Fuel economy, ugh. It’s the most unsexy of all the car-number-things to care about, but since miles per gallon is really dollars per mile, we generally care a lot – especially when it comes to a daily driver. Thankfully, the government is pretty good about enforcing legislation that ensures manufacturers don’t give us numbers that are overly optimistic, and with a couple of miles wiggle-room per gallon depending on your lead or helium foot, most cars tend to deliver the efficiency claimed on the window sticker.
However, some cars may deliver significantly different results than the expected mpg numbers, if only based on the sample-of-one survey data generated by you or I and our individual test examples. Hopefully any discrepancies you’ve experienced were on the greater efficiency side of the fuel gauge, but these things can very much go either way.
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As for me, the car that surprised me the most, and pleasantly, was my Mustang GT. It’s the one genuinely high-performance car I’ve owned, which I purchased new in 2012 when the lure of the then-new Coyote V8 and its 412 horsepower (not to mention X-Plan pricing via my employer at the time) proved too much to resist. The official EPA fuel economy numbers were 17 city, 26 highway, and 20 mpg combined, but I was surprised to discover the GT could manage darn near 30mpg when my travels called for a long stretch of flat and straight driving across Texas, perhaps with a tailwind. As for my daily commute, well, I wasn’t exactly easy on the gas and so the Mustang wasn’t either, and I was happy if I got 15 miles out of a gallon. But hey, that was on me.
When it comes to gas guzzlers, I’d have to say the Jeep J10 Thriftside I drove in high school was probably the most surprisingly thirsty. Not that I (or my Dad, to whom it belonged) expected it to be some kind of economy machine, but the mere nine or ten miles its AMC 258ci inline-six managed to eke out of a gallon of gas seemed super low. I’m sure the truck’s short gearing (it sure felt short, anyway) and the extra rotating mass of the 4X4 system adding to the oomph required for each acceleration took a toll, and let’s not get started on aerodynamics, but man, that truck liked to drink.
Now it’s your turn: what car or truck have you owned that got way better (or worse) fuel economy than it should have?
Two cars for me impressed me.
The first was a 2007 Lincoln Town Car. A friend told me how much better mpg they got using non-ethanol gas, and I usually averages about 22 mpg out of it doing highway/interstate driving. One day I decided to give in before a trip to Mooresville, Indiana, from middle Tennessee on the Kentucky border. Driving it with caution, and maintaining strictly 5 mph above the speed limit and doing no more than half throttle when accelerating, I managed to get its fuel mileage read-out to report 29.6 mpg at one point on the interstate, with it dropping down to about 28.4 mpg when I got into town and arrived at my destination.
The second is a 2003 Chevrolet Tracker, 4×4 4 door with the automatic. I had one of those Verizon vehicle things I decided to give a try. On the interstate, I consistently got 26 mpg, with one day hitting either 28 or 30 mpg going from the same point in middle Tennessee to Knoxville.
The one that has disappointed me in fuel economy is my 2016 Mazda 3 I Touring hatchback, with the 2.0L 4 cylinder and auto.. Love the car mostly, but I can almost never get it to get above 32 mpg on the readout with almost exclusively highway driving, even though it’s supposed to get closer to 40 mpg. Even going gentle on it. I can reset it, get on the interstate straight from a gas station, and not exceed 75 and the best I’ve -ever- seen is 34. It’s the only vehicle I’ve ever had that refused to exceed its rating.
The car that surprised me at how good it’s fuel economy was my ’93 Chevy Caprice. With it’s 5.0l V8 and low gearing it would average like 28 mpg at 60 mph.Obviously acceleration and in town mileage wasn’t impressive, but it was still surprising out of a big boat of a car.
The worst was my ’93 Dodge Intrepid. You’d think a sleek, aerodynamic car with a modern (for the times) 3.3l V6 would have been good, but no, it often averaged around 17mpg. There was something seriously wrong with it, stomping the throttle would make it look like a diesel with all the black smoke coming out the back.But I bought it for $600 at one of the lowest points in my life so I just made do until I started getting back onto my feet.
My ’98 Ford Ranger regular cab step-side was the worst. I couldn’t understand how something with a 4 cylinder, a 5-speed, room for two, and a tiny fiberglass box only ever managed to eek out 16 to 18 mpg. Even after tuning it up – new plugs, wires, and a good throttle-body cleaning along with driving like an uncracked egg rested on the pedal, the best I ever squeezed out of a tank was 24.
