I hate the article title as none of these are 40 mpg COMBINED mileage cars. Not everyone lives on and works on a highway and is able to do highway speeds for much/all of their commute....
But... I think of particular interest is the graph on the first page (or also at 40 MPG Comparison Constant Speed Chart Photo 13http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/1208_40_mpg_compact_sedan_comparison/).
Even before the MY08+ EPA test changes, the highway test results on the Monroney sticker were fudged (adjusted downward) by 22 percent for the highway test and 10 for the city test. The MY08+ changes make it more complicated due to the added tests and you can't just raw unadjusted dyno numbers by those %s anymore.
And, again, the EPA test does NOT measure actual fuel use.
But... I think of particular interest is the graph on the first page (or also at 40 MPG Comparison Constant Speed Chart Photo 13http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/1208_40_mpg_compact_sedan_comparison/).
Did you ever read those articles about the EPA test AND also look at fueleconomy.gov to look at some of the test details that I pointed you to?
Even before the MY08+ EPA test changes, the highway test results on the Monroney sticker were fudged (adjusted downward) by 22 percent for the highway test and 10 for the city test. The MY08+ changes make it more complicated due to the added tests and you can't just raw unadjusted dyno numbers by those %s anymore.
And, again, the EPA test does NOT measure actual fuel use.
