zeroptzero

Darcy, your left leg will loose some muscle mass on this trip, it must be all jittery not knowing what to do with itself, (auto trans j/k) lol

darcyw

but the right foot sure is getting a work out!
darcy

lane_viper

I somewhat agree, but the market is different these days. If you look at what is popular, (SUV's, crossovers) the MPG for these vehicles is much closer to the sedans than they were in the past. Nissan Rouge gets comparable to a Nissan Altima.

Back during the last car market collapse, the SUV's got woefully low MPG compared to their car counterpart. Today they are a lot more comparable.

I'm thinking people will be less hesitant to jump SUV ship and go back to car than they once were. Sure some will do it, but I don't think it will be the majority.

WolfpackS2k

Except that's just not true. I had a Nissan Rogue rental last weekend for roughly 600 miles, all highway. Got around 30 mpg. The Altima would have gotten 40.

That's a large difference. SUVs have much larger swept frontal area and are heavier. You can't cheat physics.

JonBoy

I think it's more than CUVs and even SUVs have gotten much more fuel efficient overall. You don't have to "put up with" 17-20 city mpg in your five-seater SUV now. There are plenty that will do 25 mpg in the city and 30+ mpg on the highway. That helps a lot. They're nowhere near the sedans for overall efficiency, though - aerodynamics and weight control that aspect and it'll never change.

lane_viper

Maybe it's not 1:1 ratio, but you have to admit, manufacturers are employing lots of tech (cylinder shutoff, turbo smaller displacement, variable compression) to increase the MPG of it's Crossovers and SUVs today. Their MPG numbers are closer to cars than they ever have been, and IMO, not to the point where there would be a big swing back to cars if gas prices rose back to 08-10 levels.

JonBoy

But cars are using the exact same technology. Again, it goes back to two things: weight and aerodynamics. The only time they're both "using" the same amount of fuel is when they're shut off or idling (assuming the exact same engine, which would be typical).

As I noted above, CUVs and SUVs are seeing their efficiency improve but I'd be curious to see if the difference (as a percent or a hard number, say, 8 mpg) is actually staying the same, when compared to cars.

zeroptzero

add in the AWD factor and SUV's get even worse fuel economy than their automobile counterparts which don't tend to be AWD.