Ah, the battle between old and new...
How about this. An automatic Honda Civic or CRX... 35-40 mpg, easy. Nowadays, the new Fiestas and what have yous are getting the same. Not much more hp out of them either.
Like the other guy said, old VW diesels getting over 50 mpg. My mom's uncle had several Rabbit diesels over his years, and all of them easily passed 500,000 miles and still put out 50+ mpg. He said the damn salt did more damage than anything else.
How about the trucks? You got the older diesels that get about 22 mpg, on a full size crew cab long box. Hasn't changed hardly at all with the new diesels except maybe throttle response on the new Fords with the inverted intake/exhaust set up.
rms61moparman is right... it's all a lie/scam to get you to think your old car is worthless. You cannot change mpg standards because there still is 5280 feet in a mile. It doesn't matter what they claim you can't throw other bs numbers in there and claim there is a difference. Ever notice that the weight of cars in general are approaching what they were in the 70's? The new Taurus is nearly a whopping 2 tons! I wonder why... oh, it's all of that unnecessary crap that no one needs...
Are you people really this blind? It's them trying to get you to buy stuff that 1. you probably can't afford, 2. will probably get into/further into debt with, 3. it really isn't much better than what has already been manufactured many years ago.
There's only one thing they're trying to do... get you to buy something you 'need' but don't want, and probably can't afford.
Take, for example, the idea of E15 gas. No vehicle older than 2007 can run that stuff properly. It'll cause major corrosion of fuel system parts, and possibly engine parts. If that #### gets out, be very careful about where you get gas from. I can see the sales of 150+ gallon fuel storage tanks skyrocketing so that folks can have them filled with ethanol free gas to escape this bs.
Even after buying a fuel storage tank and keeping it filled, it'd still be cheaper than ruining a perfectly good vehicle/lawn equipment/etc. and ending up having to buy some new (IMO) POS with all kinds of crap you really don't need. (onstar, in dash navigation, etc.)
Don't forget KISS, the less there is to go wrong, the better. The simpler it is to repair on your own, the better. The easier it is to adapt a part or repair something with a part you fabbed yourself, the better. The easier it is for you to learn how to fix it yourself, the better. Trust me, you won't have a hell of a clue what to do to fix your new car with 100 computers on board. And you won't have the tools to properly repair it, like a code scanner, service info, etc.
Yes, older stuff tends to need a little more tlc and regular maintenance, but that is often preferable to dealing with some major problem with no way to fix it. People are just getting too damn lazy.
I'm outta here. I'm still amazed that there are quite a few clueless assclowns out there regarding lots of stuff.
At least not everyone is so clueless as to what the hell is going on. BTW, stock market investing is a bad idea... find better stuff to invest in, like stuff you can actually have in your hands. The stock market has been and will be manipulated...