Ben's Blog

Flawed EPA mileage reporting

We are looking at buying a mid-sized SUV, so I started doing a bit of research. I found two models, both with similar EPA gas mileage numbers. I then found out that one of them, the Nissan Pathfinder, requires premium gasoline. All the car sites just give the EPA numbers, and don’t say what grade of gas was used for the test, so I went to the EPA’s own website. Sure enough, the Pathfinder was tested with Premium gas. Being that Premium gas is on average 11% more expensive than standard unleaded, the Pathfinder’s 16MPG becomes 14.4MPG when accounting for the higher cost of the fuel! I suspect very few people realize that this is an issue.