Car Mileage

There is no reason to have a total faith on the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) mileage estimates on the window sticker when you bought your car or truck. Serious flaws in how those estimates are calculated overstate them by as much as 20%. With popular hybrids, which save gas by using electricity for some of their power, the difference between estimate and reality can be as high as 30%. At today's pump prices, that can easily put your annual gas budget a couple of hundred bucks on the negative side.

After years of complaining by consumer groups, the Environmental Protection Agency is about to fix its broken system. Under new rules proposed last week, starting in 2008 mileage estimates will better reflect real-life driving conditions. The result: Those window-sticker mileage numbers will drop by 10 to 20% for city driving, 5 to 15 percent for highway driving. The city figure for hybrids is expected to drop by a whopping 20 to 30%.

Also, starting in 2011, automakers will be required to test their cars to reflect the less-than-perfect driving habits and conditions that occur outside the laboratory - things like freeway driving speeds, stop-and-go driving during rush hour and the use of air conditioning. These new rules were pushed by Senator Maria Cantwell (Democrat-Washington) and was passed by the Senate but failed to make it into the final version of last year's transportation bill.

These changes were long overdue. The current tests are a product of the 1970s, and haven't been modified since the mid-'80s, when the freeway speed limit was still 55 mph. It also comes at a critical time, with gas prices expected to stay near or above current levels for the
foreseeable future, and sales of hybrid cars beginning to explode. Hybrids can cost several thousand dollars more than similar gas-only models, so buyers count on substantially better gas mileage to make up for that. Basing their calculations on inflated expectations has left many buyers feeling more than a little dejected or may be deflated!