What cars have really good gas mileage?

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jesus-sinned@reddit

Miles per gallon is a marketing ploy from car companies. Gallons per mile is the actual way to think about it. So be careful. 30mpg sounds like a LOT less than 40mpg. But check the math.

If you drive (like most people) about 10k miles a year, that’s about 830 miles per month. 200 miles per week. Gas is about $5/gal where I live currently.

So in the 40mpg car you’re getting 250 gallons per year. 30mpg car 333 gallons per year. 40mpg car is $1250 in gas per year. 30mpg car is $1667 in gas per year. Difference of $417. Or, over the course of 5 years, about $2k. But to get that 40mpg car is usually WAY more than $2k above the car with 30mpg.

Hope that all makes sense. TLDR: mpg isn’t all it’s made out to be.

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Parking_Abalone_1232@reddit

In my 24 Prius prime in getting about 166 miles to the gallon.

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Fair_Willingness3937@reddit

hmm, simple math but not the full analysis. Your hypothisis goes unproven.

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Enough-History5873@reddit

Niiiiice point. This guy cars. 👆

I was going to add, consider start cost and condition/what it’ll need in repair soon as much as mileage - because tires, brakes and cam chain 6 months after purchase is a lot of gas.

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Ancient-Resident-514@reddit

First generation Honda insight, you can pick them up well under 10k, manual also! 50-60+mpg.

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dogturd21@reddit

Take a look at mpg.gov and you can look up any car or truck sold in the USA.

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Fair_Willingness3937@reddit

BS.

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dogturd21@reddit

I corrected the link.

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rdadeo@reddit

Everyone is going to throw out the usual answers at you. Civic, Corolla. Those are no brainers, but bang for your buck will suffer.

I would also recommend a Mitsu Mirage. (Manual tranny) That 1.2 gets the other side of 40 mpg and will run forever. Mazda 3, great drivetrain, 35 mpg unless you drive like an idiot, again, see if you can find a 5 speed. Hyundai accent. (20, 21 and 22 years only) Not as durable as the rest but surprisingly good cars and more durable than they are given credit for.

Avoid anything from a North American manufacturer, especially if it has the words ecotech or ecoboost on it. Anything from Stellantis will also be a throw away.

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MysticMarbles@reddit

Prius. Mirage. Any subcompact Japanese vehicle. But those first 2 are hard to beat.

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Pope_Urban_the_2nd@reddit

A Honda Civic or an older Prius would be my guess

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Toucan2000@reddit

I think a fit is even better on gas and you can definitely get a 2016 for under 10k

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CLEcoder4life@reddit

I definitely pushed 40 mpg on my manual fit if I did a lot of highway

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Toucan2000@reddit

Oh for sure. I'm getting almost 45 mpg on mine with the CVT. I always have it in eco mode.

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CLEcoder4life@reddit

Miss mine. Great little car.

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feelnhott@reddit

My 2015 Prius gets 48mpg

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Toucan2000@reddit

So does my MT-07

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feelnhott@reddit

Yeah? But I can carry luggage

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Toucan2000@reddit

So can I, and my insurance is like 1/4 the cost

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feelnhott@reddit

I have AC! Checkmate nerd

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Toucan2000@reddit

LMFAO. Got me there

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J-Rag-@reddit

Or drive comfortably in the rain?

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Southern-Usual4211@reddit

Wow congrats a bike is apple to oranges

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J-Rag-@reddit

Older TDI. ALH, BEW or BHW are all good

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SameAd2686@reddit

My 2011 Mazda 2 gets 40 miles per gallon which is no longer available but Mazda 3 is great on gas

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a0lmasterfender@reddit

Prius, Yaris, Corolla, Honda Fit, VW TDI.

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Sketch2029@reddit

Diesel is over $7/gal in California.

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samsly135@reddit

I think electrical vehicles get perfect gas mileage as they don't spend any.

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poloace@reddit

Geo metro

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YendorZenitram@reddit

Probably the highest MPG of any gasoline car. My wife had a 1990 Metro that got 46+52MPG all day - with a carburated 3-cyl, 989cc engine. Beautiful piece of engineering. Reliable as hell too.

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Grumpy_dad70@reddit

Can confirm 50 mpg, with the A/C off. 😂

I had an 89 and regularly drove it from NJ to TX, spent less than $35 in gas, back when gas was around $1 / Gal. That slow 55hp car could take some punishment, it had 200k miles when it was retired.

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poloace@reddit

I would totally rock one now.

