John Travis is about to slide behind the wheel of a black Volkswagen Jetta and take it for a test drive, with fuel efficiency in mind.
“I put it right up there with recycling,” said Travis, who trades Japanese yen options on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Gas-guzzlers are “a joke,” Travis insists, and he says he also is considering a VW Golf because it “gets better mileage” than the Jetta. A manual-transmission Golf gets 24 miles to the gallon in the city and 32 on the highway, while the Jetta gets 23 and 30, according to Volkswagen United States. Automatics get a few miles less.
Clearly, Travis, a Chicagoan, is a new-car buyer who believes fuel economy is important, though he might be in the minority these days as cars get heavier and more powerful.
An average car bought in the U.S. gets about 28 miles per gallon.
That’s quite a jump from the 14 m.p.g. typical in 1973, the year an oil embargo jolted America and set into motion a wave of energy-conservation measures.
Fears of oil shortages and soaring fuel prices caused average auto fuel efficiency to climb steadily, peaking in 1988 at 28.6 m.p.g. then flattening at around 28.
Flattening: That pretty well describes customer attitudes about good mileage.
“Most people these days are concerned about safety,” said John David, used-car manager for Northwestern Buick in Evanston. “Gas mileage is third or fourth” behind reliability and comfort.”
Salesman John Tomaras estimates that a little more than 40 percent of the customers ask about mileage, especially when trading an older model for a new one.
But this is a Buick dealership, Tomaras points out: “A guy buying a LaSabre or Roadmaster is worried about mileage?”
More likely, he wants a trouble-free luxury car and is willing to pay $14,000 to $33,000 for it.
These street-level buyer preference observations are reflected in a May 1993 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report on fuel economy. It finds that cars have gained more than 6 percent in weight since 1987, and they are more powerful, two factors that tend to rob fuel economy.
Asian-made cars tend to have the highest fuel economy, European cars the lowest, and those made in the U.S. are in between, according to the report.
According to EPA rankings released Sept. 29, the Geo Metro XFi is the most fuel-efficient 1994 model car, at 53 m.p.g. for city driving and 58 m.p.g. on the highway. Other high-mileage cars are models of the Honda Civic, Suzuki Swift and Geo Metro.
The Rolls-Royce Silver Spur III limousine, on the other hand, got the lowest fuel economy rating at 10 m.p.g. in the city and 14 m.p.g. on the highway. The Silver Spur carries a $5,400 gas-guzzler tax.
Ferrari, Porsche, Jaguar, BMW and Volvo also had low-mileage cars in their lineups.
It is no surprise to the car-buying public that “vehicles with high (miles per gallon) have less performance, are lighter and tend to have smaller interior volume than vehicles with low m.p.g.,” as the EPA report put it. The bigger and generally safer cars are more appealing to consumers, especially in light of fuel prices that have stabilized at $1 to $1.35 a gallon.
“Auto manufacturers have been marketing larger cars, saying this is what the public wants,” said Martha Casey, an EPA spokeswoman. “Americans always had a big romance with the automobile, and the style of the machine and size may be more important to the average person than fuel economy.”
Still, the federal government mandates fuel efficiency, and to enforce it levies the gas-guzzler tax on rogue models.
That began in 1973, when the EPA established a voluntary fuel economy labeling program in which automakers displayed the results of EPA fuel economy tests on window stickers on new models, beginning with the 1974 model year.
The 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act made fuel economy labeling mandatory on cars and light trucks and required dealers to display the EPA’s annual Gas Mileage Guide, which allows consumers to compare the fuel efficiency of various makes and models.
“Passenger cars and light trucks account for some 40 percent of the nation’s petroleum consumption,” says Carol Browner, EPA administrator. “That’s why it’s so important for Americans to choose cars to meet the need of the environment as well as their own needs.”
Congress also set minimum fuel-economy standards for each manufacturer’s new-car fleet, not individual cars. It started at 18 m.p.g in 1978 and rose gradually to 27.5 m.p.g. in 1985, where it still stands.
That’s 15 years of mileage standards.
Attempts to raise the minimum fleet standard to 40 m.p.g have failed in recent years, though the Clinton administration is considering tougher auto standards to combat emissions that contribute to global warming.
The National Research Council in 1992 reported that average fuel economy levels of 34 to 37 miles per gallon are technically possible by 2006, but that this could add $500 to $2,750 to the price of a new vehicle.
Even the 34 to 37 m.p.g. fuel economy level is not good enough, however, according to John DeCicco, transportation specialist for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, a non-profit energy policy research group in Washington, D.C.
“We think that 45 m.p.g. is a good 10-year target,” he said.
After weeding older models off the road, he notes, fuel economy will remain flat, though the population is growing, along with road travel in the U.S.
Road travel “grew 3.5 percent a year over the past two decades,” said DeCicco. “It is very strongly linked to the economy. As we look ahead, assuming a recovery and economic growth, we are looking at 2 percent growth over the next two decades.
“If you have fuel economy that is flat and travel is growing at 2 percent, then gasoline sales will grow 2 percent a year. We don’t think that is a good thing. It means growing fuel sales, growing air pollution, growing greenhouse gases and growing oil imports.”
DeCicco estimates the U.S. has spent $1 trillion on oil imports since 1975.
A more fuel-efficient auto, he said, is “a starting point and essential” to stemming those trends.
