“Light trucks” (in the US, at least) don’t have to meet the same fuel economy standards as passenger automobiles, the latter of which includes SUVs. So you build a massive luxury crew cab with a tiny, essentially useless bed, and you can emit more pollution than if it had a permanent “cover” and connected the passenger cabin with the cargo area.
My first pickup - 1985 Nissan pickup (manual) averaged 25mpg.
Curious how fuel efficiency holds up over time. Does a 10, 20, 30 year old car averaging 10K miles a year still basically get the same efficiency as a new one?
It can. It would require the engine to be a good production version (which it may be if it has the miles and hasn’t already had problems), good maintenance through its life, and a bit of luck. Would most cars, probably not. There’s too many variables to cause original efficiency to decline, one big one being typical abuse and neglect.
Seems obvious compared to smaller cars. How about compared to pickups? Those are probably worse?
Yeah, old pickups were gas guzzlers. But pickups as ordinary commuter cars are incredibly rare in the UK.
It’s a major problem that they’re mostly sold for that purpose in the US.
“Light trucks” (in the US, at least) don’t have to meet the same fuel economy standards as passenger automobiles, the latter of which includes SUVs. So you build a massive luxury crew cab with a tiny, essentially useless bed, and you can emit more pollution than if it had a permanent “cover” and connected the passenger cabin with the cargo area.
Old pickup trucks?
My first pickup - 1985 Nissan pickup (manual) averaged 25mpg.
My current 2022 Chevy 1500 company owned work truck gets 19mpg.
Of course the old Nissan weighed 2500 lbs. My Chevy work truck weighs in at 4400lbs.
So fuel efficiency per weight has increased, but the newer trucks larger size still sucks gas.
I still prefer the smaller trucks, so much easier to drive.
Curious how fuel efficiency holds up over time. Does a 10, 20, 30 year old car averaging 10K miles a year still basically get the same efficiency as a new one?
It can. It would require the engine to be a good production version (which it may be if it has the miles and hasn’t already had problems), good maintenance through its life, and a bit of luck. Would most cars, probably not. There’s too many variables to cause original efficiency to decline, one big one being typical abuse and neglect.
That Nissan is way better than a lot of pickups of its era. A typical 1985 F-150 configuration got something like 12-15mpg, and no configurations got better than 19mpg