>But I would guess that the main reason for buses getting lower gas mileage
>than a same-weight sedan, and especially that little round sedan first
>brought out in '47, is that large, tall, flat front; and especially the
>large, tall, flat rear end.

I thought that the early Buses actually had a lower drag co-efficient than
the Beetle sedans. I read that somewhere.

Don't know about pound-for-pound comparisons between Buses and sedans of
any make; that would be interesting to know. If a sedan were to weigh this
much and use 1930s engine technology, could it hit 20 mpg? I wonder if
there are any double-valved watercooled monoblocks out there that can do
what we do...