Your Car’s Dirty Little Secret

Whether you are interested in a cleaner, greener environment or not, you might find it interesting that most cars have a gas guzzling, pollution mode that you can’t control. When you put the pedal to the metal, most cars try to maximize performance at the cost of fuel economy and tailpipe emissions. The fueling increase for this performance mode can be around 30-40% depending on the vehicle’s make and model. No big deal until you realize that you could save some coin at the pump by avoiding this power mode aka excess mode. And if you are trying to live a bit greener, that 30-40% isn’t helping much at all. While some of the excess fuel is caught in your catalytic converter, the rest comes right out of your car’s tailpipe.

In all fairness to the car makers, they do this to improve their 0-60 times and horsepower ratings to be competitive. But they could make it an option in the car somewhere to select if you want power or clean operations. Years ago, several cars had this capability but it went away because, I guess, we got traction control and your cars could handle the power for you in slippery situations. I think we honestly didn’t see the value in non-performance mode. And who wants to run around in low-power mode, it’s just not so cool.

But now, gas prices are capable of spiking at any moment and we are a much more eco-friendly nation than in times past (maybe blackouts and smog helped). An off-button for excess mode should come back in some cool place like the navigation screen. The auto companies would still get their performance ratings and you would save some green and be a little greener.