On the other end of the spectrum were some of the GM products I had. My ’93 Buick Park Ave Ultra normally returned high 20’s from it’s supercharged 3.8 and usually did between 31 and 32 on road trips. Coming back from South Dakota a few years ago, I ended up getting 28.5 in my ’94 Fleetwood by taking it easy and staying under 70.
And I don’t know how she did it, but my wife could routinely hit 29mpg in our ’98 Eldorado when she used it for commuting. My best in that car was 26.5, which weirdly enough wasn’t much worse than the 27 or 28 either of us were lucky to hit in my wife’s 95 Ford Escort.
My two most recent automotive purchases fall into the two extremes.
The 2015 Mazda 3 I bought as a commuter car gets surprisingly good MPGs considering how I drive it. On a normal tank I’ll get 32-34 MPG which includes a lot of in town driving, and I’ve gotten 41 on a full highway run. Definitely miss the power my former Mazdaspeed 3 had, but I bought the ’15 for economy.
The 2004 Toyota Sequoia I bought as a fun/hauling vehicle gets pretty abysmal fuel economy. Rated for 17 MPG highway but the best calculated I’ve ever gotten is 15. Then I lifted it and put on taller (but not wider!) tires so I’ve stopped paying attention. I only ever drive this when doing things like going camping, off roading, towing my race car or a utility trailer, etc. so it’s not a huge concern. I’m always amazed when I see people driving them around as commuter vehicles.
Hah, I just posted that I have the exact opposite problem with my 2016 Mazda 3. I go easy on it and can’t get above 34 mpg with nearly pure highway driving. Still love the car though and it’s the best gas mileage I’ve gotten out of any car I’ve owned.
My ’96 Thunderbird 4.6 V8 got 25 mpg on the superslab. That thing only pulled 2000 rpm at about 75 mph. Just loafed along barley off idle with all the passing power one could ever need.
The worst was the 2 bbl 351W ’78 LTD II I owned in high school. 8 mpg regularly.
My 2003 GMC Envoy. 4200 I6. 2wd mostly, but 4wd available when needed.
Computer shows between 10.6 and 11.1 mpg. I fill the tank and the computer shows approximately 180 to 190 miles until empty.
And you thought range anxiety was just for EV owners.
Back in the ’80s, I had a ’71 Oldsmobile 98 with the 455 Rocket. I drove it like a teenager and I remember single-digit mpg numbers.
This tracks with the Trailblazer my in-laws owned and my wife drove frequently back around ’07 or so. It was absolutely awful on gas, and would frequently catch us off guard with how quickly we’d have to refuel. It’s no wonder GM couldn’t give these cars away leading up to and after the ’08 crash.
My Prius v seems to live up to expectations…EPA rated 44 city/40 highway, and I’ll be damned that in the middle of summer, I will sometimes hit that 44 even on the highway. 40-44 is typical for most of the warmer months.
Winter blend generally keeps me in the 37-40 range though.
My record low was 32 in a cold winter week when I had a 10-minute city commute to work. Just barely enough time for it to get up to a good temperature inside before being shut off to do it all over again in the late afternoon.
My old Econoline-150 with the 4.6l…well, in the hilly area I grew up on, 10-12 was typical, but once I lived in flatter areas and did more highway driving, setting the cruise at 67 could get a solid 17-18 mpg.
It’s a number that sucks compared to many vehicles, but when I look at a lot of vehicles getting worse fuel economy than that, I think, “I’m doing better than you, in this!”
(For example, my best friend sometimes got worse fuel economy than that in a Jeep Patriot.) Or just some big SUVs where I’d think “I can carry so much more than you and I’m still getting similar or better fuel economy!”
Course, that was a ’97 Econoline that I got rid of 5 years ago now. Maybe some of the big SUVs have gotten just marginally more efficient enough to make up the difference. I wouldn’t know.
Toyota hybrids are amazing. I still regularly get 37-41 mpg in my 2014 Camry hybrid.
So for some reason I get tons of satisfaction out of hypermiling. I get to drive lots of different cars and trucks home, so it’s almost like getting to know what each vehicle likes and doesn’t like in the quest for maximum efficiency.
