[ExI] Fuel efficient car for anywhere but America

[kellycoinguy at gmail.com]

I heard recently that part of the reason that oil is cheaper in the US is because the international price is stated in dollars. Also that if we stopped denominating oil in dollars that the price would jump in the us. This seems like a crazy argument to me. Do any of you have any reason to believe it moght be true?

Kelly



-- Sent from my Palm Pre
On Apr 10, 2011 3:29 AM, Alfio Puglisi <alfio.puglisi at gmail.com> wrote: 

On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 9:50 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 7:05 AM, The Avantguardian  wrote:

>

>

> http://www.greencar.com/articles/vw-polo-bluemotion-tops-70-mpg.php

>

>

> This car runs on diesel, has a top speed of 109 mph, has lower CO2 emissions

> than a Prius,on and gets a whopping 70 miles to the gallon.

>

> So here is a riddle for you:

> Why can't we get this in North America?

>

>





Because you've been naughty and don't deserve it!     ;)



No, really it is because

1) US gas prices(including tax) need to double to get nearer to

European prices before economical cars become a significant user

demand.

2) The very economical European cars tend to be too small for US preferences.



This article is from 2008 and there are now in 2011 many standard

production European cars (diesel or hybrid) that will get over 70 mpg

on mixed city / freeway driving (called combined cycle mpg). You have

to adjust for US gallons, though, by dividing by 1.2.   So 70 mpg

European = 58.3 mpg US - quite a difference!

This is correct, but note that the greencar.com's article used American gallons: 3.8 liters/100 km translates to 62 mpg, so the 48 city / 74 highway is valid for the US. There may be some difference in the standards used to calculate the fuel consumption, though.
What you call the "European" gallon is actually the UK gallon, which is unknown to us continental southerners. Actually, most people don't even know that some kind of gallon is used this side of the atlantic pond :-)

 


Use

<http://carfueldata.direct.gov.uk/search-by-fuel-economy.aspx>

to search for over 50 cars with better than 70 mpg (European).




BillK



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