I'm not a car enthusiast, but I'll give my .02. My first car was my parents 56 Chevy V8 that weighed over 3000 pounds and got 15mpg on premium (.35 per gallon)

I'm not a car enthusiast, but I'll give my .02. My first car was my parents 56 Chevy V8 that weighed over 3000 pounds and got 15mpg on premium (.35 per gallon). My current car is a little over 2000 pounds and gets 38 mpg, 4 cyl, nothing special. Typical cars are quite a bit smaller and lighter now. Vans and SUV's are not, because they are classified as truck and have had much less stringent mileage requirements. The car in the story was probably super lightweight, maybe less than 1000 pounds. It has a small lightweight efficient engine that in a normal car would give you 0-60 mph in about a week. Driving style makes a huge difference in this type of demonstration, slow acceleration, no AC, going downhill in neutral or with the engine off, etc. A friend of min in high school got 50 mpg from and old Plymouth by coasting downhill to school and "driving" on the half back home. We live in a rural area with no traffic.