Gas Mileage

The average fuel efficiency of the fleet of new cars and trucks rose only slightly in 2008, but the government said Friday an increase in sales of smaller vehicles due to high gas prices could push the numbers higher. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that the average performance of new, 2008 model cars and trucks was 20.8 miles per gallon in 2008, up 0.2 mpg compared with 2007 vehicles, and a 1.5 mpg increase since 2004.

As Brett Favre is reminding us, retirement doesn't really mean retirement anymore. It's just a brief break before you make your comeback. Here are some other greats we'd like to see "un-retire. " Michael Jordan: The king of comebacks is overdue for another one. Besides, couldn't he still start for the Clippers? Dick Butkus: Another Chicagoan who's still got game. Bad wheels? Just prop him up behind the line of scrimmage and let him gnaw the heads off rookie running backs. I'd watch that.

An occasional series on getting from here to there. -- It was a 1988 Volvo station wagon, silver gray, turbo. We bought it used, one owner, in 1996 for $12,000, and we were lucky. We had another Volvo at home, a snappy red 850 (1993), which had a kind of Viking joie de vivre, if Scandinavian cars can be said to have joy in life. We thought of it as female: We named her Freya.

High fuel prices are helping sales of products designed to boost gasoline mileage -- even though the government says they're not worth the money. The products include fuel additives and devices that fit inside an engine's air intake valve. Their makers claim they boost mileage by helping gasoline burn more efficiently. "The [Environmental Protection Agency] has tested hundreds of these products," said Laura DeMartino, a Federal Trade Commission attorney. "Even for the few that worked, the gas savings was so small it didn't justify the price."

Not everything you've heard about increasing gas mileage is true. There are plenty of legitimate ways to stretch your mileage: slow down, keep tires at proper inflation, avoid quick acceleration, don't pile luggage on a roof rack, use a properly fitted gas cap. But at this time of skyrocketing gasoline prices, several myths are circulating. The claims were tested by car experts at the Automobile Club of Southern California and Consumer Reports magazine.

New vehicles are expected to set records -- barely -- for average gas mileage in 2007, driven by improved technology and demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, the federal government says. Vehicles from the 2007 model year are projected to average 26.4 miles per gallon overall, a gain of 1 mpg over the previous year and above the previous record of 26.2 mpg in 1987. The increases are attributed to higher demand for hybrids and more fuel-efficient vehicles. Honda Motor Co. was estimated to lead the way, averaging 39.9 mpg for its imported vehicles and 33.7 mpg for vehicles built in the United States.

AMERICAN DRIVERS will soon be able to confirm what they always suspected: Their cars aren't as fuel-efficient as those stickers in the windows say. But although the federal government is ready to give consumers more accurate information, it remains unwilling to use that information to demand better fuel efficiency in cars. Federal standards require an automaker's fleet of passenger cars to average 27.5 miles per gallon.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp., which sees the success of its new Lancer sedan as critical to reversing a dramatic slump in its U.S. sales, already faces a handicap as it prepares to launch the compact car in March. Competing in a segment in which gas mileage usually figures prominently in buyers' decisions, the 2008 Lancer will be the first vehicle to be rated under tough new federal fuel economy standards scheduled to be announced today.

What do mothballs and toilet bowl deodorant bars have to do with drastically improving gas mileage? Nothing, say prosecutors who are going after a company that claims a small ball made with the chemicals in those products is a "gas pill" that can boost mileage 25% or more. Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott sued BioPerformance Inc. on Wednesday, a day after a San Antonio judge signed a temporary restraining order forcing the Dallas company to cease allegedly deceptive acts and froze its assets.

In a stuffy Marina del Rey hotel meeting room Thursday night, Taylor Rivera spoke excitedly about a gas-saving additive he'd discovered a few months before. "I normally get 255 miles to the tank," said Rivera, who drives a Porsche SUV. After popping the gas additive BioPerformance Fuel into his tank several times, he said, "my mileage jumped up to 305. I didn't research it, but it worked for me, so I shared it with my friends."