Fuel Efficient Office

A VP at my company wrote me an e-mail asked:

"OK, what car would you choose that gets at least 25mpg in the city, is not a hybrid or diesel, and you needed to take clients out to lunch/dinner in it? So it would have to have some class."

So the first place I went to was Forbes, they make some great lists, and luckily they had a list of the Top 10 Most Fuel Efficient Luxury Cars so I thought that was a good place to start. There were two problems with this list though. 

1) None of the cars get 25mpg

2) Half of the cars were not luxury cars. Let's look at the list:

• Acura RL
  
• Audi A8 
• AudiTT 
  
• BMW 3 Series 
  
• Land Rover LR2 
  
• Lincoln Navigator 
  
• Lincoln Mark LT 
  
• Subaru Tribeca 
  
• Subaru Impreza 
• Volvo XC70 
  

First of all what in the world is a Subaru Impreza doing on this list? (Or the Tribeca for that matter.) The Impreza is a fine car, heck I own one, but a luxury car? By no means is the Impreza a luxury car. Calling the Impreza a luxury car is like calling BBQ brisket gourmet food. I love beef brisket, but if I am at a five star restaurant I'll have the Trout à la Crème thank you. 

Here is an easy way to identify a luxury car: if you go to a nice restaurant is it worth giving it to the valet? When I go to a place with a valet I take my Mercedes, the Subaru stays at home. The Audi TT, while luxurious, really is a sports car. The Lincoln Mark LT is a truck, a nice faux-wood and leather truck, but putting a top hat on a cowboy does not make an aristocrat. The Volvo XC70 is a nice car, but Volvos are for over-educated and underpaid intellectuals, and when you work for a non-profit you can't use a valet. 

But even when we eliminate all these cars from the list we still run into the problem that none of them achieve 25mpg, so we are going to have to look elsewhere. So what does get 25mpg in the city? A Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra and Honda Fit all get that kind of mileage but none of them can be described as luxury cars. Four cylinder Camrys and Accords are only getting 21mpg. After searching around the website fueleconomy.gov I came to the conclusion that no new non-hybrid/diesel luxury car gets 25mpg in the city, not one. So it is time to look at older cars to see if we can find some gems. 

If we are willing to settle for 24mpg we can actually find some cars worth mentioning:

Infiniti G20- 

Now in the interest of full disclosure I admit my mother drives this car. But I picked it out for her for a reason, it is luxurious (read: leather intertior, climate control, Bose stereo) it has a legendary engine, Nissan's accomplished SR20DE, the car was reasonably priced new, and it makes an especially good deal used. Although the window sticker claimed 24 mpg in the city, when I drive it I get closer to 21mpg, but if you drive like my mother you can get closer to 24mpg. On the highway though it is easy to get 27mpg.

Acura RSX-

Now the RSX is more of a compact sports car than a luxury car, but it does

actaully manange 25mpg in the city, and no not the Type-S version sorry. But an RSX is not 

a bad car, in fact I rather like them. They are small though, and if you have to give three people a ride someplace you better hope the at least one of them is a horse jockey.

After these two cars it becomes too difficult to get near the magic 25mpg number, which is sad really. What makes it sad though is that there are plenty of cars made by all the major auto manufacturers that meet the criteria, but none of these cars are sold in America. Here are a few examples:

Cadillac BLS-

Believe it or not, Cadillac makes a sedan with a 2.0 litre low-output turbo engine in Sweden, and sells it as the Cadillac BLS in Europe. 

It shares a lot of parts with the Saab 9-3 and 9-5. There are rumors that in 2010 this car will be made available in the US, and possibly a plant made in Ohio. Why in the world did it take so long to undertstand that Americans would want a car like this? I just hope we don't get stuck with only the V6 version of this car.

BMW 318 ES-

This may be hard to imagine, but there is a BMW that gets over 30mpg in the city. That's right, it gets 30 miles per gallon and it is a BMW. I'll be honest, if we had this car in the 

US I would probably own one as a daily driver. I can think of no other car that would be a better compliment to my tricked out WRX. This car is comfortable, affordable and fuel efficient. It is a crime we don't have these here in the US.

Mercedes C180-

Tell me again why they do not sell this car in the US market? (We only get V6 and up versions.)I heard it is because Americans want more power in their cars. I actually think that argument is bunk. I think they use the power argument because Americans are among the fattest people in the world on average, and we need more power to haul our large behinds around. But a bottom of the line four cylinder Mercedes would be perfect for the job, it gets 25 mpg in the city and is classy. In fact, I wish rental car companies would buy cars like this, instead of the terrible cars I get each time I go to a rental car counter. 

Ford Mondeo-

In the European market the Ford

Mondeo plays the same role as the Taurus here in the US. But in Europe there are far more choices when it comes to engine size. Right now the most fuel efficient Ford Taurus in the US is the V6 FWD version, which manages just under 20 mpg. If Ford made a four cylinder Taurus that got close to 30 mpg in the city how well do you think that would sell in an age of $4 a gallon gas? These car companies claim that all the focus group research they do show that Americans want fast cars with power. As Henry Ford once famously said: "If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse." Besides, who needs a focus group to tell you that we want cars that are faster AND more fuel efficient? That's what the customer wants, every year, it's not rocket science. 

The Ford Mondeo has a number of four cylinder models to choose from, it looks great and is relatively cheap. With leather interior it is a classy car and easy to ride in. Sure, a four cylinder Mondeo is not nearly as quick and powerful as the V6 Taurus, but it gets 30-40% better gas mileage than the Taurus, and I am willing to bet a lot of people will choose fuel economy over performance for years to come. Besides, the average person doing their daily commute to work is not going to notice the speed difference. In bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic a Ford Mondeo will get to its destination at the same time as a Ferrari. 

There are a number of other cars that deserve an honorable mention: 

Vauxhall Vectra- A car made by GM in Europe that competes with the Mondeo. Not a great car, but if you own GM stock and want to support their product, a fully loaded Vectra with a small engine is not too bad.

Honda Accord- A 2.0 litre Accord is sold in Europe. Really Honda? You don't think Americans would buy that? A more fuel efficient Accord, call me crazy, but I think America needs this car.

Mercedes 200E- An E-Class with a four cylinder engine. What's not to like?

So there you go, fuel efficent offices on wheels. Isn't it a shame we don't have more options here in the US. Well for now I am going to haul my oversized American butt around in my Mercedes ML320, because that is the American thing to do.