Fuel efficient Vehicles??? Is there such a thing??? LOL!! Opinions please!

[jacks'thunder]

Could you all please give me your opinions on the most fuel efficient vehicle you own? Or one you'd like to own because it would be great on gas? Tell me about you, friends, family, neighbors, anyone you know that loves their little car!

My husband may have to switch jobs and his new travel mileage will be over 40 miles one way

He was kinda looking at that new Dodge Dart that will be out soon. You can get it for around 15k and they get 40 miles per gallon. I also liked the Ford Fiesta for around 11 and it gets 38 mpg. Chevy had a nice one to but I'm not sure what it is..... Sonic??? maybe... I can't remember off hand.

Personally we are big truck people but that distance, we have to do something thats going to save us alittle!

Thank you all in advance!

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

I have a 99 Contour and it gets 35mpg

Even the new Focuses are some of the best for milage and they are low 30's They are rated for higher, but rarely do they hit their ratings

I don't know of any of the subsubcompacts you mentioned. We looked at the Focus, Jetta (which is what he ended up getting), and the Chevy Curze. The diesel Jetta gets 50+ mpg on highways.... might be a good option, and its "only" $23k. His Jetta is the gas, and it gets low 30's, high 20's.

 

[Jill]

Not sure. An answer to the cost of fuel for us is to Drill Baby, Drill.

If you take the cost of a hybrid car and do some division to see how long it will take you to make up the cost of buying one (if you didn't already need to replace your vehicle) by the anticipated fuel savings, you may find it takes a decade plus to experience a savings and that doesn't even factor in how ridiculously iimpractical some of those cars are in real life.

Also, tree huggers (this is for other readers) remember these hybrids run on COAL, since that's where most of our electricity comes from. Factor that fact into your opinion on the USA Coal operations (which are actually quite clean).

As for me, I plan to keep driving SUV's and trucks

I don't drive anything that fits into the fuel efficient catagory, other than maybe Destiny, Derby, Lou and Eclipse

 

[sfmini]

I can't take on another loan and drive a pickup 25 miles each way. Because a company across from where I work is poisoning me and others, I am trying to get moved to another location which will extend my drive to 32 miles each way and I will have to pay to park. That is gonna hurt, Motor cycle is tempting but so dangerous and a "safer" one as expensive as a car. Hoping to find a seat on a van pool.

 

[Sonya]

I have a 4 cyl chevy hhr which is good on gas, about 30 mpg, it's also a flex vehicle so it can run on 85 octane, but expect your milege to go down significantly so it's not worth it to put in the 85... it is not a compact car like the ones you mentioned...it is more like a crossover or a stationwagon...it's 4 doors with a hatch like an suv, I am always amazed at all the crap I can put in it, I drive 56 miles one way to work. But to ask me my honest opinion on it....I hate it...the windows are so small and there are tons of blind spots. It's zippy for a 4 cyl though. It rides rough and the seats are hard as rocks...it is inexpensive though...you can get one about a year old with less than 20k miles for around 11-12k. I never buy brand new except for hubby's truck, we always buy a year old disposable vehicles because we drive so far (hubby's drive is 30 miles one way he has a saturn vue), the savings are amazing if you go with a year old. If you want a zippy inexpensive 4 cyl with good gas milege and lots of room I would recommend it, however you will hate the blind spots and you better put a cushion under your but.

 

[sfmini]

my truck is flex also but I read that unless the fuel is 1/2 the price of gas it won't pay to use it.

it is a six cyl but will shut off 2 cyl when it doesn't need them. Gets about 20 which isn't bad.

 

[jacks'thunder]

I have a 4 cyl chevy hhr which is good on gas, about 30 mpg, it's also a flex vehicle so it can run on 85 octane, but expect your milege to go down significantly so it's not worth it to put in the 85... it is not a compact car like the ones you mentioned...it is more like a crossover or a stationwagon...it's 4 doors with a hatch like an suv, I am always amazed at all the crap I can put in it, I drive 56 miles one way to work. But to ask me my honest opinion on it....I hate it...the windows are so small and there are tons of blind spots. It's zippy for a 4 cyl though. It rides rough and the seats are hard as rocks...it is inexpensive though...you can get one about a year old with less than 20k miles for around 11-12k. I never buy brand new except for hubby's truck, we always buy a year old disposable vehicles because we drive so far (hubby's drive is 30 miles one way he has a saturn vue), the savings are amazing if you go with a year old. If you want a zippy inexpensive 4 cyl with good gas milege and lots of room I would recommend it, however you will hate the blind spots and you better put a cushion under your but.

Sonya, I'm so glad you saw this and replied! I know you guys drive sooo far and have had a few vehicles. So thanks! I'll let Scott know year old is the way to go and about the HHR. He's tall so he might be ok with it.

