Gas-guzzler commonly refers to a vehicle that consumes fuel

Fuel

Fuel is any material that stores energy that can later be extracted to perform mechanical work in a controlled manner. Most fuels used by humans undergo combustion, a redox reaction in which a combustible substance releases energy after it ignites and reacts with the oxygen in the air...

 inefficiently

Fuel efficiency

Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the efficiency of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier fuel into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, which in turn may vary per application, and this spectrum of variance is...

.

The term originally came into use in the US when congress established Gas Guzzler Tax provisions in the Energy Tax Act of 1978 to discourage the production and purchase of fuel-inefficient vehicles. The gas guzzler tax had applied only to cars (not trucks) and was collected by the IRS.

Today the term is often used to refer to SUVs or other semi-large vehicles that qualify as "light trucks". Nevertheless the term extends to all fuel-inefficient vehicles, from antiquated V8 American classics to Italian-bred sports cars. A Lamborghini Murciélago

Lamborghini Murciélago

The Lamborghini Murciélago is a two-door, two-seat sports car produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini between 2001 and 2010. Successor to the Diablo and flagship of the automaker's lineup, the Murciélago was introduced as a coupé in 2001. The automaker's first new design in eleven years, the car...

, a Plymouth Roadrunner, and a Hummer H2

Hummer H2

The Hummer H2 is an SUV and SUT that was marketed by General Motors under the Hummer brand. It is a large truck , while longer, heavier , and taller with room for six passengers , seven passengers in some models. The rearmost part of the H2 SUV was modified to a pickup truck bed for the 2005 H2 SUT...

 might all be classified as gas-guzzlers, though they are very different cars.

Reasons for bad fuel economy

There are several reasons for bad fuel economy in cars, vans and trucks:

• Large displacement engines: A large displacement engine generally requires more fuel to run it than a smaller engine.
• Small displacement engines: An excessively small engine often requires more fuel to run than a moderately bigger engine which can deliver more power per piston bore than its smaller equivalent. A smaller engine has to burn more fuel to produce power similar to a larger bore engine, thus causing the mean fuel economy to go down under normal operating conditions. This situation is often found in Germany or Ireland
  Republic of Ireland
  Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
  
   where a motor taxation system is used which taxes cars based on engine capacity.
• Heavy weight: A heavy vehicle requires more work
  Mechanical work
  In physics, work is a scalar quantity that can be described as the product of a force times the distance through which it acts, and it is called the work of the force. Only the component of a force in the direction of the movement of its point of application does work...
  
   to accelerate than a lighter vehicle, requiring more powerful (larger displacement) engine with higher fuel consumption to achieve a similar power-to-weight ratio
  Power-to-weight ratio
  Power-to-weight ratio is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measurement of actual performance of any engine or power sources...
  
  .
• Large drag coefficient
  Drag coefficient
  In fluid dynamics, the drag coefficient is a dimensionless quantity that is used to quantify the drag or resistance of an object in a fluid environment such as air or water. It is used in the drag equation, where a lower drag coefficient indicates the object will have less aerodynamic or...
  
  : A less aerodynamic
  Aerodynamics
  Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Aerodynamics is a subfield of fluid dynamics and gas dynamics, with much theory shared between them. Aerodynamics is often used synonymously with gas dynamics, with...
  
   vehicle must deflect a greater volume of air when moving at the same speed than a more aerodynamic one. To overcome this drag
  Drag (physics)
  In fluid dynamics, drag refers to forces which act on a solid object in the direction of the relative fluid flow velocity...
  
  , a more powerful engine with higher fuel consumption is needed.

Means to decrease fuel consumption

Then there is the reduction of vehicle weight, with a switch to monocoque

Monocoque

Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...

 construction instead of body on frame construction and an increased use of lightweight materials, aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

, plastic

Plastic

A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

s and high strength HSLA steel

HSLA steel

High-strength low-alloy steel is a type of alloy steel that provides better mechanical properties or greater resistance to corrosion than carbon steel. HSLA steels vary from other steels in that they are not made to meet a specific chemical composition but rather to specific mechanical properties...

s instead of ordinary mild carbon steel.

Gas-guzzlers are not only seeing a scale back in engine size and weight but also in the type of fuel used to power it to prevent environmental damage caused by the use of fossil fuels. For example, some light truck manufacturers are adopting hydrogen

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...

 fuel technology in order to provide the consumer a vehicle with a much lower running cost. The problem with these alternative fuel technologies is that they are either too expensive for widespread use and/or they are scarcely available especially in smaller countries.

Diesel

Diesel engine

A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

 technology is widespread in light trucks, especially in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The bad reputation of diesel fuel and the previously bad quality of the fuel, however, have led to the rarity of such vehicles in the U.S market. The excessive particle emissions of diesel engines have also been cut back with particulate filter

Diesel Particulate Filter

A diesel particulate filter is a device designed to remove diesel particulate matter or soot from the exhaust gas of a diesel engine. Wall-flow diesel particulate filters usually remove 85% or more of the soot, and under certain conditions can attain soot removal efficiencies of close to 100%...

s, which are offered for most modern diesel engines.

Driving habits and vehicle maintenance are easy to change and can have a big impact on fuel efficiency. Sudden acceleration, poorly maintained vehicles (frequency of oil changes and brand) and gasoline brands can also impact overall fuel efficiency by over 20%.

Basics

The U.S government introduced the Gas Guzzler Tax as a part of the Energy Tax Act

Energy Tax Act

The Energy Tax Act is a law passed by the U.S. Congress as part of the National Energy Act. The objective of this law was shift from oil and gas supply toward energy conservation; thus, to promote fuel efficiency and renewable energy through taxes and tax credits.- Tax credits for conservation...

. The tax was introduced to tax the purchase of inefficient vehicles at the same time that Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards were introduced. The Gas Guzzler Tax applies only to vehicles classified as cars, as opposed to light trucks. Since 1991, cars with a combined fuel economy rating under 22.5 miles per US gallon miles per gallon have been subject to the tax. Light trucks, which includes virtually all sport-utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans, are not subject to the tax.

Criticism

The primary criticism of the tax is that it does not apply to light trucks. As a result, relatively few vehicles are subject to the tax. When the tax was first introduced, light trucks were viewed as primarily work related vehicles. With the shift towards consumer uses for SUVs and pickups, the original rationale for exempting trucks is considered invalid by critics of the current tax law.

External links

• Top 10 gas guzzlers: Exotics rule