Magnulus wrote:

> On the Civic? Compare the Civic to the Ford Focus, the Civic has much
> better fuel economy by a wide margin (high 30's vs. mid 20's). The Civic
> also has a little less horsepower, I believe. Maybe on the Camrys and
> Accords they are going the power route, but still, they have better fuel
> economy than big American cars.


According to fueleconomy.gov -

2005 Ford Focus with the 2L 4 cylinder and 5 speed manual
transmission - 26 mpg city /35 mpg highway

Civics are a hard one to compare ...there are so many
models. The "lean burn" Civic is rated 36/44 (where is that
one sold?). The Civic hybrid is rated 45/51 (although no
testers actually achieve this). The model closest to a
Focus, the 2L 4 cylinder, 5 speed Manual Si Model is rated
26 mpg city /31 mpg highway.

So...you are right and you are wrong. Some Civics are better
than some Foci and some are worse. The 2L Civic Si is worse
than the 2L Focus, despite being 10% smaller and
significantly slower. Any 1.7L Civic is better than any 2L
Focus, but then those Civic models are both smaller and much
slower.

Ed