[lbo-talk] Ace on fuel economy

[Dick Grippon]

At 09:42 AM 10/14/2005, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Alexander Cockburn writes in his latest Nation column:
>
>>The Virtues of Gas Guzzling
>>ALEXANDER COCKBURN
>>
>>Since I don't believe in "peak oil"--and regard oil "shortages" as 
>>contrivances by the oil companies and allied brokers and middlemen to run 
>>up the price--I fill my aging fleet of 1950s- and '60s-era Chryslers with 
>>a light heart, although for longer trips these days I fill an '82 
>>Mercedes 240D with diesel. True, diesel now costs more than high-octane 
>>gasoline, but the Mercedes gets thirty-five miles to the gallon, whereas 
>>the '59 Imperial ragtop and the '62 Belvedere wagon get around eighteen 
>>mpg, which is still way ahead of the SUVs.
>
>According to the EPA <http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/FEG2005.pdf>, a 
>two-wheel-drive Ford Explorer gets 16 mpg in the city, and 21 mpg on the 
>highway. Must have a word with The Nation's fact-checkers.
>
>Doug

So my crappy 1992 Pathfinder get 21 city/25 highway and it does about as 
well a car people would "approve" of? For christ sake. (Admittedly, it does 
that well since it's a four-on-the-floor and I'll drive nothing else, but 
what the hell....?)

The Mirage I had before that got 28/40 -- before it was totalled when I 
fell asleep at the wheel commuting 240 miles a day. *sigh*