Ace on fuel economy
Alexander Cockburn writes in his latest Nation column:
The Virtues of Gas Guzzling
ALEXANDER COCKBURNSince I don’t believe in “peak oil”–and regard oil “shortages” as contrivances by the oil companies and allied brokers and middlemen to run up the price–I fill my aging fleet of 1950s- and ’60s-era Chryslers with a light heart, although for longer trips these days I fill an ‘82 Mercedes 240D with diesel. True, diesel now costs more than high-octane gasoline, but the Mercedes gets thirty-five miles to the gallon, whereas the ‘59 Imperial ragtop and the ‘62 Belvedere wagon get around eighteen mpg, which is still way ahead of the SUVs.
According to the EPA http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/FEG2005.pdf, a two-wheel-drive Ford Explorer gets 16 mpg in the city, and 21 mpg on the highway. Must have a word with The Nation’s fact-checkers.
Doug