Mercedes Data Submitted Too Late for EPA Mileage List

Call it the mystery of the missing Mercedes-15, in fact. The luxury cars, most of them “gas guzzlers,” all failed to show in the Environmental Protection Agency’s auto mileage survey this week.

Among the 981 cars, whose expected gasoline efficiency was detailed in the EPA list and then widely distributed by the news media, were cars ranging from the 58-miles-per-gallon Geo Metro to the 6-m.p.g. Lamborghini Countach, not to mention half a dozen versions of the Rolls-Royce.

But no Mercedes-Benz.

Don Larson, branch manager at the EPA’s auto testing laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich., said that every year perhaps 80 or 90 cars do not make the list because manufacturers do not provide the testing data for certification early enough to make the deadline for sending the list to the printer.

Nevertheless, he said, “it would be unusual for a manufacturer to have his entire product line not listed.”

Federal law requires auto makers to submit the data and have it approved before a car may be put on the market. But Larson said there is no requirement that the test data be submitted by a specific date or meet the deadline for the initial list, which gets the widespread publicity.

Eleven of the Mercedes cars showed overall mileage of 18 m.p.g. or less and are subject to a gas-guzzler excise tax, according to figures provided by the EPA. Those 11 would bring the number of official guzzlers to 43 in the 1990 model year, compared to 40 on the initial list for the previous year.