Passenger Car and Light Truck Fuel Economy Trends through 1980

The 4000-mile EPA fuel economy figures are presented for passenger cars from pre-emission control models through 1980, for light-trucks from 1975 through 1980, and for motorcycles for 1980. The paper accumulates most of the fuel economy analyses presented in previous papers of this kind. Accordingly, it is voluminous with data, and necessarily terse in textual material. It presupposes reader familiarity with the nature of the EPA tests and data bases, and the techniques used for the analyses, particularly harmonic sales weighting of fuel economy data. The reader must refer to precursor papers for such descriptions. Some aspects treated are: stratification by weight class, vehicle size class, manufacturer, and MPG range; domestic vs. import, gasoline vs. Diesel, and 49-states vs. California models.