I like that Jetta diesel! I guy down our road just bought one! It's cute and sounds good! I'll let hubby know about this too!

We don't really want to get a loan for a car either but driving our OLDER vehicles is not an option right now. His is a 99 V10 3/4 ton truck and mine is a 95. I think he'd kill them with that trip 5 days a week. Ideally we'd like to pay small cash for something. But how do you know whats reliable? That's why I'm asking for input

If it was my choice and price or gas was not a factor, I'd get one of those new GMC Suburbans!! BEAUTIFUL!!!!! But gosh they are expensive!!! I cant imagine buying a car that's worth as much as a house!! I know in my small town I can buy a house for that price range!!!!! LOL!

We'll wait and see!! I'm praying that the everything will fall into place(including a car) if this is meant to be!

 

[sfmini]

I LOVED my Jetta turbo diesel. Especially when someone would tailgate me. Downshift that puppy from 5th to 4th and blat out black smoke and watch that tailgater go right back where it belongs!

 

[jacks'thunder]

I LOVED my Jetta turbo diesel. Especially when someone would tailgate me. Downshift that puppy from 5th to 4th and blat out black smoke and watch that tailgater go right back where it belongs!

Hahahaha

 

[Carolyn R]

As a general rule of thumb any standard transmission vehicle will be better on gas. I hear about fuel efficiency of 30-40 mpg, and I chuckle, many stick shifts have been getting that for the last 15-20 years (driving a true stick shift is a dying art, LOL).

The vehicles we have now are a 2011 dodge ram diesel club cab and my 2001 Nissan x-terra, the xterra gets about 22mpg in town and 28+ on the highway, both stick shift. Hubby car pools thank goodness, his drive is about 45miles one way, driving his truck on a daily basis would kill us in diesel.

My cousin has cash to burn, he has a VW jet that is diesel, he gets 50-60mpg on the highway, he also has some type of super fuel efficient filters and mechanisms he has hooked to it too. It is hard to justify spending the extra cash for a diesel vehicle though.

 

[sfmini]

Another option if you can get a good source is get a diesel vehicle and convert it to run on cooking oil. One of the guys at work did that, we swear the exhaust smells like french fries just to yank his chain, but he will come out to his car and find jugs of used frying oil next to his Jetta. Also keep in mind those Jettas go and go and go and go.

 

[Magic]

My husband has to drive 75 miles one-way to work. He found an old (maybe 8 years old?) Chevy Malibu for $1500 a few years ago and it gets over 30 miles to the gallon. He didn't want to be putting all of those miles on his beloved diesel truck. This car has only needed normal maintenance, runs great, and the insurance and taxes are minimal.

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

I have a 99 Ford Escort and that guy gets between 33-37 MPG. Not bad for a little car with 205000+ miles on it!

 

[TangoMango]

Hubby has a 97 mustang, V6 auto and gets 35 on the highway. And this car has over 300,000 miles on it.

 

[vickie gee]

I went vehicle shopping today. I have a 2006 Ford Explorer/Eddie Bauer edition. I purchased it 3 years ago from my brother who buys his wife a new one every two years so I got a pretty sweet deal on it. But we decided we were ready to sell it or trade it. After spending $1200 to replace the radiator last year I decided to purchase an extended warranty so in addition to my $219 month payment I found myself paying an additional $115 a month for the extended warranty. I have just been concerned about the vehicle having something bad go wrong plus with my drive 26 miles both ways to and from work has drove the mileage up to 131,000. It gets around 20mpg which is decent but I decided since it was about to need new tires maybe we should trade sooner than later. I knew I wanted a Nissan. We already have a 2000 Frontier that I bought new and it is now my husband's vehicle. Not the luxury of my Explorer but I am wanting dependability and more economical gas mileage. I have been admiring the quad cabs. So today this is what happened.

Went to the Ford place. I get cards from them all the time telling me they need to purchase my vehicle for their inventory. The price they offered me was ridiculous. Still, I asked them to give me a copy of the offer. They told me they "generally" did not give out a copy. I smiled and told them that I would generally expect one and told them to have a nice day.

I went to the Nissan place and drove a new quad cab Frontier that was all trimmed out. Don't want gray or black. Really don't want white since that is what our older one is. I have always wanted a red vehicle and have never owned one. While I was sitting at the salesman's desk he went to run some numbers. There was a group of salesmen sitting at a table on the showroom floor. There was a small car on display between me and them. They were sitting around cutting up and I heard one of them say a curse word. He was showing out...it was the really bad four letter word. And, no doubt the receptionist heard him as well. My salesman (an older black gentleman) came back and gave me the offer. It was too high on the sales price and too low on the trade in allowance. I told the salesman that I would take the offer home for me and my husband to discuss but that I really would like to meet his boss. I told the boss that the saleman was a very nice man but right now my opinion of a dealership that allows an employee to use filthy language was not likely to get my business and how unprofessional that behavior was. Before I left they offered me their VIP pricing and many regrets and apologies. Anyway, I left there very discouraged but with an offer to consider. The thought of those payments had my stomach in knots and I was disgusted over potty mouth.

