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bhtooefr · Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:03 am

In this day and age of ridiculous fuel prices, let's talk about our best fuel mileages. (Yes, I know, there was some discussion about this in the gas price thread)

My (family's) best is a 1991 Plymouth Sundance. 2.5L 4 cylinder gasoline. 3 speed auto transmission. 25 MPG highway (all we do is highway).

LicketySplit · Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:25 am

I get 26-27 in my 2004 Colorado pickup with the 5cyl...providing i drive at the speed limit :wink:

excession · Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:34 am

I get about 35mpg at 80mph in my mum's Punto 1.2l CVT... about 45mpg or more at 60

lex-ington · Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:37 am

I have a 2002 Corolla 5-speed and the most I have gotten is 840 kilometers (approx. 500 miles) on a full tank (45 liters/ 11 gallons).

Vrock · Mon Sep 05, 2005 9:25 am

I have a 1999 Chevy Malibu LS with the 3.1L V6....it's a guzzler. Get 19-21 around town, and about 25-27 on the highway. 'Course I drive like Elwood Blues, so that might have something to do with it.

"Our blessed lady of acceleration, don't fail us now!" :lol:

bhtooefr · Mon Sep 05, 2005 9:28 am

FWIW, that Sundance is NOT driven like a granny. 60-70 in a 55.

Vrock · Mon Sep 05, 2005 9:47 am

bhtooefr wrote:
FWIW, that Sundance is NOT driven like a granny. 60-70 in a 55.

You sure the Sundance has a 2.5L in it? I thought that car had the 1.8L. I know the Plymouth Acclaim/Dodge Spirit had the 2.5L standard.

bhtooefr · Mon Sep 05, 2005 9:49 am

Yes, I'm sure. It's been a while since the hood's been opened (it's been sitting in the driveway waiting on a tow truck to take it away to totally redo the front end), but IIRC, it said "2.5L" in very big print on the engine. And, I found the original sticker in the glovebox (saying it was $10,470 or something like that new - we got it for free) that said that it had the 2.5L engine.

And, the smallest engine available in the 1991 model is a 2.2L 4 cylinder. This one happens to have the "big" engine.

Corrado · Mon Sep 05, 2005 9:52 am

I have a 98 VW GTi VR6 with mild mods, I get around 28mpg on the highway with 87 octane. My 02 GTI 1.8T got 32-34mpg with 93 octane before it made 500hp. Now I get arund 19-22mpg if i stay out of boost.

Wintermane · Mon Sep 05, 2005 10:24 am

We have some sort of oldsmobile duno as I didnt get it. It gets 32 mpg which is pritty darn amazing for such a big car.

Both our cars now get around 30-32 mpg so we are doing ok for now...

Hance · Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:15 am

I have 2 cars and a truck

my wifes car is a 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix 3.8 V6 . If you drive it close to the speed limit it gets 29 mpg .

my truck is a 2005 Dodge Cummins Diesel . The mileage it gets really depends on speed . If i drove it around 60 mph it would get around 23 or 24 mpg . i normally drive it closer to 75 mph and get 21 mpg . dive it over 75 and it gets closer to 19 .

last and least is my 1979 Z28 camaro . it has lots of mods and makes alot of horsepower . it gets somewhere around 12 mpg if i drive it really careful . drive it like an ass ( which is pretty much anytime i am in it ) and it gets closer to 8 mpg

spiritwalker2222 · Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:21 am

Well, it sounds like I'm the only responsible one here. I've got a Pontiac Sunfire that gets 50mpg (I think low 40's with your smaller gallon) at 130Kph (~75mph?). I don't check the gas mileage in the city cause, how good of gas mileage do you get at a stop light.

bhtooefr · Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:46 am

Please note that the Sundance counts as a windup car (read: good gas mileage) - it's just OLD.

If we're throwing ALL of our vehicles in, here goes...

1990 Dodge Dakota. V6, don't know how big. 4-speed automatic (well, it's currently a 0 speed...) On the old engine, it got 20 MPG, but the block cracked, and the "new" one gets 18... :-?

1990 Dodge Ram 250, 350 V8. 4-speed automatic. 10 MPG with no load. All of FIVE MPG pulling the trailer. Guess what it's doing! (sitting in the driveway, doing NOTHING.)

1995 Chevy Silverado 3500 dually. 6.5L diesel V8. 4-speed automatic (notice a trend?) 16 MPG with no or low load. 14 when pulling the same trailer that the Ram tanks on. This is all we've got that runs.

And, I wish I got 50 MPG... That's why my first car will be a Ford Festiva or a diesel VW Rabbit or Golf, with a manual transmission.

Corrado · Mon Sep 05, 2005 12:31 pm

:werd: on the diesel VW. I've been playing with the idea of importing a 1.3L TDI engine from a british lupo and putting it into a rabbit or a mk2 golf. They get 80-85mpg with like 75hp. In a rabbit, 75hp is plenty, and a rabbit weighs less, so I'm looking at maybe close to 90mpg.

bhtooefr · Mon Sep 05, 2005 12:44 pm

I still haven't actually looked up pricing...

