Pag« 4
How to get m ore
from all that cash
in your gas tank
Buyers p ic k
choices fo r
n e w cars
A recent national survey
of American drivers shows
that Americans tend to con
sider US makes better in
terms of styling and passen
ger safety while imports win
the race for the cars with
the best fuel economy
In the survey, conducted
by J D Powers and Associ
ates of Los Angeles. Amen-
can consumers were asked
to pick the best and the
worst autos in three areas —
styling, mileage and passen
ger safety American-made
cars led imports by a 2-to-l
margin in styling and a m ar
gin of 3-to-l in safety Im
ports. on the other hand,
were voted for by a 10-to-l
margin on fuel economy
The b e s t-lo o k in g U S
models, in order of prefer
ence, were Chevrolet. Ford.
C adillac and Oldsmobile
Am ong
th e
im p o r ts .
Mercedes-Benz and then
Datsun were judged most a t
tractive
The cars selected most
often as having the worst
styling and appearance were
American Motors cars, espe
cially the Pacer and Volks
wagen
Volkswagen was m en
tioned more frequently than
all other imports combined,
with the m ajority specifical
ly citing the appearance of
the Rabbit
In 1979. American gaso
line use fell by 5 4 percent,
and for the firs t half of 1980,
Americans burned nearly 8 5
percent less gasoline than
during the same period last
year
A recent Gallup Poll on
driving habits found that
nearly 9 out of 10 car owners
have changed their motoring
habits in ways that include
cutting weekend and social
driving, joining car pools,
and buying cars that get bet
te r m ileage More than
three-fourths of the m otor
ists surveyed felt they could
achieve bigger savings yet
The Highway Users Federa
tion a national non-profit
o rg a n iz a tio n p ro m o tin g
highway transportation e ffi
ciency and tra ffic safety,
has been digging into ways
to do just that
— First, keep your tires
pumped up to the tire manu
facturer's highest recom
mended level
Radial tires save gas by
increasing mileage 3 to 5
percent in the city and up to
10 percent on the road
— With jackrabbit starts
and stops, a “ lead-footed”
driver wastes at least 7 per
cent of his gas A "feather
footed" driver is just about
as bad. driving too long in
too low a gear, also wasting
gas Develop a steady foot
on the accelerator
— One prim e way to keep
down highway gas consump
tion is to obey the 55 mph
speed lim it. The firs t year
the national 55 mph speed
lim it was imposed, it saved
1 5 billion gallons of gasoline
and 5.000 lives
NAPA-TUNE
ÜNAPA} YOUR CAR c©
Gas filter
NAPA gasoline filter helps
stop carburetor gum-up
enables extra mileage A
necessity at tune-up time
Includes hoses clamps
3033
Tune-up kits
Quality made Echlin tune-
up parts designed to out
perform your car s original
equipment Easy-to-install
kits include contacts, rotor,
condenser, distributor cap
For all American-made
cars
Carburetor
tune up
Works quickly to dissolve
and remove gum. sludge
and varnish from car
buretor,
choke,
PCV
valves, heat risers and
sticky valves 1 3 oz 8700
4 NflPfl U mport mrts sale
In passenger safety, im
ports once again lost out to
American autos U S cars
led imports by a little over
3-to-l in having the best pas
senger safety Cadillac and
Chevrolet were mentioned
most often among U S cars
Volvo and Mercedes-Benz
led the imports
Ford, on the other hand
suffered from the bad pub
lic ity of their consumer t r i
als this last year They were
cited by one out of five d riv
ers as having the poorest
passenger safety, due prim a
rily to the Pinto
According to David Price,
director of automotive re
search at J D Powers and
Associates. Usually the sub
compact im port models are
cited for having the poorest
passenger safety but the no
toriety of the Pinto oversha
dowed the imports in this
case "
The one area where im
ports edged ahead of U S
ta rs was fuel e fficiency
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