Is premium fuel Worth It? Premium vs. Regular - 5 vehicles tested
Why European gasoline-consumption ratings are so high - and often false.
We are often asked why the cars sold in Europe seem to be much more efficient than those sold in the U S.
Generally, it's accompanied by the words of some so-called 80 mpg car sold in Europe - while the best vehicles -MARKET U S crest barely 50 mpg bar.
Now, Reuters points out one of the main reasons for the difference are not only unrealistic European tests, but automakers exploit flaws in the tests, the more blurred lines between nominal effective and real world results.
Year after year, the numbers of European sales showed a bias towards an average fuel economy and lower CO2 emissions across fleet.
In 2013, the average European car emitted only 127 grams of CO2 per kilometer - 3g km below the objectives of the European Union for 2015, emissions of greenhouse gases.
To put some perspective on these numbers, weighted average fuel economy U sales of new vehicles S just crossed the threshold of 25 mpg - equivalent to 218 g CO2 per km.
Part of this difference is down to the kind of cars people buy smaller cars and diesel engines are much more prevalent in Europe than they are in the US, and both generally lead to more efficient vehicles fuel efficient than larger vehicles with big gasoline engines.
Cars are really most effective on the pond, then, but many come with performance and size tradeoffs little U S drivers would be willing to live with.
Classic Volkswagen Beetle Convertible 2012 Volkswagen Up minicar, Catskills, NY, May 2012.
The differences between European and US figures go much further than that, but some of it is the way cars are tested in Europe - the testing procedure New European Driving Cycle is both shorter and more slower than the EPA process.
The European urban test, for example, is 13 minutes - the test of the city EPA is 31 minutes on suburban test takes 6 minutes 40 seconds the equivalent EPA road test is 12 minutes, 45 seconds.
The speeds are also different during the urban test 13 minutes, the maximum speed reached is just over 30 mph and maintained for 12 seconds.
The rest of the test consists of acceleration and deceleration slow, about 2 5 minutes is spent stationary - meaning cars equipped with stop start systems increasingly common not to use any fuel for minutes .
Why GasMileage European assessments are so often Wrong Highand, European, ratings often wrong.