Hey Bray!
Driving 85 is good fun, I tend to crack the throttle myself occasionally on the way to Northern Maine.
Cars got much better fuel mileage before the Einsteins on the left foisted all these EPA mandates on us via the auto industry. In their day, some full-sized sedans and pickups from the 60s could get mileage in the mid 20 MPGs.
It’s not just the ethanol, with enough electronics and computer power to outfit the Space Shuttle, you would think modern cars would be approaching 100 MPG...BUT NO!
Modern electronic ignition and fuel injection, coupled with highly efficient combustion chamber designs and valve trains can indeed crank big horsepower out of a smaller engine package, and that’s half the battle.
So despite all these technology advancements, why can’t they get better fuel efficiency?
The answer is, once again, the geniuses at the EPA have mandated “mission impossible” on the emissions. You would have thought that, years ago, having achieved virtually total-burn resulting in the combustion by-products of water and CO2, that they would have called it good.
Unfortunately (to them) they would have no more reason to exist, problem solved. Why do you think the environmentalist whackos were claiming CO2, the only remaining exhaust compound causes global warming”?
The oxygen sensor(s) located after your converter report back to the computer the latest results on exhaust gas temperature and content. So now your wallet is feeding not only your highly efficient engine, but also keeping your emission gobbling converter happy.
In other words, the car is working against itself. If the goal was simply maximizing fuel mileage, cars would be getting those incredible MPGs, and emissions be minimal simply by virtue of less fuel being consumed.
Got a 2010 E Class 5.5 AWD (4Matic. On a trip, up and back to Cape Cod, approx 365 miles my average is 27.3 MPG (about 19 MPG around town) and that is more then one trip.
This beast has 382 BHP
The Germans make fine automobiles as well as other precision things. It’s to bad they have this “Ve vill Rule da Verld” thing.