Some pickup trucks, when driven correctly, can achieve absolutely incredible mileage, and this is largely related to keeping multi-displacement systems in 4cyl mode (because of course) and staying at or below the posted speed limits. On my commute home from the lot I have a mix of 50% 55mph 2 lane and 50% hilly 45 mph backroads, 30 miles home, and 30 miles back to work. So here’s a list of highlights in order of least-to-most impressive:
Honda CRV hybrid: 38 mpg
Jeep Wrangler 4XE: 30 miles, all electric (rated for 21)
Ram 2500 4×4 6.4l Gas- 18 mpg
Ram 1500 4×4 5.7 Hemi: 25 mpg
Jeep gladiator diesel: 28 mpg
Ford F-150 4×4 2.7: 28 mpg
GMC Sierra AT4 6.2l: 24mpg (!)
Worst offenders? (Despite my best efforts)
2020 Toyota Tacoma: 19mpg
2019 Dodge Caravan: 22mpg
2022 Chevy Silverado 2.7 4 cylinder: 21 mpg
If you’re still with me, yes, a half ton GM truck with a 6.2l v8 can be better on fuel than the 4cyl version. That was mind blowing to me.
My 5.3L/8 speed Silverado gets better MPG than my previous Colorado.
Worst: 2001 Honda S2000 w/ 6 speed manual – Chugged both gas and motor oil at an alarming rate when you drove it hard. It got so bad that I stopped changing my oil and just topped it off every week.
2nd worst: 2003 Miata w/ 6 speed manual – Averaged 20 mpg on the highway. I always assumed that it was because at 75 mph the engine was spinning at 3800 rpm in 6th gear. I later learned that my poor mpg was most likely related to the MAP line being kinked which caused the engine to run rich. Which then destroyed my catalytic converter. Oops. A taller top gear would have certainly helped though.
Unimpressive: 2004 Camry w/ 4 speed auto – 24 mpg on the highway, which always felt middling for a front wheel drive mid-sized sedan with 157 hp. The 4 speed auto made it worse than it needed to be.
Good but not amazing: 2022 Camry Hybrid (current car) – Best tank of gas I’ve ever gotten was 41 mpg, and on average I get 39. It’s very consistently in the high 30’s regardless of whether I’m doing city or highway driving which is nice, but that’s somewhat overshadowed by the fact that it is EPA rated for 44 city 47 highway. Admittedly I’m a bit of a lead foot, but even when I take it easy it never hits the EPA numbers.
Most impressive: 2013 Ford Focus w/ 5 speed manual: My first car, and I regularly got 35 mpg even though I was almost constantly hauling ass in that car. That 2 liter punched above its weight (160 hp stock) and was responsive to bolt-ons in a way that belied its economy-car roots. It’s a shame that the 6 speed DCT in these cars gave this generation of Focus a bad name. The 5 speed manuals were great.
My 21 Bronco 2 door manual has been great. I consistently average 20+MPG (when I say great, I mean for something with the aerodynamics of a shed). I think the advertised MPG is something like 18 MPG. My ND Miata is also great on fuel. On one of my road trips I managed to average 50MPG on a tank of just cruising. Even when I’m hammering it on the track, I still wind up getting way better fuel economy than I should.
While the NA/NB/NC Miatas are unimpressive, the NDs seem to do better.
(all highway miles speeds 77-80ish)
My NC1 would get mid 20s mixed and regularly 33 on the highway. A rental ND2 RF got 31avg driving around Tahoe and hit 36 on the interstate. Impressive to say the least.
Well, not owned, but I had three different EcoBoost Escapes assigned to me as company cars in a prior role, between the three of them, I put on about 110,000 miles over 5ish years, and never, ever, got better than 25mpg from a tank. For a very small, FWD crossover, with a small turbo 4-cylinder, auto start/stop, low roll resistance tires, and a 6-speed automatic
In the meantime, I owned two Lincoln Town Cars that both averaged 20-22mpg per tank, which, honestly, for an archaic body on frame RWD platform with 6 seats, a V8, and only 4 speeds, it just seems like the gap between the two should have been a lot more significant than that, they’re like two full size classes apart. Not impressive at all.
Also, two of them needed new turbos before 90,000 miles, one of them kept eating alternators, and two had large sections of paint bubble and peel off. Plus, one of them had a poorly fitted piece of trim on the dash that was really distracting once you noticed it, it was like the A-pillar garnish molding that was supposed to be tucked under the dash pad was instead sitting on top, with the raw plastic tab end exposed.
Pleasantly surprising was a Pentastar Challenger I had for awhile, drove it back and forth to Florida twice (2500 miles round trip), and, with the cruise control on and nonstop Interstate driving for hours and hours, I actually hit a 30mpg average for the tanks on the trips down and back, which seemed pretty good for a big, heavy, full-size coupe with an engine that, while not big, still wasn’t really small, either.
