MPG as Americans drive, accelerating with the AC on, not as the EPA drives.

Published Tuesday, May 17, 2005, in the New York Times

Proposal in Congress Seeks Better Estimates of Mileage

By Matthew L. Wald

The Senate is likely to vote Tuesday to make the Environmental
Protection Agency find a better way of measuring automobile fuel
economy, to bring more realism to the stickers on the windows of new
cars, which consumers have learned always to read but not to trust.

The provision, written by Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of
Washington, and incorporated into the highway bill, which has
widespread support, would cut mileage estimates by 10 percent to 30
percent, its backers say.

The idea faces a tougher time in the House, where it was recently
attached to the energy bill but was watered down before completion.

Critics say the current mileage test is less grueling than real-world
driving, because it is done at lower speeds and with more gentle
acceleration and no use of air-conditioners or defrosters. "Nobody
drives the way the E.P.A. thinks they do," said Christopher
T. Plaushin, national manger of regulatory affairs at AAA, which is
backing the change.

Margo T. Oge, director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality
at the E.P.A., declined to comment on the legislation but said her
agency would propose a new system to calculate mileage this year.
Ms. Oge said that since the last change, in 1985, traffic had
increased, air-conditioners had become standard and speeds had risen.
She added that the market now included gas-electric hybrids, in which
use of air-conditioners may make the gas engine run more.

Ms. Oge said there was a perception that the tests inflated hybrids'
efficiency: If a hybrid that is supposed to get 60 miles a gallon gets
about 50, the consumer will surely notice. But if an S.U.V. sticker
promises 17 miles and its mileage drops by a similar percentage, the
difference is barely noticeable.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which fought the House
provision, believes that the current system is fine. "No testing
procedure can account for all the variables that influence fuel
economy," said Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the alliance.
"We've done a lot of surveys and research and found that consumers
generally are getting the gas mileage they expect from their vehicles.
Some are getting fewer miles per gallon while others are getting
better mileage than expected."

The Senate and House will also consider a provision passed by the
House that would overrule state laws that make rental car companies
liable, without limit, for damage done by their customers. New York
and Connecticut have such laws, called "vicarious liability," and the
legislatures in both states have turned back repeated efforts by
rental companies to change them.

Marc Moller, a lawyer at Kreindler & Kreindler in New York City, said
car rental companies were often the only entities involved that had
the ability to pay substantial death benefits or pay for the care of
the seriously injured. If those companies rent "to anyone with a
license and credit card, and walk away, that is irresponsible," he
said.

But Richard D. Broome, a vice president at Hertz, said the laws were a
holdover from the days when only the wealthy had cars, and
legislatures wanted a way for injured parties to sue owners, not their
chauffeurs.

"If we've done something to the car, or turned the car over to someone
we shouldn't have, we don't disagree that we should be held
responsible," he said. But in other cases, "why pick on the car
rental company?" he asked, saying there was no more reason to hold it
liable than the car manufacturer or the company that paved the road.