Counting The Miles

Even when gas was cheap, Honda was driven to deliver miserly fuel economy. Now others are trying to keep up. Its top U.S. engineer explains the mileage mantra.

Honda is so obsessive about having the best gas mileage on the road that Charlie Baker, its U.S. chief engineer, once crawled underneath a BMW at a car show to gather some competitive intel. Baker wanted to make sure the SUV he was developing, the Acura MDX from Honda’s luxury division, would top BMW’s X5, so he was snapping photos of the Beemer’s underbelly to size up its aerodynamics. A BMW exec tugged on his leg, asking, “Can I help you, sir?” Baker’s response: “Not unless you have a jack.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8272373/site/newsweek/