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Old 07-13-2006, 05:22 PM
Chilly Chilly is offline
Pretty Darn Active Enthusiast
 
Hybrids: Toyota Highlander
Posts: 262
Default Re: What does GM have to say?

Quote:
Originally Posted by blinkard
Well, I thought it was a lovely dance, with fancy footwork. I especially liked:

"In fact, GM offers more vehicles that get 30 mpg or better EPA highway mileage than any other automaker. More than Toyota. More than Honda. More than Nissan."


Now, the Honda & Acura product lines consist of is 16 models: Insight , S2000, Fit, Civic , Accord, CRV, Element, Pilot, Odyssey, Ridgeline, RL, TL, TSX, RSX, MDX, and RDX. Only Insight, Fit, Civic, Accord, TSX and RSX--6 models--get 30 or more MPG.

So, when you say that all of GM offers more 30+ mpg models than all of Honda, you're saying GM offer more than 6 cars.

Nissan's product line is 18 models, including Infiniti's 6.

Toyota offers 27, including Lexus' 8 and Scion's 3.

GM offers 59 models, including Pontiac: 8, Chevrolet: 20, Buick: 5, Saturn: 5, Cadillac: 9, GMC: 5, Hummer: 3, Saab: 4.

Out of 59 models, GM brags about offering more than 6 that get 30+ mpg. It sounded good in the context of the article, though.

According to The Auto Channel and my handy calculator, Fit is 2% of their YTD sales, Accord 24%, Civic 22%, Odyssey 12%, Pilot 10%, CRV 10%, Element 4%, Ridgeline 4%, RSX 1%, TL 5%, TSX 3%, RL 1%, MDX 3%, and all the others are less than 1% each. That means that 52% of all Hondas & Acuras sold in the last year have an EPA rating of 30mpg or higher.

What percentage of GM vehicles sold in the last year were rated for 30+ mpg? How many GM vehicles get 50+ mpg? Zero. 45+? Zero. 40+? Zero. The highest-mileage American car I could find was a 35mpg Pontiac.
The first part of the qoute in your post is very interesting. While numbers and data don’t lie, the way the data is presented can lead one to draw very different, and sometime misleading, conclusions. Based on the number you gave I decided to dig a little deeper. What I found was rather interesting.


First let’s quantify 30+ mpg. For this discussion I am going to take 30+ mpg to mean the average of the city and highway EPA number. Not just the highway EPA numbers since most Americans drive a combination of both. This data is pulled directly from the www.fueleconomy.gov report for 2006 vehicles. When counting the number of models I include the trans type/speeds and engine types for each model as well. For instance the Chevy Cobalt has a 4 speed Automatic and a 5 speed manual. This counts as 2 models not 1. If each tranny had a 2.0 and a 2.3 engine option that would then count as 4 models.

Below is a list by manufacturer that shows the number of models available vs number of models over 30+ combined. I have listed Divisions separately rather than combine them under a single manufacture like Ford or GM. With GM and Ford having so many cross over models, it’s easier to list them separately. The list was then sorted by the percentage of vehicle over 30+ vs. vehicles made. I have this in Excel spreadsheet that also lists which models get over 30+ and gives their average combined mpg if anyone knows how to link to it let me know. I have also provided a link to the data set I used to compile this list.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/FEG2006.pdf



Manufacturer Total 30+ Percentage

Scion 6 4 66.67%


Mini 8 3 37.50%

Honda 24 6 25.00%

Volkswagen 33 6 18.18%

Toyota 47 6 12.77%

Pontiac 26 3 11.54%

Acura 9 1 11.11%

Hyundai 29 3 10.34%

Kia 21 2 9.52%

Saturn 12 1 8.33%

Ford 66 4 6.06%

Mazda 34 2 5.88%

Lexus 18 1 5.56%

Nissan 39 2 5.13%

Suzuki 23 1 4.35%

Mitsubishi 28 1 3.57%

Mercedes-B 51 1 1.96%

Chevrolet 111 1 0.90%

Aston Martin 6 0 0.00%

Audi 32 0 0.00%

Bentley 4 0 0.00%

BMW 57 0 0.00%

Bugatti 1 0 0.00%

Buick 15 0 0.00%

Cadillac 25 0 0.00%

Chrysler 33 0 0.00%

Dodge 52 0 0.00%

Ferrari 6 0 0.00%

GMC 67 0 0.00%

Hummer 2 0 0.00%

Infiniti 14 0 0.00%

Isuzu 9 0 0.00%

Jaguar 16 0 0.00%

Jeep 21 0 0.00%

Lamborghini 6 0 0.00%

Land Rover 6 0 0.00%

Lincoln 9 0 0.00%

Lotus 1 0 0.00%

Maserati 3 0 0.00%

Maybach 3 0 0.00%

Mercury 18 0 0.00%

Porsche 20 0 0.00%

Rolls-Royce 1 0 0.00%

Saab 22 0 0.00%

Spykr 3 0 0.00%

Subaru 33 0 0.00%

Volvo 38 0 0.00%

So while, GM makes the statement that it has more 30+ mpg vehicles, GM isn’t even in the top 10 when it comes to the percentage of vehicle it fabricates with a combine mpg of 30+. The “We have more 30+ models” is misleading if you look at the scope of the data. When you look at combined mileage I am only counting 5 total vehicles for GM. That means a lot of the model that they claim get 30+ are barely getting over 30 highway. Which is why those models are dropped when looking at combined or median mileage. In this case Toyota, Honda, and even Volkswagen make more vehicles with a combined mpg of 30+. But hey to GM’s credit they at least make more 30+ vehicles than Spyker, Porsche, Maybach, and Maserati combined!!

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