Average mpg by car company

The big news in the business world Tuesday was that vehicle sales in the U.S. were down 10% this year compared with last year.

From my colleague Ken Bensinger:

"The chief problem, observers uniformly agree, is the skyrocketing price of oil. As gasoline rose above $2 a gallon and then $3, consumer appetite for the high-margin trucks and SUVs that fueled profits in Detroit in the early part of the decade waned. With the average price of a gallon of unleaded topping $4 nationwide for more than three weeks now, small cars are just about the only vehicles selling. Sales for every category of car and truck were down in June except compact and economy cars, which increased 6.8%."

From the New York Times, a similar tack:

"Even with some factories running at peak capacity, auto companies cannot meet the surging demand for small, fuel-efficient cars. At the same time, manufacturers are slashing production of slow-selling pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles...The seismic shift by consumers to small cars from large vehicles has blindsided virtually every automaker. Only Honda Motor, where sales rose 1 percent in June, appears to have been prepared. The Japanese automaker’s Fit subcompact nearly doubled its sales during the month, and its Civic sedan set a June record. By contrast, Toyota executives said they could not meet demand for its Prius hybrid-electric car or its small, fuel-efficient Corolla and Yaris models."

Now, I encourage you to check out the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's annual report on the average fleet gas mileage achieved by car manufacturers. Page 7, shown above, shows the average miles per gallon for the 2007 model year. Page 4 has the most telling stat: The average fleet mpg for most cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. peaked in 1987 at 26.2. It wasn't until 2007 that the number finally rose above that, to 26.7.

In other words, 20 years of backsliding.

Now, back to those car sales figures. GM's sales declined 18%, Ford's fell 28% and Chrysler's dropped 36%. Toyota was off 21%, and Honda saw a 1.1% increase. Here's the average fleet mpg of cars by those manufacturers in 2007. And, not surprisingly, there's a correlation -- the manufacturers whose vehicles get the worse fuel economy also got hit the hardest sales-wise.

2007 model year statistics

Domestic passenger

Daimler-Chrysler: 28.6 mpg (-36% overall sales)

Ford: 29 mpg (-28% overall sales)

General Motors: 29.9 mpg (-18% overall sales)

Toyota: 31.6 mpg (-21% overall sales)

Honda: 33.5 mpg (+1.1% overall sales)

Imported passenger

Daimler-Chrysler: 24.7 mpg (-36% overall sales)

Ford: 29.9 mpg (-28% overall sales)

General Motors: 31.9 mpg (-18% overall sales)

Toyota: 38.5 mpg (-21% overall sales)

Honda: 39.6 mpg (+1.1% overall sales)

Light trucks

Ford: 22.2 mpg (-28% overall sales)

Daimler-Chrysler: 22.6 mpg (-36% overall sales)

General Motors: 22.6 mpg (-18% overall sales)

Toyota: 23.9 mpg (-21% overall sales)

Honda: 25 mpg (+1.1% overall sales)

-- Steve Hymon

Comments

[Holly]

CAFE #'s are really worse than shown. CAFE numbers of Detroit 3 automakers, especially GM are skewed by them selling ethanol cars, trucks and SUV's that NEVER see any of the E-85 fuel! They get EXTRA CAFE credits for simply selling them. Unintended conseqence is, they can sell MORE SUV's because the e-85 credits raise CAFE! Toyota sells one or two E-85 trucks, Honda sells none...

[nothanks]

Lets see more cars under 3000 lbs, Building high performance cars that weigh 3500lbs+ is disgraceful. My ls1 datsun gets 31mpg and no one believes it... Weight and drag are the killers of efficiency for the most part, one affects highway more one affects town driving more.

WE WANT lighter cars without the superfluous tech and unutilized space.

[mileageguru]

IRS just increased the mileage deduction rate from 50.5 Cents to 58.5 cents. This is not something that will increase you gas mileage but will certainly help you deduct a lot of money if you are driving for business. http://www.MileageLogger.com has an exciting new business tool that will help you log those business miles automatically (hands free). All the mileage records are available online. You might want to check it out.

[Felix]

It's widely misunderstood that GM and Ford can't compete in small cars. They're as global as Toyota and Honda, which also bear high labor costs in their home markets. US market mismanagement has lead to cheap and uncompetitive small cars sold merely to satisfy fuel economy standards, which by the way are useless towards an effective energy policy (despite the latest rhetoric from both aisles of Congress). In Europe, GM and Ford are far more competitive with models not offered here. Again, decades-old US energy policy, or lack thereof, has fueled market demand for guzzlers with cheap gas. Washington, along with Detroit, shares much of the blame for today's auto industry woes. Europe and Japan far more effectively use tax policy to manage their auto markets and world class industry.

[Don]

Where are they getting these numbers from? Fantasy land?

[Robert]

Funny how these articles ignore 2 facts:

1. The automakers produce what consumers indicate they will buy, with a delay of a year or more . They can't adjust the production mix fast enough to respond to things like this year's oil shock.

2. Domestic mfrs are not on the same playing field as Toyota. Toyota is worldwide and has massive financial strength, the product of having a long term focus and of using Demming's quality ideas which were rejected here decades ago. Domestic, publicly traded companies are held to quarterly results; here you don't get a raise or promotion by building a foundation that might pay off in 5-10 years.
Domestics have huge carrying costs for their retired workers. They must produce billions to fund medical and possibly unfunded pension costs. To do that, they have to focus on selling things which bring in thousands per unit - and that means big vehicles. There's profit to be made in a 40K vehicle that gets redesigned every 6-10 years, but almost none in a 14K vehicle like a Focus, b/c the costs of building small cars are not proportional to the low prices they bring in. Honda can afford to make $200 per Civic and sell that model around the world. GM can't make the same car quite as cheaply or well - it's not their historic strength. So ... they can compete in the Civic/Corolla class and lose money on every car, or sell dinosaurs and balance the books.

[Toetag45]

I don't believe a word of it. These automobiles do not get the milage stated here. Liars.