Find out more about GM's Untruth in Advertising. More on the issues: Fuel Economy Solutions Hybrid Vehicles Global Warming & Energy

The Green(car)wash With gas prices climbing to new highs, Detroit has finally caught on, unleashing a rash of ads touting fuel efficiency. The only problem is that for most of the cars in their line-ups, they don't have anything efficient to tout. (They do have highly efficient advertising agencies, however.) See if you can tease out the truth from the misleading claims. 1. A GM ad with the tag line "Meet the 30 and Up Crowd" highlights highway mileage only. How many of those 19 cars actually get 30 mpg when you combine highway and city performance -- the standard practice when quoting mileage figures? 1 5 10 19 2. GM is, of course, the proud maker of Hummer, the civilian humvee. What is the official EPA mileage rating for the Hummer H1? 10 mpg 14 mpg 18 mpg Nobody knows 3. Averaged together, the combined mileage rating of the 19 cars in GM's ad is 26.3 mpg. How does that compare to the government's Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard for passenger cars? it exceeds it by 2 mpg it ties it it falls short by 1.2 mpg what's the question again? 4. In what year did CAFE standards peak? 1961 1986 2003 2004 Up to Top