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Mission-Reserve-2411@reddit

So depending on where you live, you could save a bunch of money and get a Honda Grom mini street bike. That or a good E motorcycle if you really wanna save money in the long run. Also a used Chevy Bolt can be close to $10,000 and could be a phenomenal money saver. Still if you’re set on a MPG car, any VW TDI that’s been well taken care of will get you 45-55mpg. I see lots of them for around $5000. A used Prius is also a great bet. A used Corolla Hatchback can be close to $10k as well and still get you 45mpg.

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ProposalCalm8231@reddit

I bought the first year of Jetta TDI, it was easy to get 50 mpg on my commute. Highway driving was more like 45 mpg.

My understanding is that the dirty nox fix hurts the mpg or you get DEF setups, so factor that in.

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Mission-Reserve-2411@reddit

Now with the idiots in office, constantly putzing around with our environment laws, you can just get it tuned and deleted, get you’re a bit more MPGs. It might get re-enforced in the future, and obviously in California and other strict states, might not be doable at all. But hey, diesel is now wildly expensive.

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S_Flavius_Mercurius@reddit

Volkswagen Jetta with the 1.4t engine. I have a 2019 and consistently get 40+, 30 at the worst usually, and my 2016 before it was almost as good. Fantastic cars.

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aperturephotography@reddit

My 05 XC90 d5 manual gets 35-40mpg depending on how I drive.

Add on the fact there's no recorded fatal accidents in one since release least here in the UK says a lot about the safety in them too.

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PlayingWithFIRE123@reddit

The old Honda accord v6’s get good mileage, are pretty quick, and are not as sought after as the older civics. The 2004 I have gets 27-30mpg on the highway and I got it for dirt cheap. Pretty easy to fix yourself too

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corse@reddit

I had an old ford ZX2 a long time ago. It got in the high 30s on the freeway, it was surprisingly good on mileage. It did not have a lot of power, it was not a fast car. But I'll be damned if it didn't get amazing mileage. They're very easy engines to work on, cheap to get parts for. Oldschool ZETEC. I bought it with 30,000 miles, sold it at 200,000 miles or something around that, it was still going strong as ever. They're cheap to find these days and I usually see them in pretty good condition.

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Best_Relief8647@reddit

I can assure you Google did not say that.

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JB_LeGoof@reddit

Whatever you pick, avoid Kia/hyundai like the plague, especially at that price range.

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Dolphin_Princess@reddit

EVs

Stop paying for gas

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IntelligentRevenue39@reddit

The 2026 Corolla Hybrid MSRPs for $25k. The 2024s range from $21-25k. If you buy new, you won't get burned later on in resale. If you buy used, you won't get burned because they're great cars with great fuel economy.

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Big-Chungus-12@reddit

Best value I think maybe a civic but they are lighter not as good ride as others but I think is the best value for what you get

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Brief-Witness-3878@reddit

How about any used BEV? Depreciation has put most of them into affordable range. Charging costs next to nothing.

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biggunzcdb1@reddit

2018 Elantra gets 32 city. 40 + highway

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Infinite-Low4662@reddit

An older accord, civic, camry or corolla. They'll be high mileage but the cars were built to last back then and didnt have excessive electronics.

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HydroWrench@reddit

2nd gen Honda fit checking in. I've been able to consistently repeat 38-40mpg over the last year and a half. It's hard to beat getting that kind of mileage on a 10gal fuel tank.

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yuiiooop@reddit

Prius or even a chevy bolt (volt? whichever one was the hybrid)

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funcentric@reddit

You'll have to do the math to compare the cost of the car with the cost of gas over the mileage. If you spend more on the car, then you have fewer miles to drive vs less on a car and more miles to drive. Do know that the cost of the car if you finance does have interest. Whereas gas doesn't have interest. Something to consider.

Back in the day, I drove about 90mi a day and that was about $250 in gas per month. My budget for a car was $650/month. So after gas + insurance and some money for maintenance, the budget for actual car payments was about $200.

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FishTaco2005@reddit

The Flintstones car doesn't use any gas at all.

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Timely_Chicken_8789@reddit

Air/fuel mixtures haven’t changed. The smaller the engine the better the mileage. You need to decide how much power you need to accomplish your tasks. All the tech innovation and mileage claims are bullshit. Of course a hybrid extends mileage, but all-in-all it’s hard to beat a Japanese 4 cylinder with a standard trans (if you can find one). A small diesel is even better but the price of diesel these days may negate any savings.

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