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Japanese Manufacturers Take Top Three Positions (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D98D89J80.htm)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/591/insight_prius.JPGDan Strumpf - BusinessWeek- May 25, 2009

The survey does show the continued forward momentum that Ford continues to exhibit in all aspects of it's business.--Ed.

Honda Motor Co. overtook Toyota Motor Corp. as the top company that auto parts suppliers prefer to do business with, according to an annual survey released Monday.

Toyota has been the No. 1 automaker among the parts suppliers since 2002, but its ratings have fallen steadily over the last two years, according to a study by Planning Perspectives Inc., a Birmingham, Mich.-based company that surveys manufacturing and service industries.
Honda's marks declined from last year as well, though not by as much.

Japanese automakers continued to boast the best relations with their suppliers, with Nissan Motor Co. coming in third among the six automakers ranked.
Ford Motor Co.'s supplier relations improved dramatically for the second year in a row, coming in fourth, followed by General Motors Corp. then Chrysler LLC.

"While Ford still has a lot of work to do, what they're doing with their suppliers is working," said John W. Henke, president and chief executive of Planning Perspectives, in a written statement.

Suppliers who work with Toyota complained of a younger, less experienced staff at the Japanese automaker's purchasing group, Henke said.
It said Ford's improvement was due to its recent decision to transfer its top European purchasing executive to the U.S... ... http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D98D89J80.htm

If we compare apples to apples, FE has almost doubled since 1969.

An average family sedan- weighed maybe 3500 lbs and had a 300 or so cubic inch V-8. It is about the equivalent in weight and interior room of an Accord-length,the Accord is about 190 inches would be pretty close also.

In pure city driving the 1969 car would get maybe 10-11 mpg.In pure highway it would get about 14-15 mpg. A bragging point back then was to claim your car got "20 mpg".Those claiming it were usually selectively lying because none of those cars would average 20 mpg driven as we normally drove them.
A few of the smaller, lighter cars might approach 20 mpg when cautiously driven - a Rambler 6 cyl with the aluminum heads would , but only immediately after the head gasket was replaced and the heads were machined true. The 4 cylinders-Corvair without the turbocharger maybe-might approach 20 mpg when driven cautiously.A VW would but it was 45 hp or so. Maybe a Chevy II/Nova might with the 4 cyl-if they still offered one in 1969.

Now an Accord will get an honest 17 mpg city-over 50% better- but it will more than double the highway mpg-30-34 mpg with the CC set on 65 mph. No hypermiling- just point and drive.

I know some of our members remember very good mpg with those cars, but they also get extremely good mpg with current vehicles. In general an average sedan was a 12-13 mpg vehicle, and plenty of them were sub 10 mpg vehicles-all the big block 3900 lb vehicles were sub 10mpg cars big Chevys,Fords,Mopars etc. My father always bought cheezy little 6 cylinder cars, and he kept good mpg records.Only once did he get a v-8-1965 Fury II SW. Good car, but 11-13 mpg at best.

With the right transmissions and small 4 cyl it wouldn't be hard to get a 2800 lb car to do the 39mpg required. With a TDI the VWs do it with much heavier cars.

Cars have hugely improved since the 60's. If is just a question of some downsizing and areos and the AT/MT like the Europeans have to get the 39 mpg.

Charlie

My 69 VW Beetle used to give me 32mpg in local (mostly city) driving in FL, 34mpg on highway trips at 60-65mph, 28mpg in the NC mountains, and up to 40mpg if I really babied it (what we'd call hypermiling today).