Miles/gallon: Newer vs Older Cars

g413 said

Probably most of us are on this site due to the 60s muscle cars. But some newer cars have high horsepower, pass smog, and have reasonable fuel economy. I know new technology helps, but were the older cars just a lot more inefficient? Where have the main improvements come from?

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The only thing I can really say about this question specifically is that personally I think most of what's called improvements are not improvements at all.
Forces people that are competent to do minor mechanical repairs to take it in and pay some dip **** to do it, and what the hell are we going to do about any computer problems on our own. (that now controls damn near everything)
"Improvements" are one of the reasons I will only own pre mid 90's cars and/or trucks.