How far we haven't come...

[Fcnrwy]

QUOTE="Dr3wman, post: 559170, member: basically a steel box with an engine and four wheels. ......I'd never want one.
[/QUOTE]
I remember seeing a few after coming to grief..
There was a saying... When you signed the financing papers, he should also sign your burial arrangements...

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[Hardening2753]

More accurately stated: advancements in MPG have not been commensurate with advances in other technologies over the past 5 decades. Mostly due to consumer wants.

Sure; a 2 liter engine does more with less today than 5 decades ago.

But we have larger heavier (& more expensive) vehicles burning more gas than need be.

Someone pointed out the Maverick is 1000 pounds heavier than a similar truck 50 years ago. Really, to call it real progress, it should be 1000 pounds lighter.

Oh definitely. It's really a trade off between safety and MPG efficiency

 

[rlhdweman]

I remember some of those optimistic fuel economy ratings of the late 70's early 80's, you always had to look at the * in the literature, most fuel economy ratings were @ 45mph & never over 50. Also with a powertrain that could barely pull itself off a piece of chewed gum! They were grossly underpowered for traffic that flowed @ 60mph 45 years ago, can you imagine trying to get on a highway today with one of those tin cans, you would be in the right lane with the pedal on the floor still getting passed by everything on the road.

 

[Dmat]

Just my 2 cents, had a 92 chevy 1500. silverado trim, single cab, long bed. Got 26 mph highway at 60 mph or higher with the 4.6L v6. Not the exact same comparison but still sad to see new trucks with the same mpg.

 

[JimParker256]

Yeah, we had a Toyota Tercel 4WD wagon in the early 80s, that my wife drove for years. I can't remember whether it was Car & Driver or Road & Track, but one of them showed it as THE slowest car in both 0-60 and 1/4 mile times they had EVER tested. I think the 0-60 was around 16-17 seconds, and the 1/4 mile time was around 21-22 seconds.

At that time, I had a pretty original (read "clapped out") '63 VW Beetle, and it would flat-out run away and hide from the Tercel in a side-by-side "race"... I suspect even Peyton Manning (who claims his 40 yard dash time was measured with a calendar) could probably have outrun that Tercel...

It did get pretty decent gas mileage - around 30 mpg as I recall, but driving up the mountains was an exercise in redlining the little 4-banger using the manual transmission to the max.

 

[bbhaag]

Just my 2 cents, had a 92 chevy 1500. silverado trim, single cab, long bed. Got 26 mph highway at 60 mph or higher with the 4.6L v6. Not the exact same comparison but still sad to see new trucks with the same mpg.

I think the rose colored glasses of nostalgia are impeding your memory. The '92 1500 Silverado came with a 4.3L v6 not a 4.6 and all that displacement came with a whopping......wait for it.......160 HP.

The '80s and '90s were terrible times for the automotive industry in North America. The '92 Silverado is one of many examples.

 

[Dmat]

I think the rose colored glasses of nostalgia are impeding your memory. The '92 1500 Silverado came with a 4.3L v6 not a 4.6 and all that displacement came with a whopping......wait for it.......160 HP.

The '80s and '90s were terrible times for the automotive industry in North America. The '92 Silverado is one of many examples.

I mistyped that. it was the 4.3L. Yea it didnt have a lot of power but I did get most every job done.

 

[rlhdweman]

I think the rose colored glasses of nostalgia are impeding your memory. The '92 1500 Silverado came with a 4.3L v6 not a 4.6 and all that displacement came with a whopping......wait for it.......160 HP.

The '80s and '90s were terrible times for the automotive industry in North America. The '92 Silverado is one of many examples.

I know of several owners that got near 300K out of that 4.3 V6, @ 165hp it still better than you could have in a V8 about 10 years before that. I worked at a gas station nights in the late 90's & a woman has one of these trucks & she always checked her mileage everytime she stopped, I would figure her mileage with a calculator that she requested each time it was always a tad over 25, she did have the 5 speed manual version. Full size trucks have made little progress in mpgs in the last 30 years, but the horsepower has doubled & they are all 1K-2K heavier. If they weren't so overpowered & large they might be getting similar mileage as our EB Mavericks.

 

[Timothyd]

They didnt have 250hp.

Unless you're towing, don't need 250hp.

 

[Azmig88]

Let’s cut through all the specifics, and ask O.P. a simple question:
IF it was possible to have a choice between getting a brand new 70’s Ford or a 2023 Maverick as a gift, which would you prefer to use on a daily basis? It’s a simple question. Please don’t complicate it with things like collector value, etc…..

PS: As I remember, the Yugo got great M.P.G., didn’t it?

 

[GPSMan]

I don't know. Where did you go?
The point is the power plants of gasoline vehicles haven't changed significantly, only the creature comforts have.

The point is we are consuming more fuel per passenger mile than we could be doing today.

We've gotten MORE over the years.
We've not gotten BETTER over the years.

If I electronically governed your current vehicle to 25 horsepower, you'd still be able to drive it everywhere you go today, at the speeds you travel today. Vehicles are grossly over-sized and grossly over-powered for every day use.
There are few exceptions to this where persons are hauling hay or horses up steep grades every single day.

 

[Azmig88]

Do you walk or peddle a bicycle everywhere you go?

 

[JimParker256]

To GPSman's point, it was interesting to me seeing a post that compared the 0-60 time of the Maverick Ecoboost (one of the least expensive "US manufacturer" vehicles available today) to a mid-60's Corvette (one of the most expensive cars at that time) which was certainly considered a "hot" car in it's day....

(Spoiler alert - the times are VERY close.)

 

[GPSMan]

Do you walk or peddle a bicycle everywhere you go?

This is my point.
We don't need to.
But we should be moving that direction, not away from it would't you agree?

400 horsepower 4000 pound EV's are ridiculous. The textbook image of greed and gluttony.

 

[GPSMan]

Do you walk or peddle a bicycle everywhere you go?

A human is 1/3 of a horsepower.

How many times your own body power is reasonable to get to work every day?

Right now you bought something that is 750x what the baseline is.

A little ridiculous.

Love 'em or hate them, over 21 Million of these little guys got Millions of people to work every day. The earliest with 25 horsepower, getting 30 MPG in the 1930's. Some even pulled travel trailers. At a factor of 75x human power.

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