Good to know on the Escape being of questionable build quality-my wife and I had the Euro version (Kuga) as our rental on a recent trip to Norway with the PHEV drivetrain and we both liked it. Decent to drive and got somewhere around 50-60 mpg on Norwegian secondary roads with 80-90 kmh speed limits, were thinking if they came out with an awd version it might be a good car for her daily.
Though to your point the steering wheel heater didn’t work and this was on a car with only 30K miles…
Same answer for better and worse: my old 2000 F250 V10. On the worse end, it got 10mpg completely empty. On the better end, load it up to the payload limit of 3950lbs with gravel or broken concrete and what do you get? 10mpg. Put 2000lbs of building material in the bed and another 6000lbs in a cargo trailer behind it? 10mpg. Tow a car 5000lb vehicle on a flatbed? 10mpg. Do all of the above up and down mountain passes? 10mpg.
The 460 V8 it replaced was basically the same. There’s bolt-ons that claim to boost that by 10-20% but I have my doubts.
True. My dad’s ’78 F250 with the 460 was similar, but at 7-8mpg.
Knew someone who did the same w a chevy, he lowered a 2wd to the ground with maximum highway tires. Pulling a trailer w iffy income needed the mpg.
Ditto for the 86 Suburban 2500 with the 454 our family owned when I was a kid. 5 mpg in the city, 8 on the highway. With or without a 10k lb trailer.
Ha, I remember my dad always said this about his ’95 Chevy Suburban with the 5.7 L (350 cid), seemed no matter what you did you got about 12 mpg. Later, in college, I bought a 2 door 96 Yukon with the same drivetrain and found this consistency to be true, but in case with a leadfoot and big offroad tires it held steady at about 10.5 mpg.
My ’97 Tahoe wasn’t that consistent, as it would vary between 11mpg city and 15mpg highway. Then again, I think I got the better deal here, as I mostly used it on the highway.
’97 was the port injected Vortec 5.7 right? vs mine was the last year for the TBI injection, so not surprised the ’97 did better on the highway though I would’ve expected a tad better city…
Mine would creep up to 11 or 12 on county highways if I was gentle on the gas.
Yeah, it had that silly spider injection nonsense. It was a decent power increase over the TBI, but every time I had to fight that stupid injector setup (like replacing the fuel pressure regulator or swapping out intake gaskets because of Dexcool) it made me miss the TBI 350 my ’91 K2500 had.
Most impressive: ’07 RAV4 V6 AWD…24 regularly (same as my ’06 CR-V AWD with 2 fewer cylinders, 1.1L less displacement and 100 fewer HP)
Least Impressive: ’14 JSW TDI manual… getting 38 max on highway driving.
Adding a few TIL: My Fit experience and Tires and Maintenance info
I purchased an ’07 Fit (Sport Automatic) new in ’06 and there are a few items to note regarding MPG that I experienced with almost 150k miles in 10 years. It was rated at 31/37. I drove it at 8/10s most the time regarding acceleration and do redline shifts (6500rpm via those little paddles) often. It was the epitome of slow cars fast and maintaining momentum.
Tires (average hwy @ 77-83mph) –
OEM: 38 (max 43 w/ strong tailwind) 42k miles
GY Eagle GTs: 32/33 (max 36) 35k miles
Michelin Pilot Sport 4s A/S (x2): 36/37 (max 40) 1st set 48k; 2nd set probably about the same – Mom sold it after she drove it on that set for ~25k, w/o changing afaik.
OEM were Eco tires and were terrible in winter weather (as expected). The Eagle GTs were way better in winter weather, but sucked overall with terrible wear. The Michelin’s were fantastic overall (why I double downed and it’s my 2nd favorite A/S recommendation after Conti XC DWS 06s) and covered my needs given no storage or money for a winter set.
City driving was more in the 27-31 range regardless. Lowest was 24 in the below freezing winter on the Eagle GTs.
Fresh Oil Change: As this was my 1st new car (and only so far) I followed the maintenance minder. I was so proud I’d have the dealership stamp and fill in the maintenance manual. Anyway, Honda’s interval was around ~7.5k for 5-15% ‘life’ left. After fresh oil changes I’d get max mpg with a slow decline by a 2-3mpg loss right before changes.
