Whats a good car to buy for fuel mileage?

[Skydiver]

My daily driver is a 96 Regal 3. 8 liter. Averages 30 mpg with 145k. Very comfortable and has plenty of power. My lowest tank was 23 mpg. That was a weekend of running fire and rescue calls. Had it about floored half the time. The other half was returning home after the call.

 

[MEby]

Get a VW Jetta TDI. Worst mileage to date: 42 mpg. Best mileage to date: 52 mpg

 

[MEby]

rvaughn801











My Dad bought a VW Passat TDI for the 45 MPG and to keep the miles of his Suburban.



This is a very sweet running, nice handling little car.



Now he drives 45 miles each way to get it serviced at the dealer ($$$). The tires cost as much or more than my truck tires. The oil changes are $90. Dad asked about running some bio to save his IP, and I told him his PD motor has four (4) injector pumps. He said "Oh. "



I have never asked him, but I think now he considers it to be a "fun" car, not a "money saving car".

I don't have a Passat, but my tdi only costs me $30 for an oil change. (me doing the labor and using full synthetic. ) As far as tires go, I haven't driven any truck yet that had tires a cheap as my Jetta. (I have owned half, three quarter, and a one-ton dually trucks. )



I would much rather drive the truck though. :-laf

 

[BrianJ]

Surprised nobody has mentioned a Toyota Corolla yet. 3 years ago when diesel his $2 plus a gallon and I was commuting 70 miles a day I bought a '99 Corolla as a commuter car for $6k. I get 37mpg commuting with the Corolla vs appx. 17 with the CTD. Depending on the price of gas vs diesel the mimimum I saved during a given month was appx $125, and at todays price it is well over $200 less per month to drive the car. I don't know what RVaugn is smoking but I have never replaced tires on a car before at least 50-60,000 miles, at a cost of about 1/4 what truck tires cost. As far as insurance goes, that went up less than $20 per month (with full coverage), and one trick is to list your commuter car as your primary vehicle. The insurance on my truck dropped quite a bit by listing my Corolla as primary and CTD as recreational use. Other advantages - cost of all maintanence is far less for the Corolla (about 1/3 for an oil change) and I have about 35,000 less miles on my CTD than I would have at this stage otherwise. In the 3+ years I have owned the Corolla it has not been in the shop ONCE, nothing but routine mainenance (wish I could say the same about the CTD).



Now for the icing on the cake, the Corolla has a retail value now of about $5k, so it only dropped about $1k in the 3+ years I have owned it. So in real dollars it cost me about $26 a month to own this car, while saving anywhere from $125-$200 a month in fuel driving it. The reduced cost of maintenance pretty much covered the increased cost in insurance, and to state again, I have far less miles on my CTD and would be out of my powertrain warranty had I not put those commuting miles on the car.



My suggestion, a Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, or Nissan Sentra, which are far more reliabel than a domestic "commuter". A diesel is harder to overcome with the increased cost for a diesel powered car. Anything worth looking at when I bought the Corolla (i. e. diesel Jetta) was at least $10k, for maybe 5 or so better MPG, on average.

 

[JGoss]

I haven't had any luck finding a car yet. Seems like the fuel goes up and know no one wants to get rid of them? I am for sure going to get one though.

 

[PatrickHansen]

My other diesel is a Golf TDI. I get 55-59 mpg commuting to my job 30 miles from my home. Tires, which last 70-80,000 miles cost half of what my truck tires cost. I bought it new for $16,000 when diesel was $1. 36 and RUG was more. Only unexpected service was a faulty coolant temp sensor. 150,000 miles of driving pleasure. Just turned 167,000 on the Dodge and even more driving pleasure. I don't plan on ever changing another spark plug except in my Lawnboy.

 

[LRutigliano]

I must be doing something wrong.



I've been driving a POS 1986 Toyota Camry for the last 3+ yrs while the truck sat in the garage only to be used for towing our 5er.



I just sold it because I've been modding my truck and its just too much fun to drive now.



I averaged about 24mpg no matter how hard or how gentle I drove the Camry. I put 40k+ miles on the Camry but felt "inferior" most or all of the time I drove it. It was very invisible to cute gals...



I put front brake pads on it, 2 sets of tires, 2 tune-ups, 1 muffler, 1 thermostat and 1 alternator on it. I spent approx $600 for all of these items.



I paid $500 for the car and just sold it for $1500.



The insurance savings of $350/yr + the $1500 sales price will buy alot of diesel fuel...



Lets stop complaining about the cost of diesel fuel and enjoy the big bad Cummins trucks!!

 

[BrianJ]

I paid $500 for the car and just sold it for $1500... The insurance savings of $350/yr + the $1500 sales price will buy alot of diesel fuel...

