Why haven't automotive fuel economy ratings gotten better?

Question

Comparing small vehicles from the 1970's to the present there have been lots of technological changes incorporated, such as multispeed lockup transmissions, digital fuel injection, variable valve timing, electric radiator fans, but not much change in fuel economy....why not?

Answer 1

Because automakers don't care about fuel economy. The reason they don't care is because CONSUMERS didn't care until a couple months ago (some of them still don't care). People were buying Hummers and Expeditions instead of practical, economic cars.

Now they can't pay people to take Hummers off the lot, so look for smaller, more efficient cars to start appearing.

In the end, consumers MUST make their desires known by voting with their wallets.

Answer 2

Greed.  

The oil companies don't want more fuel efficient cars because they wont sell as much fuel.  The car makers want to continue selling their biggest profit makers the big SUV.  So they have been lobbying congress to turn down any gains in efficiency,  In fact the average fuel economy of US cars has been dropping for the past few years.

Answer 3

The biggest reason is that the patents for all the improvements to make vehicles more efficient are owned by the auto makers and Big Oil.

The automakers would have to trash all their contracts for outdated parts they haven't sold and the oil people are greedy.

Ever wonder why Chevies are so easy to get parts for?  Because they have not been updated in years in a lot of instances.

Wonder why Midas Mufflers had lifetime mufflers 20 years before you could get one on a Caddy?

Aftermarket manufacturers come out with innovations way before the automakers incorporate them into their models even though they use computers to design everything now.

Now that the crunch is on and new car sales are really slumping, these innovations will magically start appearing; so if you buy one with a magic solution; check the patent date on the part when you get your hands on it.  You might be shocked.