For the real world average driver I reckon fuel economy has not improved significantly over the years. Lets remove the extremes to start with.
Take Humph with his 50,000 miles each year. 30 years ago he probably would have been driving a Cortina 2.0 and later a Cavalier 2.0. He probably would have got between 28 - 38mpg. 20 years later in a car with the same performance and size he can get 50mpg but only because he is driving a diesel.
Take me with my 9,000 miles pa. I was driving a Cortina 2.0 and a Cavalier between 20 - 25 years ago. Average fuel consumption was not much better than 22mpg. It is not worth me buying a diesel because of the low mileage I do, so I buy a petrol. Would I get any better economy from a modern car of equivalent size and performance. I don't think I would. Almost every car I have driven over the last 15 years has returned between 20 - 22mpg, irrespective of size, engine, make and performance. The only difference was a Peugeot 605 DT which gave me 30mpg and the Volvo XC90 D5 in which I am averaging about 25mpg.
What is the reason - is is the increased weight of the cars, increase in stagnant traffic or simple lack of inherent efficiency?
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