How is it that my 19 years old Accord can get 35+ highway and 24+ city using gas and it is all we can do to match that nearly 20 years later?
I wondered the same thing. If you check the weight of your 19 year old Accord and interior space you'll probably see it weighs a lot less and has less room than the current year. Safety usually adds weight.
I agree on the size\weight issue. But if there was technology to achieve this that far back it seems there would have been more improvement over the 20 years. it seems to me that the technology just stagnated.
You can thank California and all of the emission revisions from EPA for that. Brother had a mid '90s Escort wagon that got low 40's mpg, older Civics and Corollas known for that as well. MPG's are what was sacrificed to get to near-water vapor out of the tail pipe (and yes, they are much heavier, but safer in a crash).
Emissions are now so low you can suck on the tailpipe without killing yourself, something many try after a few minutes with the Volt salesman....
