Toyota Yaris, smart fortwo part of 40 MPG Club Blog Post at Automotive.com

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Toyota Yaris, smart fortwo part of 40 MPG Club

Posted February 4 2009 06:15 PM by staff
Filed under: Opinion, Compact

Ever since we all experienced gas prices topping at $4 a gallon during the summer of 2008, people have been calling for the domestic automakers to do better in making cars that are more fuel efficient. We’ve seen Congress increase the CAFE standards and factions on both side of the issue are screaming.

One faction argues that the auto industry can do better and another faction says that too much regulations is not what the domestic auto industry needs right now. Leave them alone as far as CAFE mileage is concerned.

The automakers scream that the CAFE standards are too stringent and recently the Obama Administration is saying that the automakers can and should do better.

So what do you think? Is the pro-CAFE faction being too harsh? Actually, probably not. I think it is one of those situations that brings to mind the adage: “Me thinks thou protests too much.”

Believe it or not, there are cars out there that exceed the current CAFE numbers as well as numbers for later years. Here’s a list of 10 cars that offer better than 40 miles per gallon.

•   Toyota Prius -- 45 mpg highway, 48 mpg city
•   Honda Civic Hybrid -- 45 mpg highway, 40 mpg city
•   Ford Fiesta ECOnetic -- 63.6 mpg (based on European Standard)
•   Mercedes-Benz C 250 CDI -- (diesel) 45 mpg
•   Smart ForTwo -- 36 mpg (Diesels in Europe getting 70 mpg)
•   Volkswagen Polo BlueMoton -- 40 mpg
•   Citroen C2 --42 mpg (EU standards)
•   Toyota iQ -- 55 mpg (diesel version 57 mpg)
•   Ford Ka -- (Diesel) 45 mpg
•   Toyota Yaris Diesel -- 70 mpg