My 1996 Honda Civic HX
Back in 1996 no one (except geeky me) cared about fuel efficiency. Gas was cheap (about $0.75/gal) and high MPG wasn’t something that would command a higher price tag like it might now. The cars above weren’t necessarily made with the goal of efficiency…they were made to be affordable and this was accomplished by eliminating features and using smaller engines; ultra efficiency was simply a by-product.
When MPG became all the rage, car manufacturers started touting their “efficient” models, arbitrarily setting 30mpg as the gold standard for fuel efficiency. Hybrids were available for those really wanting to make a statement. Unlike their slimmed down economy brethren, hybrids achieve higher mpg by ADDING technology and cost, rather than reducing it, thus aligning the hot ticket item (high MPG) with their most expensive price tags. But there was a problem…those pesky economy models. How is a car manufacturer supposed to sell expensive hybrid technology when there are options within their own lineup that cost significantly less, and strictly in terms of mpg, perform just as well or better? Easy – get rid of the economy models. Since they weren’t big sellers back in the day, most people probably don’t realize these types of cars ever existed.
The Civic Hybrid actually gets less MPG than my old HX model and costs a staggering $8,000 more. Today’s non-hybrid Civic gets 26 city /34 highway, compared to my Civic of the mid 1990s that was 37/52…so basically the civic of 15 years ago on it’s WORST day still outperformed today’s civic on it’s best day. And on the open highway it could literally double the mileage of today’s Civic. Double!!! Today, the closest thing GM makes to the Metro is the Aveo, which peaks at only 35mpg. Their most efficient model is the Cobalt which tops out at a radical 38mpg. If you want the fuel efficient version of VW’s Jetta… it’s their most expensive model and it’s nothing short of groundbreaking at 30/42mpg. Ha.
My question is – if car manufacturers could make cars 15-20 years ago that just about anyone could afford and got 40-60mpg… why can’t they now that MPG is actually what people are asking for? I’m sure they can… they just want to charge a premium for what people are wanting, and right now hybrids are a way to do that.
I am totally with you on this! It is weird. My mom’s Volkswagen Rabbit was more fuel efficient than any of these ‘hybrid’ cars are now, and it was super inexpensive. I got somewhere near 50 MPG. It was definitely more fuel efficient than my extremely rabbit-sized and shaped XD, which claims to get 36 MPG.
What I think is interesting is that these car manufacturers are obviously scheming, marketing, doing research, planning, and plotting the ways to mislead consumers and find any way possible to milk us for every single dollar they can- and look where it’s gotten them. Car companies are going bankrupt, not turning profits, and generally looking pretty dumb in today’s market…..or is that just another “tactic” to get not only our cash, but the government’s as well?
Because I have .edu attached to my email address, this post will be highly intelligent and a pleasure for all to read…haha.
First, no matter what any company’s marketing scheme is, they are out to make money. That’s their sole purpose. it’s not to make “green” cars, or help individuals from high fuel prices. It’s to make money. So if they can go with the whole “green” stuff, they can charge a premium, say they’re saving the world and really when it all comes down to it, they are going backwards in MPG. Same with lightbulbs. We’ve for a while have paid much more for the curly effecient bulbs. it saves energy right? well, they almost all went out on us at the same time (which was far less than run time advertised) so we just got the ole cheap 100w regular bulbs. they are brighter and our electric bill has not increased at all. business will attach on the green fad and raise price and people will jump on it. Back to car MPG, from what i’m aware of most cars now are pretty much ran on computers and sensors….which ALL can be adjusted and are so by the factory before leaving to the dealership. you can increase power, fuel economy, ect…all by hooking up a certain chip that overrides the factory ones or adjusting factory chips which they dont tell us how to do. Sensors as we know them are adjusted by the factory to regulate fuel so as i push on gas pedal the sensor says how much fuel goes in. my old mustang you adjusted a screw that did that and adjust idle speed therefore using less fuel just sitting. i’m sure your civic had something similar so anyone could adjust it. Most things with old cars you adjusted that stuff manually, now it’s computerized so joe schmo can’t regulate it himself. Think about it, we are buying cars that are able to be adjusted in many different aspects to benefit us, but we can’t because it takes a smart computer or something beyond normal knowledge to control (a tool that is not sold, ect..). it’s like if a company made a toy for a child, but made no way to turn it on without a machine or tool back at the factory. I think cars can run on far less fuel than manufacturers adjust for from the factory. I would imagine just looking as a businessman that big wig’s in the car industry have stock in the oil industry as well. and why not? they sell cars, they make money. More cars sold, more oil used and they make money again on something they created. why would they really want to make progress and jeopordize the 2nd income? Anyway that sounds like a conspiracy rant and now i feel like i should go home and put tin foil over my windows. haha. i’m bored and felt like rambling a bit.