Why are newer autos geting worse milage every year?

Do the auto manufactuers think we are all stupid? Every year when new auto models come out they have worse milage than the same model that was released several years earlier, yet the auto mfgs. tout the mpg rating like it's supperior or something, but it's worse! Always!! The best example is the new vibe, what happened with the auto trans vibes' 34 to 36 mpg and the standard trans vibes' mpg at 40 mpg?
Why are newer autos geting worse milage every year?
one point to keep in mind is that the EPA recently (for 2008 model year) revised the method of calculating City/Hwy Fuel Economy estimates. See link from Car and Driver website below.





Beyond that, the trend is that vehicles get larger and more powerful each year. These facts have conspired to counteract all advances in technology that otherwise would have provided better fuel economy.
Why are newer autos geting worse milage every year?
Because the newer model get bigger and faster every year!





Who wants a "smaller" Civic? nobody apparently, so they made the Fit.





Want 35mpg? get an `87 Civic!





What happened to the 3 cylinder Geo metro, Huh? 42mpg!





Remember the Suzuki Samurai? it evolved into the tracker, and the Grand Vitara with a V-6 VROOOOMM!!!!





Nope, youve got the "marketing" guys to thank at the auto companies, they dont listen to "us" .
Reply:evidently they do think were all asleep or something ,because i own a 87 Nissan sentra that gets a good 38 miles to the gallon in the city and 44 on the highway and i wonder why they cant make one that does this now,i was surprised to see some of the newer cars mileage ratings,they are well below what they should be at,with all our technology we should have cars that would get well above 60-70 miles to the gallon but yet we don't,there has to be a reason for this,i would like to know why we are going backwards instead of forwards,i though better technology meant we have the ability to do better not worse,i had a Toyota corolla about 20 years ago that had the 2tc engine in it and it got well over 35 miles to the gallon using the air conditioner all the time,so what happened,we went backwards again,im hoping that we will see a car get good mileage without it being powered half off electricity ,we have the technology to do this with,but we don't apply it for some reason,if i owned stock on an oil company i wouldn't want cars to get better mileage id want those 10- 15 mile per gallon vehicles on the road,so this should ring a bell to some people,it makes you wonder though,i went through this in the 70,s and now its started all over again,this time though its hurting more people than it did then,hopefully we will see a drop in it,and maybe enough to make a difference ,good luck,you asked a good question .
Reply:In 2007, the way the EPA read gas mileage changed.


The EPA ratings were not accurate enough so gas mileage is read in a different way with different tests.


And now they MPG ratings are more accurate.





The Older Civic and Corolla did not get 40mpg. They really got 5mpg lower than that.





Most car companies already changed their MPG ratings, but some car companies did not change their commercials and websites yet.
Reply:Added weight has a lot to do with it as well. Every year theres more and more safety features being added to cars, adding to their overall weight.