If you drive like me, you can consistantly get better than the estimate.

 

[JDgreen227]

LD1, my wife is one of those type of drivers too, "keep your foot on the gas until the last second, then slam on the brakes really hard." I take my foot off the gas early and let the car slow down on it's own and brake gently to come to a stop. Hard to compare gas mileage between her and I but I replaced the OEM front brakes on our Lesabre when they were worn out from mainly her driving and habits (43,000 miles) and the replacement pads and rotors are about equal to OEM quality and after 20,000 miles of MY driving the car, the pads are barely worn. I will probably get well over double the life of the OEM set and possibly more.

If I avoid just one front brake and pad replacement during the next 80,000 miles, that is a savings of at least $250 doing it myself (as I did last time) or 2X that much having it done.

 

[CNC Dan]

heard this story on NPR yesterday.

As it turns out, auto makers can just tell the EPA what the MPG is and they take their word for it. But after a bunch of complaints from consumers, the EPA tested them and found a diferance.

 

[bp fick]

Since my wife had to do a lot of "commuting" to assist her elderly parents a few times month, and drive 3.5 hours each way to do, and add to that fact that the choices of squarish, econo boxes are limited, and after reading positive reviews of the Korean car maker, we bought a stripped down, bare bones Kia for her, last March, to pile miles on. We supposed we would just dump it in the future when everything settles down in life.

Turns out the car is nice. Well put together and matches the best stuff we've own from either Japan or Detroit. Pleased.

The "inflated" EPA said 35 highway. Yup, we'll get a check, I suppose, in a small settlement.

Actual mileage has been 36. Don't know what to say, except we'll sure as heck cash the settlement check.

 

[westcliffe01]

The EPA revised their driving cycle at the peak of the economic bubble when everyone wanted a huge SUV and drove them without a thought for what fuel was going to cost. And at the time, gas was about $1.50/gal. So there were plenty of people who WERE driving aggressively without worrying about the cost. So the EPA thought it needed to revise their drive cycle to a style more representative of the average person. Which was a bad measure, because most people were not the least concerned with economy.

Just a few of years later, gas was close to $5/gal and everyone revised their driving habits. Many SUV's were parked. The prices of used compact cars soared. Toyota and Honda had waiting lists for their hybrids. The waiting list for a smart was more than a year. The VW Jetta TDI waiting list was over 9 months. I personally was on a Smart waiting list for a year before I canceled. I was on the VW waiting list for nearly a year and finally got one only because of the economic crisis and people canceling their orders.

Meanwhile gas has dropped below $2 and is back up around $4 and throughout this entire period few people have had money to waste on fuel. Ownership of compact cars and hybrids is higher than ever. Now it seems that despite the change in the publics behavior, revising their driving cycle is no longer in the interest of the EPA with the government behind them with fleet mileage targets. An aggressive cycle that produces poor economy puts the car makers under increased pressure to downsize vehicles and resort to other (expensive) measures to improve fuel economy.