Disregarding the $1500, because the car is worth something to sell any time, and only a factor at first... the $350 savings on insurance a year agains you a whopping 2. 5 tanks of diesel today, not exactly what I call alot...

 

[BrianJ]

I haven't had any luck finding a car yet. Seems like the fuel goes up and know no one wants to get rid of them? I am for sure going to get one though.

I have been asked several times if I want to sell my Corolla, but haven't been tempted yet. I don't drive currently near as much as I did when I bought the car, so it's crossed my mind now and then to sell, but it's just too handy to have the extra car, especially when I want to park downtown, and it still pays for itself.

 

[MMeier]

just remember diesel will be cheaper than gas in the summer when there is no demand for home heating oil,

Not so sure that will be true this year!

 

[HOBrian]

Two words... TATA Nano:-laf

 

[ENafziger]

I've got a Ford Festiva that is great! Drive it as hard as you want to, and it'll do 38 mpg. Drive it easy, and around 42 mpg. It's fun to drive, really quick to get around in, and pretty roomy.

I put a hitch on it and pull a 2500 lb trailer with it as well! I just delivered a set of Dana 60's from an old dodge with the Festiva, and it did great.

I gave $950 for the car, and have put 80,000 miles on it. I've changed the starter and cv axles, and it's going strong!

--Eric

 

[nickleinonen]

i will get another car for commuting sometime soon. i think i am gonna get one of them small hyundai's [accent?] less than $10k brand new, 5 year warranty and gets pretty good fuel economy. . keep it until the warranty is up and if it lasts longer than that, great. if not, toss it. .

do i want another vehicle. . not really, but if my truck goes down for some reason and i don't have another vehicle, i can't get to work. no work = no money. gotta spend a little to ensure i get paid

 

[Regcabguy]

Ford Focus.

The Ford Focus is another option. World car with ample room for me(6'3"). Great mileage with manual transmission. Ford's dealing.

 

[FordCummins]

Get a VW Jetta TDI. Worst mileage to date: 42 mpg. Best mileage to date: 52 mpg

x2. 2000 VW Jetta, 5spd. 45 in town, and 54 on the highway. Only paid 4k for the car.

 

[JKinney]

i will get another car for commuting sometime soon. i think i am gonna get one of them small hyundai's [accent?] less than $10k brand new, 5 year warranty and gets pretty good fuel economy. . keep it until the warranty is up and if it lasts longer than that, great. if not, toss it. .



do i want another vehicle. . not really, but if my truck goes down for some reason and i don't have another vehicle, i can't get to work. no work = no money. gotta spend a little to ensure i get paid

What are they selling them smart cars for? That coffin is not available here

 

[klenger]

Go to smart USA for details. About $15k.

 

[midlife crisis]

Well. I brought home a Creampuff to replace the wifes Explorer for the sake of saving fuel. An 06 Volvo S40 auto with only 20k miles.



Initial report- Its a tight, fun to drive, good looking car. She spent the weekend running errands (80 miles)and it consumed an 1/8 tank. The Explorer would have burned twice. . I will be tracking MPG. . as long as I can get her to write it down!.

Low 30's is per Volvo. . folks on forums claiming 34+. Guess we will see. Figure 32MPG @ 3. 20 a gal... Yippee!

If in fact my HS Math proves right, with her work (school) just around the corner- I figure 5 fillups annually.



I will miss the Explorer. 15 years, 137k miles, and never had to go back to the dealer's grubby hands. Still looks & runs as good as the first day.

God. . Explorer is 4 sale, Boat is 4 sale, Compact in the driveway,thinking about selling the Dodge & Camper.

Somebody tell me this is all just a bad dream. .

 

[okayred]

Tdi

JGoss



Here's the deal, buy a VW TDI. They have been on the top 10 most fuel efficient vehicle list for more than a decade. You can get a 91 Jetta TDI for about $5K.



The only reason they are no longer on the top 10 is because of the false EPA estimated MPG ratings of all the new hybrid cars.



Now, I am not saying the hybrid vehicle doesn't have its purpose... for someone who drives anywhere that it is flat, there is no wind, and the temperature is moderate - the hybrid is perfect. Oh, yeah don't forget that you can't trailer anything and can't put anything on the top of the cab for extra storage either (or your MPG will drop drastically).



I will only buy turbo diesel vehicles. The VW is plenty of car and just like the other posters have said - great MPG and you can squeeze some serious hp out of those little 1. 9L engines (in the mid 200hp range!) just by chipping and injectors. There are even some who have gone crazy and attempted to beat the legendary Cummins in the diesel drags (who are pushing 325hp!).



See TDIClub Forums - Powered by vBulletin for more info. Good luck finding a car.

 

[MMeier]

x2. 2000 VW Jetta, 5spd. 45 in town, and 54 on the highway. Only paid 4k for the car.

How'd you get one so cheap?