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newVideoPlayer("/82_Nissan_Sentra_494.flv", 506, 423,""); Of course we realize that the books were cooked on that 58 MPG figure; the old EPA test had about as much to do with real-world driving as the image of Sea Monkeys has to do with real brine shrimp. Still, though, the '82 Sentra sipped gas through a cocktail straw, and entry-level econoboxes 26 years later are guzzling the stuff by comparison. Would present-day car buyers find this Datsun intolerably loud, cramped, and bouncy, pissing themselves in terror every time an Expedition loomed in their field of vision… and what's with the hand-cranked windows and lack of air conditioning? Yeah, a car like this would have no chance today, but let's see what happens when gas hits 10 bucks per!
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newVideoPlayer("/Goodwrench_Fuel_Saving_81_476.flv", 506, 423,""); Want to boost the mileage in your '80 Malibu wagon from 11 MPG all the way up to 13 MPG? Mr. Goodwrench has four ways: Air up! Tune Up! Clean Up! Slow Up! Then, next time those pesky Iranians make oil prices go crazy , you'll be ready.
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newVideoPlayer("74_Comet_Capri_476.flv", 463, 387,""); How is it possible that a car weighing just over 2,200 pounds and equipped with a 2-liter engine can drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles at the maddeningly geriatric speed of 50 miles per hour and manage only a pathetic 32.4 miles per gallon? Yes, that's the best the '74 Capri could do! We're thinking it was the weight of several tons of Malaise pushing down hard on the car during the trip (not to mention the restrictive first-gen catalytic converters and miserable engine compression ratios of the era). The six-cylinder Comet made the same trip and grunted out an Saudi-oil-baron-pleasing 26.6 MPG, so we shudder to imagine the sort of single-digit mileage a 460-equipped Country Squire would have achieved.
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newVideoPlayer("84_Sprint_476.flv", 463, 387,""); Yes, 53 highway MPG... 24 years ago. The little rebadged Suzuki got the kind of gas mileage that many Prius drivers will never see in real-world driving, but we're betting that today's car buyers would find its noise and lack of cupholders absolutely intolerable. Still, can you do this in a Prius?
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