Posted Tuesday, September 13/05 in Driving efficiently

After claiming yesterday that I could regularly beat the EPA ratings in my old Honda Accord EX, I looked it up just to confirm.

According (pardon the pun) to fueleconomy.gov, my car, a 1989 4-door, 5-speed, with a carbureted engine, is rated at 27/34 mpg (US) city/highway (8.7/6.9 L/100km, 32.4/40.8 mpg IMP).*

In summertime highway driving, I regularly got 40 mpg US (5.9 L/100km, or 48 mpg IMP).

That's beating the EPA estimate by 18%.

(* Note that I use the 1988 Accord figures from fueleconomy.gov. When you look up the 1989 model, the site mistakenly shows a photo and stats for the 1990 Accord, which was a complete redesign of the 1989 model. The '88/'89 models were essentially the same.)

I could beat the ratings with my grandfather's 1993 Cadillac Seville too. The 4.6L V8 was rated at 17/26 US mpg city/highway (13.8/9.0 L/100km, 20.4/31.2 mpg IMP).

I borrowed it once to specifically put some fuel-efficient driving techniques to the test. In city driving, I got 11.4 L/100km (24.8 mpg IMP / 20.7 mpg US). On the highway, I got 7.6 L/100km (37.2 mpg IMP / 31 mpg US). That's 23.5% and 19% better than the EPA ratings, respectively.

So it can be done.

Just not with a '98 Firefly, apparently.