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What's up with the switch from advertising a car's city MPG to highway? And why the hell are all these automakers so proud of cars that get less than 30 MPG on the highway?

ToLiveIsToFly wrote:What's up with the switch from advertising a car's city MPG to highway? And why the hell are all these automakers so proud of cars that get less than 30 MPG on the highway?

The highway numbers are higher than the city numbers, of course! And if the marketeers make it sound like those are good numbers, maybe some of their audience will believe it!

Duh!

ToLiveIsToFly wrote:What's up with the switch from advertising a car's city MPG to highway? And why the hell are all these automakers so proud of cars that get less than 30 MPG on the highway?

But they get the best mileage in their class! The fact that the class is full of other gas pigs who are timed from zero to 60 with a calendar is merely incidental.

It ain't pride, it's fear that they've created thousands of tons of very expensive scrap metal that will rust in their lots before they find someone gullible or rich enough (or both; those aren't mutually exclusive) to buy them.

gs, proud owner of a 2009 Corolla getting BETTER than its stated mpg on highway driving

gsabc wrote:gs, proud owner of a 2009 Corolla getting BETTER than its stated mpg on highway driving

Cool, sounds like it also comes with a time machine!

What's worse than this switch is the switch from discussing MPG at all to talking about "miles per tank of gas".

That one galls me more than anything else- "you get 460 miles per tank of gas!"- conveniently not mentioning that it's because you have a 44-gallon tank!

But it's all about trying to move SUVs in an environment that is not conducive to their sale.

PS I'm getting better mileage in my Yaris than the stated average as well.

TheConfessor wrote:

gsabc wrote:gs, proud owner of a 2009 Corolla getting BETTER than its stated mpg on highway driving

Cool, sounds like it also comes with a time machine!

Yup. The government shortened the miles in the future.

[quote="gsabc]But they get the best mileage in their class! [/quote]

Have you noticed that about 2/3 of all car ads lately have some variant on "best mileage in its class!"?

I guess there are a LOT of different classes of cars these days.

marrymeflyfree wrote:[

They also don't mention the classification, nor how many others are in it with them.

Reminds me of the old joke about the two car race between the US and USSR, where the US car won. Tass reported on the race: "The glorious USSR came in second, while the capitalist pig US came in next to last."

MarleysGh0st wrote:

ToLiveIsToFly wrote:What's up with the switch from advertising a car's city MPG to highway? And why the hell are all these automakers so proud of cars that get less than 30 MPG on the highway?

The highway numbers are higher than the city numbers, of course! And if the marketeers make it sound like those are good numbers, maybe some of their audience will believe it!

Duh!

It's always been the case that the highway numbers are better than the city numbers, and yet the ads always used to feature the city numbers.

I wonder if it's more than a marketing preference - maybe a rule's been changed?

I get better gas mileage than stated in my vehicle as well. Of course it wasn't particularly good to begin with.

Then again I can comfortably carry 5 people, their luggage and a refrigerator all at the the same time. Plus my golf clubs in the trunk of course. Never know when you might need to stop at a driving range. Of course if I am carrying a refrigerator it is a bit more difficult to get the clubs out of the trunk. Possible, but difficult.

If I needed too. Admittedly I don't need to that often. But I know I can because I have! A bit harder to do that in a Prius, Corolla or Yaris, whatever the mileage. Even if you made two trips...

tanstaafl2 wrote:I get better gas mileage than stated in my vehicle as well. Of course it wasn't particularly good to begin with.

Then again I can comfortably carry 5 people, their luggage and a refrigerator all at the the same time. Plus my golf clubs in the trunk of course. Never know when you might need to stop at a driving range. Of course if I am carrying a refrigerator it is a bit more difficult to get the clubs out of the trunk. Possible, but difficult.

If I needed too. Admittedly I don't need to that often. But I know I can because I have! A bit harder to do that in a Prius, Corolla or Yaris, whatever the mileage. Even if you made two trips...

How many iceboxes can you carry?

ulysses5019 wrote:

tanstaafl2 wrote:I get better gas mileage than stated in my vehicle as well. Of course it wasn't particularly good to begin with.

Then again I can comfortably carry 5 people, their luggage and a refrigerator all at the the same time. Plus my golf clubs in the trunk of course. Never know when you might need to stop at a driving range. Of course if I am carrying a refrigerator it is a bit more difficult to get the clubs out of the trunk. Possible, but difficult.

If I needed too. Admittedly I don't need to that often. But I know I can because I have! A bit harder to do that in a Prius, Corolla or Yaris, whatever the mileage. Even if you made two trips...

How many iceboxes can you carry?

I dunno, are they bigger than a breadbox?

ToLiveIsToFly wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:

ToLiveIsToFly wrote:What's up with the switch from advertising a car's city MPG to highway? And why the hell are all these automakers so proud of cars that get less than 30 MPG on the highway?

The highway numbers are higher than the city numbers, of course! And if the marketeers make it sound like those are good numbers, maybe some of their audience will believe it!

Duh!

It's always been the case that the highway numbers are better than the city numbers, and yet the ads always used to feature the city numbers.

I wonder if it's more than a marketing preference - maybe a rule's been changed?

The ads I have always seen as long as I can remember listed both the City and Highway MPG, with the Highway MPG in a larger font size. That has been true of both print ads and tv ads.