My mazda 3 has gotten upper 30s at 78 mph. No wind, flat terrain. Real gas instead of 10% ethanol helps too.

Yep. Less frontal area and smaller holes. Both mean less drag and Skyactiv runs a modified Atkinson cycle at light load which adds a few more percentage points to volumetric efficiency.

The Skyactiv X engine - if we ever see it here - should reach 50mpg in the "3" .

Might be worth upgrading to skyactive X if it's a manual transmission and the "no drunk driving"thing can be reliably disabled.

They'll probably never bring it here. Our government has vowed to destroy their sales, remember?

True. Until the guns come out in earnest, we can't have nice things.

Whitehat wrote..

It started when our representatives achieved two things which will be very hard to undo. They no longer live with the people whom they represent

With today's technology there's no need for our representitaves to physically be in Washington, they can all be at home in their districts and do Zoom meetings, etc.

It would be harder and more costly for lobbyists to schmooze them all with them spread out over the country.

In Putin's big speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum yesterday, he really emphasized loosening inspections of businesses. Not just loosening regulations but actually decreasing inspections. Take that however you like.

I was a little shocked, actually. Guess there's no ESG movement in Russia. Or it takes a very different form. But I totally get it that the #1 priority there right now is making that economy hum, hum, hum! VRROOOM!

Let's not kid ourselves, America has become the world's largest banana republic. The last two years have demonstrated the corruption of government agencies by corporations whose officers should be in irons. We have also seen disparate treatment of suspects by a politicized Just-us department that will trump up charges against those whom the deep state dislikes and let obvious hoodlums skate.
America was treated to the spectacle of the murder trial and conviction of a cop unfortunate to have subdued a hoodlum who died of a drug overdose while an affirmative action hired hood rat masquerading as a capitol policeman deliberately shoot and murdered a trespasser with nary a protest by the people and no notice given by the government. Everyone participating in the former prosecution and the latter non-prosecution should be doing hard time. But they won't, because we live in a banana republic.
Perhaps we have some Americans like Madame DeFarge in A Tale of Two Cities. Shit lists will come in handy for days of reckoning.

https://pca.st/rqh6huvf
I highly suggest listening to this interview with Dr Anas Alhajji discussing oil/U war from the ME perspective/ESG. He is an internationally renowned expert, and if this is him speaking cautiously in public, he must be really exciting in private conversation. Lots of truth bombs.

We should be prosecuting Binden and his genocidal maniacs. Also, there needs to be at least 2 zeros put on that fine. Third, the penalty should be death by hunga-bunga.

The funny part of ESG in France is that it costs a lot to fake it. It's all greenwashing.