Car & Driver, some common sense

With $3 gas, we need accurate mpg tests. BY CSABA CSERE December 2005

A clip: Gas prices had been rising steadily for the past year, and then Hurricane Katrina pushed them well over $3 a gallon, finally exceeding the previous peak set in May 1981, when gas cost about $1.80, equivalent today to about three bucks a gallon.

Suddenly, everyone is concerned about fuel economy again. General Motors touts that it has 19 cars that get more than 30 mpg. Toyota makes similar ad claims.

And they're true, at least according to the EPA's highway fuel-economy test. But there's not a snowball's chance that any of these vehicles will match their EPA-certified mpg when you drive them on a U.S. highway. In fact, based on the fuel economy we get from C-D test cars, most vehicles barely match their EPA city fuel-economy numbers while being driven on the highway.

This discrepancy is not caused by shenanigans on the part of any automaker. The mileage shortfall is caused by EPA fuel-economy test cycles that bear no more relation to real-world driving conditions than a Sunday afternoon bicycle ride does to the Tour de France.