The Hard Sell on M.P.G.

There is almost nothing that advertisers will not try to turn into a selling point. Take the driving public's concern about the rate at which cars consume gasoline, a worry that has knocked auto sales down 27%, with big-car sales hurting the most. "As long as fuel is in short supply," says Ford President Lee Iacocca, "the name of the game is miles per gallon." Result: automakers and their dealers are rushing to advertise that their cars, even some of the heaviest, get astonishing gas mileage.

For some months now, Hugh Downs has been proclaiming on national television that he got 19.7 m.p.g. driving a Ford LTD from Phoenix to Los Angeles. Cadillac advertises that its cars get up to 15.8 m.p.g., and Oldsmobile claims 17.6 m.p.g. for its Cutlass.

Do these claims sound hard to believe? The automakers are careful to qualify them with such hedges as the one voiced by Downs: "Of course, mileage depends on maintenance, driving habits, total weight, road and driving conditions. And you may not get the same results." Indeed, most of the touted mileage figures were set under special conditions. Downs, for example, never drove over 50 m.p.h., and his trip was mostly downhill (the average altitude of Los Angeles is around 800 ft. lower than Phoenix).

Both the Cadillac and Cutlass low m.p.g. figures, like many others that automakers proclaim, were achieved on proving grounds, scarcely much of a test of what motorists can expect in normal driving. One indication: Chevrolet --which commendably has stayed out of the race to advertise mileage figures --found last year that four of its Impalas got 18 m.p.g. on proving grounds.

The same cars got 14 m.p.g. in typical freeway runs, 12 m.p.g. in suburban driving, and 10 m.p.g. in heavy city traffic.

Moreover, automakers themselves have complained to Washington that largely because of safety and antipollution equipment they have had to add, the average gas mileage achieved by their cars has dropped 20% in the past five years --a figure they do not put in the ads.

The automakers and parts suppliers are also promoting a whole range of new products supposed to save gasoline, a more acceptable form of gas-mileage salesmanship. Ford, for example, offers for $20.95 an instrument-panel "fuel sentry" that warns a driver when he should decelerate because he is burning too much gas. Chrysler will soon offer for $10 to $12 a "fuel pacer system"--a light mounted on the fender that glows when a driver is wasting fuel by accelerating too fast. Such devices may be useful, but most drivers are likely to find that the ultimate fuel-saving gadget is a small car.

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