Fuel efficient cars hard to get

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=92136d5fcf0c0257

U.S. auto and truck consumers usually have a lengthy wait for fuel efficient vehicles that are sold in other countries, a survey found.

The 40mpg.org/Civil Society Institute says few of the 86 or more car models that get a combined rating of 40 mpg or better are sold in the United States -- even though many are manufactured by Detroit manufacturers or foreign car makers with extensive U.S. sales operations.

The Volkswagen Lupo has a combined city/highway rating of 53.5 mpg; the General Motors Corp.'s Opel/Vauxhall Tigra has better then 60 mpg on the open road; and the BMW 5 Series Saloon has 50 mpg on the highway.
more...
My son bought a Honda Civic and they were only one car on the lot!!! Its amazing where are the cars!!!

[merwin]

1. my 2005 jetta diesel gets over 40 on avg

and those are not hard to come by. plus the added benefit of being able to screw the oil companies by running on biodiesel

[CottonBear]

8. Jettas are very good cars but are too expensive for most car buyers. n/t

[Strelnikov_]

10. Not Right Now

VW Hits It's C.A.F.E Limit For Diesel Imports

Just got some word from VOA...unless it's already in the pipe, VW isn't accepting any new orders for TDI. Apparently, they've hit the C.A.F.E. limit on TDI...we're told NOT to expect to be able to order till after December/Janurary...

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=119191

[merwin]

11. I didn't know that. Crazy.

[tammywammy]

16. I have an 06 Beetle TDI

I love it. :loveya:
The mileage is very good.

[merwin]

17. Oddly enough, 40mph is ideal for TDI's. ~80mpg possible when

driving 40mph in 5th gear. It drops from there to about 40mpg at 70mph :-)

[tammywammy]

21. Yeah, I know

I have a 6 speed Tiptronic...but then again I've been pushing 70 mph on the highway. :( I've tried going 60 mph, but everyone's going so fast that it's kind of dangerous to actually go the speed limit.

It's going on it's first road trip this weekend, so we'll see how it does on a long (5.5 hrs) drive.

[Porcupine]

2. Try and find a small diesel truck. Impossible!!

Isuzu, Toyota and Nissan all make diesel versions of their small trucks but we can't buy them here. The US is nuts.

[Tesha]

3. It's not nuts, it's just not run for *OUR* benefit.

It's run for the benefit of fat cats and corporations.

Tesha

[salin]

4. getting my prius later this week

put the initial money and order down in the first week of November.

[pdurod1]

5. Good for you,

noticed pump prices going back up. Guess the oil execs want a Christmas bonus. Enjoying the crap outa my civic --haven't turned over the silverado in months. Might donate it to a museum.

[dapper]

7. no..no..no, it's the snow!

All that snow down south! :-) or maybe since nothing was done about the recent price gouging, the oil execs took the liberty of pushing the envelope again.

Dap

[cyberpj]

6. We've had ours since 2001 - love it! nt.

[mainer]

13. Prius owners are a hoot

I had two of them here for a party the other day, and they spent an hour trying to out-compete each other with their MPG stories. Apparently there's a whole network of Prius owners in competition to claim the best mpg. (Instead of "Mine's bigger than yours!" it's now "I got 85 last summer!")

[Orsino]

20. "There I was, getting 57.375 mpg..."

...this one time at band camp."

I'm snowed in in sourthern Virginia. We'll see how the Prius does in the morning when everything's iced over. Gotta get back home to Etlanna, GA.

[merwin]

9. Funny... 40mpg.org doesn't have any of the VW Diesel's on their list.

Here's the REAL list of top 10 fuel efficient cars:

http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/top10/103325/article.html

[uberotto]

12. Even Funnier...

40mpg.org doesn't have the Civic Hybrid on their list of 2006 vehicles that get 40mpg or better...

From the Honda website, the new Civic Hybrid gets a combined 50 mpg.

[merwin]

14. I'm not sure if I trust 40mpg on very much if they can't even get their

list of fuel efficient cars right :)

[Strelnikov_]

15. Could Be The Combined Mileage

My 05 TDI Jetta Wagon (auto) gets 46+ on the highway if I keep max speed in the 65-70 mph range. In town, not nearly as well, around 31 mpg. I am getting a lifetime of 41 mpg (more highway miles logged) so I should qualify on a technicality.

[merwin]

18. The VW TDI's get 38/46 which is 42 combined.

[Javaman]

19. It's called, "trying to get rid of old stock without loosing our shirts"

mentality in detroit right now.

And so it goes, because of this stupidity, GM more than likely will declare bankruptcy in the spring and ford will probably cut back more, thus laying off thousands next year. All because these greedy bastards are trying to squeeze every last dime from the moron Americans pockets.

I keep saying, if some auto corp came along and produced a low price Hybrid or even a low priced high MPG car, they would make a fortune.

But alas, Americans are all about consuming now and not producing. So we will be left behind while the world laughs at us.

drip drip drip...