Cash for Clunkers, and Healthcare.

[HappySqurriel]

NJ5 said:

HappySqurriel said:

NJ5 said:

HappySqurriel according to the articles I've read the criteria for this program are pretty strict, the car you give up has to do less than 18 miles per gallon (and the new one above some other amount).

According to my calculations in European units that's 13 liters per 100km, which is... terrible mileage compared to today's cars.

 

Most mid/full sized sedans on the market today are only (optimisitically) rated at 11L/km city driving, and more realistically get 12L/km or worse in real world driving conditions. Compared to sub-compacts like the Honda Fit this is awful, but a large portion of fuel economy is simply the weight of the car, and we haven't seen much of an improvement within the classes of cars when it comes to fuel economy.

When you compare this to European cars you also have to consider that Europe primarily uses Diesel fuel where you can travel much further on a single liter of fuel than you can with gasoline.

I think you're overestimating the fuel consumption of new cars... A few years ago my father sold our Alfa Romeo 155 which was using way too much fuel, and that was like 10-11 liters per 100 km at most (not a diesel car).

Right now he has a diesel car (Nissa Primera full-sized) which uses 5-7 liters per 100 km, I bet a gasoline one doesn't use more than 9 liters even in city driving.

 

The V6 Honda Accord is rated at 11L/100km, and (being that my driving habits are worse than the worst case for most city driving estimates) my 2006 Ford Fusion averages around 12L/100km in the city. Now the question I would have about your father's Alfa Romeo is whether he was driving mostly in the city or the highway, if he is driving mostly on the highway 10 to 11 L/100km is fairly bad, if he is driving in the city it is fairly decent.

Certainly, when you move to a car like the Honda Fit from the V6 Accord you get a major boost in fuel economy but the Accord is 46% heavier than the fit because it is a dramatically larger car. Even your Primera is a much smaller and lighter car than the Accord, and you have a major boost in fuel ecconomy because it is a diesel.

 

Basically, I'm not saying 13L/100km is good fuel economy but it is very good fuel economy for a full sized sedan (or larger car) and most compact and mid-sized sedans don't do much better today. Certainly there are cars that have dramatically better fuel economy but there are massive trade-offs when it comes to the size, performance and safety of the vehicle when you go in that direction ... I know people will debate safety given crash test results, but crash-tests are testing accidents into stationary objects or cars of similar size; and (in reality) there is a massive difference in safety between an Accord hitting a F150 and a Honda Fit hitting the same F150 under the same conditions.