Ian Swenson .com

According to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, a whopping 73% of Americans say rising gas prices are a somewhat or very serious problem for their families. That means 3 out of 4 of us are feeling the hurt of, oh I dunno, nearly tripled gas prices in five years.

So the car manufacturers have risen to the occasion you’d say. Fuel efficiency is rising along with the gas prices, they tell us. Great, we say.

But it’s bull honky. I see car commercial after car commercial trotting out their “best fuel economy in America” ads and, with the notable exception of Toyota, they’re lying to us. I don’t get who they think they’re fooling when they tell us 24mpg (EPA rated) is “fuel efficient.” In 2000, the Ford Focus was rated at 26 mpg city / 33 highway. I don’t think things have changed all that much.

Plus, as we all know, EPA rated efficiency hardly means what you’ll actually get in use. It’s like trying to figure out how much money you’ll get from your paycheck after federal tax, income tax, OSHA, medical, and your 401k. After all is said and done, there’s about 75% left over (there’s that number again).

In my opinion, the car manufacturers can’t even use the word “efficient” unless they’re over 30 mpg city. Yes, I’ll concede that car manufacturers are getting marginally better with fuel economy. But a few mpg improvement does not a warrant a parade.

In a time where over half of Americans believe that fossil fuels are the biggest cause of recent temperature increases and almost everyone would agree that even if that’s not true, burning fossil fuels is still not a good thing in the long run, the car manufacturers have an obligation to improve efficiency. Instead they balk at increasing truck fuel economy by 10 mpg in 10 years. European vehicles are already there.

I just don’t get it. But meanwhile, stop bullying us with misleading-at-best, outright-lying-at-worst commercials about fuel economy.