Excuse me. What year is it, today? Don’t look into the past, look at what ‘s happening around ‘now’.

MY 2011 (all A/T)
Chevy Malibu I4 22/33; V6 17/26
Ford Fusion I4 22/30 or 23/33 ; V6 18/27
Honda Accord I4 23/34; V6 20/30

Seems the Detroit 2 have no apparent advantages.

Chevy Cruze 22/35 or 24/36
Ford Focus 25/34
Honda Civic 25/36 (will be replaced in Spring, promises to go for 40 mpg or above)

No apparent advantages, esp. for Cruze – a all-new design, when compared with some 5-year-old designs.

Chevy Equinox I4 20/29; V6 16/22 (all AWD)
Ford Escape 20/26
Honda CR-V 21/27

Note: the combined EPA rating for Equinox I4 AWD is 23 mpg, same as that of Honda CR-V.

Chevy Traverse 16/23 (all AWD)
Ford Flex 16/21 or 16/22
Honda Pilot 16/22

Hmm, seems the advantage of Traverse is not as great as some want you to believe. Shhhh, beware of those claims like: “40 mpg” – hwy rating only, how about city rating; or use the rating of FWD to ‘bait and switch’….

At $41,000, the Volt is going to appeal to a splinter of a small segment of early-adopter greenies. And since GM’s claim that the Volt is a true electric car has been disproved, it basically should be judged as a Prius that costs twice as much. [...]

My suspicions go back to a comment I heard from a COTY juror a few years ago, when the Saturn Aura defeated the Honda Fit and Toyota Camry for top honors. I asked the juror — based in Detroit, of course — whether he thought the Aura really was the better car.

His response, “No, but it’s the best car GM has ever made. It’s almost as good as the Camry.” ‘ (http://www.autonews.com/article/20110110/BLOG06/110119988#ixzz1BmppnFXO)

SMALL CARS:
Cobalt – 25/37 (now replaced by the 42 mpg Cruze)
Civic – 25/36
Corolla – 26/35
Sentra – 26/34

FAMILY SEDANS:
Fusion: 23/34
Malibu: 22/33
Camry: 22/33
Altima: 23/32
Accord: 22/31

LARGE SEDANS:
Impala: 18/29
Avalon: 19/28
Taurus: 18/28

SMALL PICKUP:
Ranger: 22/27
Tacoma: 20/26
Colorado: 18/25
Frontier: 19/23

LARGE PICKUP:
Silverado: 15/22
F150: 15/21
Tundra: 15/20
Ram: 14/20

SMALL SUV:
1. Equinox: 22/32
2. Tucson: 23/31
3. Escape: 22/28
4. Rav4: 22/28
5. CR-V: 21/28

LARGE SUV:
1. Suburban/Tahoe: 15/21
2. Expedition: 14/20
3. Sequoia: 14/19
4. Armada: 12/18

CROSSOVER:
1. Ford Flex: 18/24
2. Highlander: 18/24
3. Traverse: 17/24
3. Pilot: 17/23

So, other than having a flagship hybrid (Prius, Insight), how in the heck can a sight like this publish a “Detroit is changing” piece, insetad of a “Detroit leads in fuel economy in virtually every segment?” Geez — take another look at that list.. there is a Ford or GM vehicle in every segment.. and of course, a lot of that will change by next year w/ Hyundai’s latest offerings.. In terms of their bread and butter, everyday cars, Honda and Toyota have become complacent with fuel economy.

And on those hybrids:

SMALL SUV:
1. Escape: 34/31
2. RX 450h: 32/28

FAMILY SEDAN:
1. Fusion: 41/36
2. Altima: 35/33
3. Camry: 33/34

Wait. Can you remember which is 2007 North American Car of the Year? No? Let me remind you, it’s Saturn Aura, selected by probably those same ‘experts’. What Saturn Aura, you ask? Sigh.

During the best years of Saturn Aura, 2007 and 2008, it sold less than 60,000. The best selling mid-size sedan during that two years sold 473k and 437k respectively. Oh, customers are blinded?

Where is Saturn Aura now? Where is Saturn now?

Wait. Can you remember which is 2007 North American Car of the Year? No? Let me remind you, it’s Saturn Aura, selected by those ‘experts’. What Saturn Aura, you ask? Sigh.

During the best years of Saturn Aura, 2007 and 2008, it sold less than 60,000. The best selling mid-size sedan during that two years sold 473k and 437k respectively. Oh, customers are blinded?

Where is Saturn Aura now? Where is Saturn now?

To the author: you might have mentioned the Volt as well as GM’s plans to triple hybrid production & base future cars off the VOLTEC technology they innovated.

To the website: “Volt Named 2011 North American Car of the Year”… ” in addition to winning that title from Motor Trend, Automotive Magazine & a few others.” Sounds like a hybrid cars top story to me. Get on the ball!!

Like I stated in my original post, unless there is an independent verification that CTA is more efficient, I’ll leave it as unproven manufacturer’s claim.

http://www.ipfrontline.com/downloads/apa-intel-09.pdf

A long read. It talks about patents, both quantity and quality. Detroit does rather well. Search for “The Golden Rule” to find the summary. The report is copyrighted so I am not going to quote from it.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/10q3/cam-torque_actuated_variable_valve_timing_system-tech_dept