This is the real bit of news; hitting and sustaining 80 mpg is laudable, this from a man who hates American cars. Why did it take the car company nearly going broke before they announced this? What earth-shattering development occured in the past 4 months that prevented this achievement from being undertaken last year, or the year before?
Getting 1,000 miles on a tank of gas is nothing earth shaking - just throw on a 100 gallon tank, and if you get 10 mpg; you'll set that record.
My Suburban has a 40 gallon tank. I get about 20mpg highway or 800 miles per tank.
Well, for one thing ... the design and engineering cycle for a car takes quite a long time. Perhaps Ford could become more nimble, but even best-case development times for a new vehicle are measured in years.
And when you're talking about development of a new engine, that's just going to add time.
The real impetus for this car would have been the incredibly high gas prices last year and, to a lesser extent, the previous year.