Newer cars tend to be larger and heavier than older cars, which does not help fuel efficiency. For the US specifically, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201

Newer cars tend to be larger and heavier than older cars, which does not help fuel efficiency. For the US specifically, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/03/climate/us-fuel-economy.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/03/climate/us-fu... says that in 2016 new "cars and light trucks (i.e. SUVs)" in the US average 24.7 mpg. Based on the charts, restricting to just cars gives you something like 36mpg in the US in 2016. Note that the EU number is much higher at ~46mpg, likely due to the cars being on average smaller. Though I'm not sure what to make of the fact that the charts seem to show both cars _and_ light trucks at above 25mpg for the US in 2016; hard to reconcile that with the 24.7 number. Also see the note about how SUVs and vans are considered "cars" in the EU but "light trucks" in the US... Anyway, the upshot is that it's certainly possible to get something that will get you over 40mpg, but the average is below that even for new vehicles, in the US.