Firstly, I would like to commend your group on an excellent, well written magazine dedicated to the Canadian audience. (And now we brace, for the real reason for this letter — Ed). There is, however, an area in which people are sometimes given incorrect information: fuel mileage.

Canada switched many years ago to the L/100 km system, similar to that of the rest of the world. Before than, Canada had miles per gallon (mpg) based on Imperial gallons. The U.S. has mpg only based on U.S. gallons.

In vehicle advertisements the U.S. mpg number will always be lower than the Canadian mpg because the U.S gallon is smaller: 1 U.S gallon = 4 quarts = 3.79 litres; 1 Imperial gallon = 5 quarts = 4.54 litres.

When you include only a U.S mpg figure in your articles, like you did for the Subaru Legacy and Tribeca report in the November (2008) issue, readers will get an inaccurate impression of their fuel efficiency. They may assume you are giving them mpg in Imperial gallons, since other vehicles in the same magazine give Imperial mpg ratings.

For the Tribeca, your magazine listed city/highway ratings of 13.2/9.4 L/100 km, and 17.7/25.0 mpg. The mpg is based on U.S. gallons. Based on Imperial gallons, the rating becomes 21.4/30.0.

I hope this information helps out.

Jeff Lehmann

Burlington, Ontario

* * *

And we hope to not confuse the issue anymore. We’ve always had the policy of only listing mpg ratings in Imperial. Obviously we’ve slipped here and there, or perhaps we have been the victim of a covret plot by The League of the Four Quarts, which have made it known, that it is their mission to secretly undermine Canada’s Imperial standards. — Ed.