How Passenger Car Maintenance Affects Fuel Economy and Emissions A Nationwide Survey

Beginning in May of 1975, Champion Spark Plug Company embarked upon an extensive nationwide program to gather data that would determine how passenger car engine conditions relate to fuel consumption and emissions. This program, by use of a diagnostic check lane and a mobile chassis dynamometer laboratory, was to be the most comprehensive look at motorist maintenance habits and their effect on fuel consumption and emissions ever undertaken by a nongovernmental source. Five thousand six hundred and sixty-six passenger cars were ignition and emission diagnosed and from these, 216 cars were selected for the ''before and after'' dynamometer test based on their need for a tune-up. This test gave a realistic view of how the average motorist, having a periodic tune-up performed on his vehicle, can help save fuel for himself and the nation; and at the same time improve the quality of the air he breathes.