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Take Two and Pass, Japan!
I hate to break it to you, Ford Motor Company, but the Japanese bogarting all the good hybrid parts is not at the root of your failure to provide fuel-efficient vehicles. I'm going to guess that failure is instead based in a long tradition of not offering fuel-efficient vehicles:
Maximum number of miles that Ford's most fuel-efficient 2003 car can drive on a gallon of gas: 36
Maximum number its 1912 Model T could: 35
Posted by Matt Ransford on 09/20/2005 | Permalink
Comments
Combined city/highway mileage my 1992 Ford Festiva got last time I checkedt: 39 MPG.
Posted by: Joe Garden | Sep 20, 2005 6:14:17 PM
I'm not really sure how much I trust that mileage figure for the Model T, but it is worth noting that the Model T made only 20hp out of its 2.8 liter engine-- the modern Ford you're referring to I'm guessing is the Focus, which makes around 136 hp out of it's 2.0 liter engine.
The real issue is that Americans are assumed to not want fuel-efficent cars; Ford has a wonderful, very efficient car, the Ka, but you can't get it in the US. Same goes for the Smart, Citroens, all kinds of great Japanese Kei-class cars, all sorts of wonderful, efficent cars you can't find in the US.
Those cars are out there. But I'm afraid the emphasis is on OUT. In the meantime, try turning off your car and coasting more-- I've been doing that in my '73 Beetle and getting great mileage. Plus, it's fun in a really nervy kind of way!
Posted by: Jason | Sep 20, 2005 8:41:22 PM
turning off your engine to coast is NOT reccomended if you have power steering....
dropping it in neutral and coasting might do the trick to a degree though. i'm a bout to drive across the country solo and i'll be doing that to save gas and keep things interesting. wish me luck.
Posted by: hornsofthedevil | Sep 22, 2005 1:35:54 AM
Jan Lundberg's Culture Change enewsletter describes perfectly the activity encapsulated by the Fraud Motor Company's lack of development in energy efficient vehicles. He calls it "revving the global engine."
In fact it's much worse than what the Harper's Index piece from 2003 indicates.
See also http://www.allderdice.ca/
Posted by: allderblob | Sep 27, 2005 12:07:31 AM
