Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 3, 1994 TAG: 9410040021
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The Honda Civic hatchback emerged as the stingiest gasoline miser on the road among 1995 model cars, with Honda subcompacts accounting for half of the 10 most fuel-efficient vehicles, says the Environmental Protection Agency.
Two Geo Metro models of subcompacts still made the top-10 list released Monday by the EPA. But missing was the Geo Metro XFi, which had been No. 1 for five straight years. Last year, Geo Metro cars finished first, second and third.
A spokesman for General Motors said the Geo XFi model was discontinued for the 1995 model year.
As has been the case in past years, a string of luxury and high-performance cars made up the list of biggest gas guzzlers. The Lam-borghini Diablo had the worst gas mileage at 9 mpg in city driving and 14 mpg on the highway. Eight of the 10 worst mileage cars were various models of the Rolls-Royce.
The EPA estimated it costs $1,841 a year to fuel a Lamborghini, compared with $750 for a Ford Taurus (21 mpg) and $338 for the Honda Civic hatchback. The estimates were based on 15,000 miles of travel and average gasoline prices.
The EPA list showed 39 cars that were subject to the ``gas guzzler'' tax because of poor mileage, about the same as last year. The vast majority of cars and lights trucks were in the 18 mpg-to-29 mpg category in combined city and highway driving. The Mazda Protege (34 mpg) was the stingiest compact car and the Mazda 626 (29 mpg) had the best performance among midsize automobiles.
And about 7 percent of the vehicles - or 61 cars among those tested - showed combined city and highway mileage of 30 mpg or better. Nearly half of the cars and trucks tested had mileage of 20 mpg or less, including 84 cars with mileage of less than 15 mpg.
The Suzuki Samurai (29 combined mpg) and the Suzuki Sidekick and Geo Tracker convertible (both 27 mpg) were the most fuel-efficient light trucks.
The EPA provided no overall average mileage figures for 1995 models; officials said no such analysis had yet been done. But it is believed the overall numbers have not changed much from the last few years, when average mileage among all vehicles has been about 28 mpg.
by CNB