So, what would that engine cost, how hard would it be to install, and how much would a Rabbit in good condition (don't care how old it is if it's in good condition) that could take that engine cost?

nulldev06 · Mon Sep 05, 2005 1:06 pm

'96 Toyota Corrolla - average 33MPG

cfroese · Mon Sep 05, 2005 1:32 pm

1995 Acura Integra 2dr 1.8L inline 4 25mpg city and up to 40mpg on the highway provided I keep close to the speedlimit. So normally highway is around 35mpg.

excession · Mon Sep 05, 2005 1:33 pm

Corrado wrote:
:werd: on the diesel VW. I've been playing with the idea of importing a 1.3L TDI engine from a british lupo and putting it into a rabbit or a mk2 golf. They get 80-85mpg with like 75hp. In a rabbit, 75hp is plenty, and a rabbit weighs less, so I'm looking at maybe close to 90mpg.

uh... dude... Lupos are TINY... I mean, really, really, really small. Like so small I can not get in the back seat.

dextrous · Mon Sep 05, 2005 2:48 pm

spiritwalker2222 wrote:
Well, it sounds like I'm the only responsible one here.

Vrock · Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:18 pm

spiritwalker2222 wrote:
Well, it sounds like I'm the only responsible one here. I've got a Pontiac Sunfire that gets 50mpg (I think low 40's with your smaller gallon) at 130Kph (~75mph?). I don't check the gas mileage in the city cause, how good of gas mileage do you get at a stop light.

Well, it sounds like you're the only blatant liar here. 50 mpg out of a Sunfire? I don't think so.

P4Power · Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:48 pm

My dad's work car, an 03 Hyundai Accent, gets about 25-30 MPG around town and he has gotten up to 45 MPG on the highway doing about 80.

04 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited, 4.7L V8
12.5-16 MPG City, 20-25 MPG Highway

Just for comparison:

My Grandma's 05 Buick Rainier CXL, 4.2L I6
15-17 MPG City, 20-25 MPG Highway

My Uncle's 05 Cadillac Escalade, 6.0L V8
10-12 MPG City, ~16 Highway

My Uncle's 05 Ford F-250 Lariat, 6.0L Turbo-Diesel V8
Mix of city and highway, 18 MPG

What can I say, the environmentalists hate my family.

All SUV's. My two cousins both drive 05 Ford Explorer Limited V8s. These near $3 a gal gas prices are driving us nuts!!! We live in an area with many hills, so our city mileage is probably lower than normal.

Philldoe · Tue Sep 06, 2005 2:00 am

well i have a 1989 Buick Riviera with a 3.8L 3800 V6 supercharged with no cat converter...25Mpg highway.
My Mazda Miata with heavy mods het around 25-30
My RX-7(med mods) gets a decent 20
My old mans RX-8(VERY light mods) gets around 20

pwdrhnd23 · Tue Sep 06, 2005 2:41 pm

Just picked up an "05 Magnum with the 3.5L V6 getting about 23.5mpg combination driving. On the 3 long trips I have taken I have gotten about 25 but the engine doesn't have 3000 miles on it yet.

anand · Tue Sep 06, 2005 2:44 pm

I bought this car first:
2005 Saab 9-2x Aero (with a few mods) = ~20 MPG on premium

Then bought this car later on as fuel prices started to creep up for really cheap off Craigslist :lol:

:
1994 Mazda Protege DX = ~33 MPG on regular

The Protege is for commuting back and forth from work and the Saab is the nights and weekend car. It's hard to stay off the throttle on that car...

Sling · Tue Sep 06, 2005 3:22 pm

Traded in my Durango 13-15MPG for a VW GOLF TDI 50MPG so far...

bhtooefr · Tue Sep 06, 2005 3:26 pm

Well, the smallest cars you can get nowadays have big engines, compared to what I've heard exists in Europe, or what was available in the 1980's...

bhtooefr · Tue Sep 06, 2005 3:37 pm

The four banger I referenced is an OLD one (read: less fuel efficient) that has an automatic tranny (read: less fuel efficient)...

cheesyking · Tue Sep 06, 2005 4:05 pm

axeman wrote:
Most newer cars with smallish 4 cyl's and a 5 speed should get 45mpg if you are talking about Canadian/British gallons (4.5L). The us gallon is 3.8, or about 85% the size of our "gallon".

allowing for that my Pug 405 "station wagon" ( :lol:

) manages 38Mpg on some of the most congested roads in Europe. OK it's a diesel but it has got a turbo which wipes out a lot of that advantage and it's over 12 years old.

I can't understand why US cars have such poor fuel economy, even on the small models. I can only assume it just never been a selling point. That or it's some kind of big conspiracy between the oil companies and the motor manufacturers.

bhtooefr · Tue Sep 06, 2005 4:20 pm

Well, in the US, we've got lots of long roads, and need more power.

Also, it seems that penis size inversely varies with fuel economy - look at all of the SUVs.

Finally, I'd believe the auto industry/oil company conspiracy theories... Our SMALLEST new cars get 35-40 MPG on a good day (not counting diesel Golfs or Bugs - nobody buys those weird German things that burn stinky diesel... :roll:

)

Insightfill · Tue Sep 06, 2005 4:58 pm

2001 Honda Insight CVT - get 55MPG (US gallons) on the highway, but about 50 in stop-and-go.

Of course, the 5spd gets better mileage, but I couldn't find one here in the Midwest when I bought the car three years ago.

bhtooefr wrote:
Well, in the US, we've got lots of long roads, and need more power.

I don't believe it's the long roads so much as the two issues:

1) cheap gas,
2) variety in traffic patterns.

By variety, I mean that most cars in use may see open highway and city traffic, and need a larger engine to operate in a broader powerband. A V8 at highway speed won't be generating any more HP than a 4 cyl at the same speed, all things being equal.

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