Back in the early 70's, cars were choked-down to lower their power output to appease insurance companies. This made them so inefficient -- buying a big-block V8 that put out 210 HP, when in 1969 that same exact engine was near 500 HP, was pointless. I don't remember many people driving smaller cars then! Anyone remember the Pontiac Grandville from the early 70's? Was about 25 feet long and 8 feet wideScottsman wrote:Back in the energy crises times people were buying smaller cars and using less gas. Then gas got cheap and Americans went SUV happy. Most of my co-workers have these monster vehicles to transport their 160 pound frames back and forth to work.
If the cars people were driving then got 15 mpg, that was considered pretty good! Nowadays pickups & SUV's do better than that. My ' 07 Silverado x-tra cab with a 5.3 liter V8 gets 17 mpg with my foot on the floor constantly in city driving -- & it weighs just under 5500 lbs. I think that's pretty damn good. My ' 94 regular cab Chevy got 15 & didn't have half the accessories that I've put on the Silverado. Plus the new one has about 60 more HP & 30 more FT/LBS of torque.
You cant complain about people driving SUV's with those numbers!