CONSUMERS NEED MORE RELIABLE AUTOMOBILE FUEL ECONOMY DATA

Since 1976, purchasers of new automobiles in the United States have relied on fuel economy test data to help choose fuel-efficient vehicles. Under a fuel economy labeling program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in cooperation with the Departments of Transportation and Energy and the Federal Trade Commission, every automobile manufactured for sale and use in the United States is required to display a label showing its tested fuel economy, its estimated annual fuel costs, and the fuel economy range of comparable vehicles. A Gas Mileage Guide, containing data on all automobile fuel economy test results, is published annually. Since the program began, there have been complaints of discrepancies between EPA's fuel economy test results and consumers' reported on-road fuel economy. For combined city/highway driving, recent statistics show that the discrepancies varied from 12 percent in 1975 to 20 percent in 1977 to 16 percent in 1979. Any projected fuel savings that have not recognized these discrepancies are therefore overstated. This report was prepared in response to a request from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which asked GAO to determine why these discrepancies exist, whether better measures of fuel economy can be developed, and whether better ways of disseminating this information to consumers can be devised.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Report to the Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives.
• Corporate Authors:

  U.S. General Accounting Office

  441 G Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20548
• Publication Date: 1981-7-29

Media Info

• Pagination: 26 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobiles; Consumers; Errors; Fuel consumption; Information dissemination; Labeling; Motor vehicles; Operating costs; Statistics; Testing
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Energy; Highways; Vehicles and Equipment; I96: Vehicle Operating Costs;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00366507
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: CED-81-133, HS-032 877
• Files: HSL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jul 30 1982 12:00AM