SIGforum.com Main Page The Lounge What other technologies have been stifled as bad vehicle mpg over the last 30 years??
Main Page The Lounge What other technologies have been stifled as bad vehicle mpg over the last 30 years??Go | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
Member |
Looking only at wind resistance... drag is approximately proportional to the square of the velocity. (80/60) = 1.33, you're only going 33% faster, but (80/60)^2 = 1.78, there's almost 80% more drag. | |||
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Member |
True. My own experience is that in general cars and trucks today get a lot better mpg than they did in the 70's - 80's. VW Beetles typically got in the low 20's. Most people seem to remember the best mpg they get. I had a 1971 Fiat 124 Spyder that "got 32 mpg"....... once. Gas was hard to find, I had filled up and we went for a little drive on rural 55 mph highways and a couple hours came across a gas station that had gas so I topped it up. It took 2 gallons and I'd got 64 miles. Most of the time that little car got in the mid to upper 20's. I had a 1987 Honda CRX SI (light 2 seat Civic) that had 108 hp IIRC and I seldom got over 30 mpg. The heavier 2019 Civic SI with much larger tires and over 200 hp will do 25% better. No car is as much fun to drive, as any motorcycle is to ride. | |||
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| Little ray of sunshine  |
Okay, other "stifled" technology: Flying cars. I have been promised a flying car since I was a kid. The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. | |||
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| Member |
Getting much more realistic because of the proliferation of drone technology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raVzAjMgLE8 | |||
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| Member |
They had those in the 40's. They never caught on (almost used took off. LOL). Probably because they were a crappy car that did like 55 mph and they were a crappy airplane as well. The original aerocar https://www.bing.com/images/se...ist=0&vt=0&eim=1,2,6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerocar Actually someone is making flying cars again https://www.aeromobil.com/ | |||
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For real? |
Best I have done with my 4 cyl. Mostly freeway at 77mph with cruise control.  Sadly, I can't do that anymore. I have a lead foot. Still, it's better than my last car. In my 6cyl Subaru Legacy awd with regular gas I was averaging 21mpg. My current BMW 430i awd hardtop convertible (meaning heavy) on premium is averaging 26mpg with my style of driving. If I slow down, I can get more than 30mpg. I wish I can find a place that's ethanol free. I think the boat places and some race places might have it. I have mixed E85 sometimes to try and create an E25ish blend. Definitely more power but way less mpg. I can do close to E30 without needed to change parts but I think I'll just stop. Not minority enough! | |||
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Spiritually Imperfect |
Now we are getting somewhere! Totally agree. | |||
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| If you see me running try to keep up  |
I agree with the OP’s premise, even if you include the safety improvements the emissions regs have been detrimental to mileage in many autos. Car Diesel engines would get better mpg without the regs (VW proved that). My 2018 Subaru Forester XT gets 25 mpg on my trip back and forth to work in city driving. The turbo 2.0 makes it a fun to drive car and it accelerates well enough for me. My new 2019 4wd 4Runner with the 4.0 gets 18 city driving. My wife drives that and doesn’t drive much so I don’t mind that mileage. | |||
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fugitive from reality |
The OP's conjecture was faulty to begin with. Given the weight increases and gov mandaed safety enhancements over the last 30 years, fuel economy has actually gotten better, not worse. At 3k# my 2012 2.5 Outback would average 30-32 MPG on the highway. Try getting that from an all wheel drive anything from the late 20th century. _____________________________ 'I'm pretty fly for a white guy'. | |||
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| If you see me running try to keep up |
Really? Then why was VW messing with the Diesel engine computers to pass emissions and get good mileage? | |||
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| Ammoholic |
I’m not sure if it is accurate to say that technologies have been stifled as much as it is to say that priorities have changed. Gas mileage - people want a lot more car. More electronics, more power, more comfort. Shower heads - there are some good low flow ones out there. Our current heads do as good a job getting the soap off (at less than full throttle on the valve) as the “buckets per minute” shower head that I used as a kid. Supersonic flight - the Concorde was shutdown because it was never economically viable. The British and French governments paid for the development and subsidized ongoing operations as a matter of national pride. After the accident, the airplane could have been modified to deal with issue (FOD ruptured a fuel tank and resulted in a fiery crash), but the airplane was already losing money daily in what were theoretically supposed to be revenue producing operations so the accident was used as a good excuse to shut down operations. Low flow toilets - some of them certainly work a lot better than others, but the best will probably never compare to huge water flushes. I think the key is that the market has been driven (often by regulation, though in the case of the Concorde by economics) to optimize for something different. | |||
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| fugitive from reality |
My guess is VW simply didn't want to spend the money to design a compliant emissions system. Other maufacturers do, so it's not like they couldn't. _____________________________ 'I'm pretty fly for a white guy'. | |||
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| Big Stack |
Going back to Black's original question. Why hasn't mileage gotten better, and actually gotten worse? Because cars have gotten bigger and heavier again. Black's 97 Civic weighed around 2,519 lbs (depending on style, trim level, etc.). A 2020 Civic weighs between 2762 lbs and 2963 lbs, so up to 450 lbs heavier. So, yeah, the 2020 is going to get worse mileage, likely no matter what technology is thrown at it. | |||
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| Conveniently located directly above the center of the Earth  |
In the 70s/80s I remained a fan of the Detroit heavy metal. 2 of my favorite daily drivers I had then were a 1949 Cadillac 62 touring sedan (18 ft long & 4100#) and a 1951 Buick business Coupe (Beulah Rose)....which was hefty as the Caddy. While the Caddy was V8/auto & the Buick was straight 8/3 on the tree, I could count on daily use at 18+ and long road trips at over 21 for either. Of "regular". I was stopped by a cop once while in my 1968 Datsun 2000 roadster. The only thing he could actually bring up was "What's your fuel mileage" as that was during the 77-78 gas crisis. He'd clocked me at 2 mpg over the speed limit. I told him 'an honest 35mpg at this speed, what's yours?' My 1969 SAAB V4 easily averaged 28+, and other econoboxes I also drove did very well at the 25 cents/gallon of that era. **************~~~~~~~~~~ "I've been on this rock too long to bother with these liars any more." ~SIGforum advisor~ "When the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of change, then change will come."~~sigmonkey | |||
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| Member |
Because getting good mileage and passing emissions don't go hand in hand on a diesel. If you take all of the DEF fuel additive crap and emissions crap off of the new diesels, they'll get almost 20% better fuel mileage. | |||
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| fugitive from reality |
Really? https://www.caranddriver.com/f...iesel-car-truck-suv/ _____________________________ 'I'm pretty fly for a white guy'. | |||
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| Member |
Does anyone remember the conspiracy stories about the guy that invented a 100 mpg carburetor but the big oil companies stopped it from being sold? I want that technology. No one's life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.- Mark Twain | |||
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| Rail-less and Tail-less |
I like to drive fun cars. Don’t give a shit about gas mileage. Don’t pay attention to how much I’m getting so I couldn’t even tell you what I’m averaging. _______________________________________________ Use thumb-size bullets to create fist-size holes. | |||
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| Member |
What conspiracy story about the guy that filled his fuel tank with water, dropped a couple of pills in it, and it turned to burnable fuel. That's what I want. | |||
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Member |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tJGk4ofc18 ——————————————— The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalm 14:1 | |||
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SIGforum.com Main Page The Lounge What other technologies have been stifled as bad vehicle mpg over the last 30 years??
Main Page The Lounge What other technologies have been stifled as bad vehicle mpg over the last 30 years??© SIGforum 2024