Reply #27: What was the frontal area of that car? And the curb weight? [View All]

[krispos42]

Frontal area directly relates to drag and thus fuel economy, especially when driving at highway speeds.

Weight relates directly to power needed for "acceptable" acceleration. Lighter cars need less power to achieve a set rate of acceleration.


Make a car short, narrow, and light and you're well on your way to high fuel economy.


The problem is that coming from Japan, a nation of short, thin people with old, narrow streets and high gas prices, Nissans were naturally much smaller than an American-designed car would be.

An American manufacturer would not bother making such a small car for the small niche available available at the time, whereas the Japanese filled the niche by simply exporting cars they were already selling in Japan.


The mileage of Japanese cars began going down as they adapted them to the American marker and they become taller and wider.




I'm looking at the stats from www.fueleconomy.gov for 1985, the earliest they have listed on there. I'm comparing subcompacts.

Honda Civic with the 1.3L engine and a 4-speed manual, Ford Escort with the 1.6L engine and 4-speed manual, Toyota Corolla with 1.6L with 5-speed manual, Chevy Spectrum with 1.5L engine and 5-speed manual, and Nissan Sentra with 1.6L engine and 4-speed manual.


The fuel economy results?

Honda: 32 city/38 highway
Ford: 29 city/39 highway
Toyota: 26 city/33 highway
Nissan: 26 city/34 highway
Chevy: 32 city/39 highway



The Ford and Chevy do pretty well.

Now, granted, the Japanese cars had better fit-and-finish and were more reliable, but the basic fact is that if you make the car small enough, high mileage is easy.


What's interesting about the Toyota Prius is that it's a fair amount bigger than any of the cars listed above, yet gets about 33% more miles per gallon, averaging in the mid-40s.