Only thing that made the Fit drop into the low 20s for mixed was the valve lash adjustment suggested at 105k interval (I was at 108k, but oil changes would’ve had this done 4k later given my cycle). Chugging idle and bad mpg had me take it in and diagnosed as this PMI that was passed due but not necessarily my fault given on their system intervals. They tighten up and prevent the e-VTEC portion from functioning properly. Loosened up and ran like normal.
Adding, My NC Miata did better on DWS06s by 1ish mpg vs the 10yo original runflats, but that was somewhat expected given they were definitely in the <2mm but not bald range.
I definitely know that most Trucks and SUVs are typically under their expectated mpg, but I always see drag as a big culprit of this. But, tires do matter and could be a big reason for meeting EPA estimates on any given vehicle. Many of us enthusiasts give up eco for grip in this choice, but something to think about if you are dissatisfied with a vehicle's performance.
Jensen FF, stoopid car, 8 mpg, against an advertised 14. Fast? 1 mpg!
The 2010 Ford Focus was rated 24 MPG city, 34 highway. Mine consistently averaged 28 city, 31 highway all twelve years I owned it. Better than expected in one regard, worse in the other. Shrug
On the other hand, my 1972 Oldsmobile Delta 88 is a solid 10.5 MPG period. Nothing I do has any effect on that number. City driving, highway, easy going, flogging it at every opportunity– Does. Not. Matter.
Get thyself a Ford Ecoboost and discover that the eco and the boost do not go together.
The 2011 F150 with the 3.5L EcoBoost I had a decade ago was great on gas…when out of boost. Loading up the bed or hooking up my trailer resulted in fuel mileage that was pretty disappointing.
My 18 F150 4×4 gets 22 running 70 mph, but if you run a trip on 60 mph two lanes it’ll do 27 mpg avg. My 09 Mustang GT/CS on straight gas consistently 20 city 28 highway, it’ll drop down quite a bit depending on the ethanol content. The surprising one was years ago in a 68 Jeepster Commando with V6 automatic (back during 55 mph speed limits), did a trip to Northern Michigan and it averaged 20 mpg right at 55 mph.
My S2000 does a lot worse than i expected. I average like 19, and it burns oil. Not very great.
My ‘84 Fiero was abysmal, but maybe because I was always trying to drive it as fast as it looked.
My current e28 BMW project has shockingly bad mpg-admittedly I only drive it for fun but I’ve probably averaged around 11 mpg around town which is wayyyy worse than the e30 I used to have. It does have the last version of the m30 swapped in and a dyno tune thanks to the previous owner so that may be part of it, but even looking at what an e34 was rated at was only a fairly appalling for a 3.4 liter inline 6 21 mpg on the highway-which I have seen on the few short trips I’ve taken with it.
Of course that doesn’t top my worse ever which was the ’73 K5 Blazer I used to offroad in college with a 3″ lift and 33″ tires that got 6+ mpg when I got it. Cleaning and re-jetting the carb got it up to as high as 10 on the highway which flet like a major win. Of course cost per mile was much lower than the bmw since gas was less than $2/gallon back then…
2001 PT Cruiser: about 22 mg combined. 2015 Charger Scat Pack: same as the PT. Huh?
Just so no one else wastes time looking up 40 rods(real name) to the hogshead(real name)
0.00198 mpg.
https://www.physics.rutgers.edu/analyze/wiki/math1.html
And that’s the way I likes it.
2012 Golf tdi, 6mt: EPA 33 mpg. I did 76k miles in 5 years and averaged 45.15 mpg.
2017 Golf R, 6mt: EPA 25 mpg combined. I have gone 111k in 8 years at an average of 30.83 mpg. However, it is rated for 31 mpg highway, so I’m pretty much right on that mark.
After I graduated my HS car died and I couldn’t afford to fix it again so a coworker sold me a 13yo Datsun 200SX for $500. That thing got almost 40mpg which it had no right doing with the way I drove it. I always chalked this up to the 2 plugs per cyl setup Datsun had back then.
Better:
– 2011 Golf TDI: it seemed a little miraculous before we found out about VW. Such a cheerful, eager to please car, and always just a little more efficient than you’d expect.
Worse:
– 2015 Mazda 3 – decent car, but never quite as efficient as you’d expect. Not quite enough vroom vroom for how much gas it used, always stopping to fill up the tank a couple days earlier than I’d think it should
Yeh I had a 2004 Mazda 3, great car but always seemed thirstier than it should’ve been. Never saw higher than 28 mpg on a road trip and as low as 18 commuting.