Just sent a letter to MT....

[BuddyP]

In regards to milage of the Civic in thier long term test. Here's what I sent, let's see if they post it in their next issue...

"Was reading through the long term test of the '06 Honda Civic on page 172 of the Aug. '06 issue. The gas milage and current MT average of 24 mpg got me thinking of my fiance's 6 year old 183,000 mile Oldsmobile Alero. Now here's a car (the Civic) that made car of the year with all it's new tech yet get's 24 mpg average. Now I do understand that being a test vehicle that it is surely to be driven harder than normal and would get a bit better mpg otherwise, however I've been a bit hard on the Alero at times and the worse mpg we've ever seen from it was 29.5. On average we see 32-32.5mpg with the best being a tad over 33mpg. That is with city/country/hwy mix driving. I should note it has the 2.4 16v motor. While not as powerful as the Civic, ya got to give the 6 year old Old's credit for getting better milage than one of Japan's best. Oh by the way, did I mention the Alero has a fuel sucking Automatic tranny while the Civic is a manual? Chalk another one up for the domestics!"

[loki]

nice, like to see that in the mag, but i'm not a subscriber hahaha, no money form me!

[ocnblu]

You might get it back in return mail with this stamped on it.

[CARBIZ]

I have been saying this for a very long time: Civics and Mazdas do not get any where near their advertised gas mileage in real world driving conditions because their high horsepower/low torque engines have to be wound up to 5,500 rpm to get any kind of power, and at those rpms you are not going to get 30+ mpg!

Vehicles like the Impala, Malibu and Cobalt do very sell in real world driving conditions because their torquier engines have more usable power at a broader torque range.

But don't let that get in the way of the rice humpers who believe everything that Japan Inc. spews.

[76ChevyTrucker]

Now that's something I enjoy reading. That's like I have a friend of mine with a brand spanking new Camry (butt-ugly, but he likes it), he's had it for about a month now and averages about 23 mpg in real-world mileage. Meanwhile my five year old, 117000 mile Impala steadily gets 26-32 depending on how "spirited" my driving is. I'm sorry, but if my car still gets its advertised mileage after the miles it has on it, I'll take my nice domestic car with its reliable 3.8L V6 and "trunk big enough to hide a family of mexicans in it".

[Cory Wolfe]

Oh... you dummies know nothing... my 2.5L 170hp V6 gets about 21mpg! Beat that!

[The O.C.]

I have been saying this for a very long time: Civics and Mazdas do not get any where near their advertised gas mileage in real world driving conditions because their high horsepower/low torque engines have to be wound up to 5,500 rpm to get any kind of power, and at those rpms you are not going to get 30+ mpg!

  Vehicles like the Impala, Malibu and Cobalt do very sell in real world driving conditions because their torquier engines have more usable power at a broader torque range.

  But don't let that get in the way of the rice humpers who believe everything that Japan Inc. spews.

I think you are not comparing apples to apples.

The mags always get lower mileage ratings in their long-term tests. I'm sure we can all agree that the mags probably run the cars much harder than the normal, car-payment-paying consumer does.

To compare apples to apples, I'd research back and see what their as-tested mpgs were for comparable GM vehicles that they've run long-term test on.....then compare THOSE to the Honda's.

[76ChevyTrucker]

Hey BV that's pretty respectable for that kind of car, although I'm sure you could get better if you didn't drive the car quite as harshly as you do, kinda like how if I didn't drive me like I do I could get better mileage. I consider anything over 20 to be doing well.