Fool, I mean fuel, economy

This week it was announced in the news that the Big 3 sold less than 50% of the new cars sold in September in Canada for the first time!

After a summer where gas prices were over a $1 a litre and filling up cost more than a night out at the movies, with popcorn and dinner before!

It is not surprising.

Fuel for thought:

The 2004 corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) for passenger vehicles was only 29.3 mpg. The value in 1982 was 25.0 mpg. Great improvements in fuel economy. Must be due to all those hemis and v8s.

"Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) is the sales weighted average fuel economy, expressed in miles per gallon (mpg), of a manufacturer’s fleet of passenger cars or light trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 8,500 lbs. or less, manufactured for sale in the United States, for any given model year" http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/CAFE/overview.htm

The estimated fuel economy of Henry Ford's model T produced from 1908 to 1927 was 25-30 mpg according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T).

Great progress in nearly a century of automotive innovation.

I did some work in a Ford dealership in the early 90's. While I was there the owner came to talk to me and was admiring the Toshiba laptop and software I was using. He commented that he loved working in the auto industry because of the technical innovation and amount of R&D done in the industry. I remember clearly almost choking on my own saliva, trying to avoid laughing.