NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The Consumer Federation of America held a press conference Monday to announce that you can save money on fuel each year by choosing vehicles carefully.

OK. Thanks. Why is that news?

Well, you can save $2,000 a year by choosing the most fuel efficient vehicle in a given class!

Really?

Yes, it's true. If you're shopping for a standard-sized pick-up truck you can save $1,995 a year in fuel costs by choosing the Toyota Tundra instead of the Dodge Ram 8.3-liter, CFA says.

What they fail to point out, however, is that no-one in their right mind would purchase the Dodge Ram 8.3-liter if they were looking at gas mileage. That truck, better known as the Dodge Ram SRT-10, is equipped with the same 500-horsepower V-10 engine as the high-performance Dodge Viper sports car. It also has a large air wing over the back of the bed.

In other words, it's nothing like the Toyota Tundra. Oh, and the Toyota Tundra they're talking about is the version with a V-6 engine, not the bigger V-8, and a manual transmission. But the CFA doesn't point that out, either. (See related story.)

More examples abound in the CFA's report. You can save about $1,700 a year if you buy the Toyota Highlander Hybrid instead of the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

But they don't point out that the Grand Cherokee they're talking about is the Grand Cherokee SRT-8, a specialized performance vehicle with a 420-horsepower 6.1-liter V-8 engine. The SRT-8 can't even be taken off road. It's a niche high-performance vehicle designed for on-road use only.

Again, a buyer considering the Toyota Highlander Hybrid is unlikely to be giving even the slightest consideration to the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8. They probably don't even know it exists.

And, if you're shopping for a two-seater, you can save $962 by choosing the Honda Insight, a small hybrid vehicle, over the $140,000 V-12-powered Mercedes-Benz SL-600. Well, at least the absurdity there is fairly obvious. Provided you know what an SL-600 is or bother to check.

In their defense, the CFA told me they used the same vehicle names as the Environmental Protection Agency. And the EPA's own mileage comparisons, based on interior volume, create even more absurd comparisons that the CFA tried to avoid, they said. Finally, they didn't want to burden journalists with too many details.

I'm not saying that the CFA doesn't have a valid point. They do. But the point is an obvious one, hardly worth having a press conference over.

And yes, you can save money on fuel by shopping smartly within a vehicle class. But you cannot save anything like $1,995 because there's no way you, Mister Individual Consumer, will be choosing between a V-6 Toyota Tundra and a Dodge Ram SRT-10.

Realistically "you can save $50 or $100, and you don't have to change the type of vehicle you're buying," Jack Gillis, a CFA spokesman, told me.

Fine. Now that's more like it.

OK, everyone. You can save money by buying more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Shop wisely.

Related story:

Are you picking the right car for your wallet?

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