I then drove over to a dealership that only has used vehicles. I told the salesman that I had hopes of finding a used Nissan Frontier with 4 doors and low mileage but that I could see that he had no small pickups and no Nissans whatsoever. He told me that just two days ago somebody had come there trying to sell one and that he thought the price was maybe more than what his boss would pay and that his boss was not there at the time to get permission from. He said later his boss told him he likely would have ok'd it and that he still had the phone number and would be in touch. He told me that the pickup only had 34,000 miles, was a 2003 (unbelievable), and had always been kept in the garage. I am wondering why did the lady who tried to sell it to him just not run an ad? This type vehicle is in demand. As I was driving home I could only think about how I had been praying that my search would pan out and that I not get all stressed. When I got home my phone was ringing. IT WAS THE SALESMAN AND HE HAD ALREADY CONTACTED THE PERSON AND PURCHASED THE VEHICLE. He told get back up here and bring your husband. It was already 6:30 and I told him I had to feed horses. He said he would wait. So we went and OH MY GOODNESS. This little Frontier is shiny, RED, has bedliner, toolbox, rack on top, rails down sides, rain guards, the total works, and looks like it has never been sat in. He said the lady actually kept a plastic seat cover on it. We worked out a deal and the sweetest part of the deal is that since I did not cave into buying new I will not be getting stuck with payments for five years.

 

[jacks'thunder]

Vickie, thats awsome!

I don't think it could have been better for you! It was perfect!

I know the right thing will come along for us just as it did for you. Thats pary of my prayers. God knows where we stand in the money department so I have to leave it in his hands. Thats the only way we can do this. Thank you for the great story!

 

[vickie gee]

Vickie, thats awsome!

I don't think it could have been better for you! It was perfect!

I know the right thing will come along for us just as it did for you. Thats pary of my prayers. God knows where we stand in the money department so I have to leave it in his hands. Thats the only way we can do this. Thank you for the great story!

You are welcome. And it Will come for you. Pray like Jabez did... "Lord bless me indeed". Also this morning in our preacher's sermon he brought up that you are going to be in situations where somebody is using foul language and then other people are having to decide whether or not to tell them how offensive they are or just let it go. De ja vu!

 

[Marty]

My husband drives Michael's Ford Escort every now and then. Its a 4 cylinder and it will run forever on ten bucks of gas.

My other son Daniel apparently is running a Dodge Neon breeding farm........He started with one in high school, then it got out of control and they have offspring behind my garage now. This is an example of very irresponsible breeding. Those Neon things are incredible on gas too. 4 cly. He buys them up and does new engines and body kits on them etc and flips them for a hobby. He's selling "mine" actually as is because he ran out of time to upgrade it for me so I'll sell it to you cheap, not even halter broke. Geesh....Just come on over and look behind my garage and pick one out and drive it far, far, away before I start charging him board..

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

They USED to do that... now, some autos are MORE efficient than sticks. I was shocked when I heard that from multiple sources.

Coal isn't as efficient and clean as you think... especially when you live in one of the main states producing it.

Small cars are not impractical. I've been driving one for years and the only thing I haven't been able to do is haul farm supplies, and that's why I have a truck to do that. But for main driving, can't beat a small efficient car! I actually save money purchasing an older efficient car, registering/insuring it, than I would spend driving the truck year round. Easier to park, easier to get around, only problem is the idiots who drive the trucks year round and think gas is something you need to purchase daily.

Take a look at the Focus, they are getting in the low 30's auto or stick, and are quite comfy and fun to drive.

VW Jetta diesel is only $3k more than teh gas version, compared to 10k for a truck. Its about $25k, and comes fully loaded as a standard configuration. Fancy gas Jetta is $22.

 

[Shari]

My husband has a 2000 Toyota Echo (over 250,000 miles on it) and he is still getting between 40 and 43mpg... and this is a pure gas engine.

We have been sort'a shopping around for future replacement for his Echo, that is super reliable, gas powered and gets the mileage the Echo gets. Haven't yet found one.

As for farm stuff.. we can put 5 bales of compressed hay in the trunk, or 4 bags of shavings and a couple bags of feed. You would be surprised on how much Farm stuff, we have stuffed into that little car.