Antique & Classic Cars Blog

Friday a few motorcycle fans got together at Koppelin’s Coffee Shop on Hamline Avenue to drink (really, really, really good) coffee and talk bikes. Afterward, I hung out with a freelancing buddy and we mostly worked on book projects.

Somehow he happened to mention that his late ’80s Honda Civic got 50 miles per gallon. I know Lee knows cars. Still, I didn’t believe it. Fifty mpgs. Gas engine. Twenty years ago.

He had the car many years. He’s a car writing and editing and photography professional. He was sure. And he looked it up. He got 50 on the highway and low 40s around town.

Twenty years ago. (Wikipedia agrees for the 1500 cc ‘84-’87 car.) Wow.

Today’s Prius and Civic hybrids are rated between 40 and 48 mpg. Altima and Camry hybrids get 33-35 mpg. Gas Corolla is about 28/37; gas Civic today around 25/36. The tiny Honda fit only makes 28/34.

Cars have to be one of the few technologies (are there any others?) that have not only failed to advance but in some cases receded in efficiency over the last 30 years.

Imagine if computers got slower every year and held less data. Maybe I can get a deal on a TRS-80.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Car stories, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.