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With recent crazy estimation of inflated MPGs, If I am in the power to instate a federal law, I would writ:
All cars should records MPG stats and upload said records on the next yearly inspection. No personal data is used, only car year and model and mileage and detailed MPG stats.

Beiruty wrote:With recent crazy estimation of inflated MPGs, If I am in the power to instate a federal law, I would writ:
All cars should records MPG stats and upload said records on the next yearly inspection. Now personal data is used, only car year and model and mileage and detailed MPG stats.

Here is a better idea which leaves government out of it..........enable car owners to download their personal vehicle's mileage data if they want to, so that they can upload it to the web, if they want to, to the website of their choice. We don't need more laws.

Hmm... while your heart is in the right place, this seems like a "give them an inch, and they'll take a mile" scenario. Well, if people are already uploading that data, why can't we upload this data and so on?

All ideas are welcomed. Protecting privacy is of utmost priority. Keeping Cars manufactures honest is good goal to be scored.

Beiruty wrote:All ideas are welcomed. Protecting privacy is of utmost priority. Keeping Cars manufactures honest is good goal to be scored.

I absolutely agree, but the best way to do that is through the pressure of the market place. Buyers will be far more efficient at keeping sellers honest than the government can be. After all, manufacturers are already mandated by government to produce certain overall fuel economy numbers. Those laws have been on the books for years. And apparently the reports the manufacturers produce are bunk, aren't they? That's what happens whenever government steps in and mandates changes that the market is not supporting.

Beiruty wrote:All ideas are welcomed. Protecting privacy is of utmost priority. Keeping Cars manufactures honest is good goal to be scored.

Consumer Reports. Buying a short period of access to their website, their car book, or whatever is applicable will be a lot cheaper than buying extra gas, paying for extra maintenance, etc in the long run. They also run http://www.Consumerist.com for free which is nice. Right now comments are down because of a recent hacking. When the comments, are up, the site is even better because people share their ideas and experiences. They have (had?) a lot of good comments and articles about car buying on http://www.Consumerist.com.

does this data also require the upload of...
the fuel/gas content of either b or e %, app%,load,mfds,baro,laod,mgp,ebp,egr,egrdc#,ect,eot,boo, wind speed and direction.... et. all? that has an effect on the numbers. or just basic mpg?

20 years as a tech i have seen so many complaints of poor milage caused by bad driving its not funny.
lady cam in with a ford ranger said she got 12-13 mpg. 100 mile road test net me 32 for the first 50 miles and 28 on the return home.

To each his own.

I buy a vehicle for what it can do for me and if my milage is less than I'd like, so be it.

In my case, I bought a V-8 crew cab pickup. I don't expect exceptional milage. Reasonable, for what it is and whatever that is, is fine with me.

I don't base my purchase based on milage.

I buy what I need a vehicle to do.

If others buy based on milage alone, O.K...

I also appreciate manufacturers will post their products with a maximum of tweaking of what milage their models can get, such as with a 50 mile an hour behind them, only 1/4 gallon of gas in the tank (keeps weight down) a jockey size person driving, going in a straight line, no stops and starts, and so on.

In other words, no matter what their stats say, their milage figures will always be skewed and I wouldn't expect anything less.

So, what to do?

Factor in massive fudge factor and add 5 miles per gallon less (minimally) to whatever they claim their milage is for any model.

The Annoyed Man wrote:

Beiruty wrote:With recent crazy estimation of inflated MPGs, If I am in the power to instate a federal law, I would writ:
All cars should records MPG stats and upload said records on the next yearly inspection. Now personal data is used, only car year and model and mileage and detailed MPG stats.

Here is a better idea which leaves government out of it..........enable car owners to download their personal vehicle's mileage data if they want to, so that they can upload it to the web, if they want to, to the website of their choice. We don't need more laws.

A number of things influence actual MPG stats and to simply boil them down to MPG, make, model, and year would be misleading at best. First off options can have an impact, an appearence package typically adds stuff to the car and has a negative effect due to weight and a change in the areodynamics of the design. The transmission (Auto or Standard) can greatly change the vehicles performance on these stats. The presence and use of cruise control will change the results. The driving environment will change things as well, just like weather conditions will (try calculating your MPG when driving into a 70mph headwind and then driving with a 70mph tail wind). The vehicles current level of maintenance will influence results. The number of drivers the vehicle has will incluence the results on modern vehicles that "learn" driving habits just as individual drivers will influence the results.

Me and a friend both drove their vehicle on a trip. He got 18MPG average while driving, I got 29MPG on average while I was driving. We drove similar distances and under similar conditions. If you really want to know the MPG that a particular model will have then I suggest you go rent one and drive it for a week and see how it reacts to you.

Abraham wrote:Factor in massive fudge factor and add 5 miles per gallon less (minimally) to whatever they claim their milage is for any model.

Or, you could subtract 5 miles per gallon more. Sorry, the devil made me do it.

TAM,

My pointed little head just exploded!

Beiruty wrote:With recent crazy estimation of inflated MPGs, If I am in the power to instate a federal law, I would writ:
All cars should records MPG stats and upload said records on the next yearly inspection. No personal data is used, only car year and model and mileage and detailed MPG stats.

I think it's a great idea but only for any vehicles owned or leased by a government entity. The taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent.

Less laws. More common sense. If people research cars before they but, there should be few surprises.

cheezit wrote:does this data also require the upload of...
the fuel/gas content of either b or e %, app%,load,mfds,baro,laod,mgp,ebp,egr,egrdc#,ect,eot,boo, wind speed and direction.... et. all? that has an effect on the numbers. or just basic mpg?

20 years as a tech i have seen so many complaints of poor milage caused by bad driving its not funny.
lady cam in with a ford ranger said she got 12-13 mpg. 100 mile road test net me 32 for the first 50 miles and 28 on the return home.

Question for clarification: were YOU going the speed limit, as applicable to each speed zone you drove through, or were you going under the speed limit? That is a HUGE difference in mileage. I agree that if someone is lead-footing all the time, it certainly can make a difference in fuel consumption. (Though I also believe Beiruty and think that the numbers on the window sticker are a perfect world, closed track, no wind, etc. scenario).