EPA Releases 2000 Gas Milage Data

W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 2 -- While a handful of small cars are getting40-plus miles per gallon, the vast majority of new vehicles cominginto showrooms get about half that, the government’s latestautomobile fuel economy statistics show.

For the second year, a hybrid gas- and electric-powered vehicle— the two-seater Honda Insight — topped the list of biggest fuelmisers with 64 mpg combined city and highway driving among2001-model vehicles. It was followed by another hybrid, the ToyotaPrius, and three Volkswagen diesel cars.

The huge popularity of sport utility vehicles again drove downthe overall numbers of the more than 800 cars, trucks and vanslisted in the annual fuel economy statistics released today by theEnvironmental Protection Agency.

Average fuel economy for 358 models or variations of SUVs, vansand pickup trucks was just over 18 mpg, compared with 23.6 mpg fornearly 500 cars on the EPA list.

And the Guzzler is …King-size SUVs such as the Ford Expedition, Lincoln Navigatorand Dodge Durango and their twin pickups accounted for 12 of the 36 vehicles on the list with the worst gas mileage, all with 12 mpg orless in city driving and 17 mpg or less on the highway.

The luxury sport import Ferrari 500 Maranello was the biggestguzzler (8 city and 13 highway) followed by the Lamborghini Diablo(10 city, 13 highway).

With the growing popularity — even with high fuel costs — ofminivans and SUVs, the overall fuel economy for all vehiclescontinued a steady decline that has been under way since the late1980s, when average fuel economy for all vehicles was nearly 26mpg.

Breaking Down the StatisticsIn the latest statistics, mileage ranged widely even withinvarious size classes, and in some cases even within like groups ofcars made by the same manufacturer. Among compacts, for example,the Volkswagen Passat average 20 mpg, compared with the Volkswagen Jetta and Golf diesels’ 45 mpg average.

Among midsize cars, the Mazda 626 and Honda Accord reported thebest combined city-highway mileage of 29 mpg, while the worst inthat category were the luxury Rolls Royce Silver Seraph and BentleyArnage, both at 13 mpg. Most cars in the category came in the low-to mid-20s mpg.