By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com
July 12, 2007
The Environmental Protection Agency has unveiled its new, lower fuel estimates for new cars and trucks, sharply reducing the mileage estimates for the Toyota Prius and other hybrids.
The new numbers are supposed to more accurately reflect real-world driving but some window sticker averages are taking a real beating.
The change for hybrids is drastic. The Toyota Prius' estimated fuel economy dropped from 60 mpg to 48 mpg for city driving.
The average mileage for the Prius drops from 55 mpg to 46 and highway miles per gallon are down from 51 to 45.
There is nothing different about the Prius and the EPA didn't change the procedure its labs use to measure fuel economy.
The government simply revised how it weighs different parts of the test to generate the new numbers.
The revisions introduced by the government are no surprise to many ConsumerAffairs.com readers but they may cause some Toyota dealers to change their sales pitch.
John in San Marcos, Texas bought a 2007 Prius with the old mileage figures on the window sticker.
He complained to his dealer when his Prius failed to live up to the mileage claims.
They are still saying it will get 55 mpg in town. I get 28 mpg in all town driving, he wrote us . It has been in the shop three times. They deny that there is anything wrong with my car.
I am out a lot of money, tax title and license fees, interest, cost of extended warranty and prepaid maintenance, John wrote. I am frustrated by the Toyota runaround and their lectures on how to drive.
As the new EPA mileage estimates establish, there was nothing wrong with John's Prius or the manner in which he drove it. All that was wrong were the government mileage estimates for the hybrid.
The government still says that mileage will vary depending upon the driver. The Prius, according to the government Web site, can vary from a low of 34 mpg in city driving to a high of 62.
In browsing the new mileage numbers, it seems that the lower the mileage a vehicle achieves, the less the change will be from the old system to the new.
The high-performance Ferrari F430, for example, produced 14 miles to a gallon under the old system of estimates. Under the new estimates, the figure is 13 mpg.
All of the new figures are available at the Department of Energy's site, www.fueleconomy.gov.
