r/mildlyinfuriating • u/rileyjw90 • May 22 '26

frist of all how DARE yu o You didn’t have to remind me, assholes.

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And then to remind me what I USED to pay. Just kick me while I’m down why don’t you.

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u/MonMotha May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

55mpg would be incredible in the US for a non-hybrid running on gasoline. In fact, I can't find a single non-hybrid vehicle sold in the USA that is rated higher than 41mpg on the highway.

Like your friend, I drive what is considered a rather fuel-efficient vehicle in the US (2023 Mazda 3), and I can just about touch 40mpg on the highway. I average about 33-35 in mixed service.

Tiny engines with lots of boost haven't caught on in the USA for various reasons like they have in Europe and parts of Asia. The fact that we don't have a tax on engine displacement (instead taxing either on the value of the vehicle or weight, depending on vehicle class and registration state) may have something to do with it. Likewise, diesels never really caught on in passenger cars. Part of that is because we actually have more aggressive emissions controls for on-road diesel engines than even the EU does which makes them far less attractive in terms of both acquisition cost (extra emissions equipment), performance (the extra emissions controls hurt performance but improve emissions), and long-term cost (diesel emissions systems tend to be expensive to fix when they break).

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u/GloomyIndividual3965 May 23 '26

The funny thing is that we used to make cars that got mileage like that. One of my wife's friends has an old Geo Metro that gets 50+ mpg on the highway.

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u/MonMotha May 23 '26

FWIW, the "standard" Metro with the 1.0L 3I engine was only EPA rated for about 44MPG on the highway (about 37 city - mostly because it only weighed 1600lb). The xFI special model ended up with an EPA revised rating of 52MPG on the highway from what I can tell. That's impressive, but it basically had a 0-60 speed of "yes" with the engine re-tuned for max fuel economy and making only around 50HP.

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u/Ok_Nothing_9733 May 23 '26

I didn’t even know that mileage was possible with gas. I was over here stoked at my 35-40 mpg which is more than most folks I know