-
Everyone and his goldfish knows that you can get good gas mileage by driving a Toyota Prius. But many of us want to buy cars with features that typical high-mileage economy cars don’t provide.
Those requirements don’t have to doom us to terrible fuel economy; we just have to choose our cars more carefully. So here’s a list of 10 vehicles with unexpectedly good fuel economy for their size and/or vehicle type.
(Note: This is not a list of the 10 vehicles with the best fuel economy; you can find that list on the EPA’s website).
-
Audi Q7 TDI
EPA MPG city/highway/combined: 17/25/20
Drivetrain: 3.0-l V6 diesel, 8-sp man.
Vehicle category: 7-seat SUV
With the Q7 you really can average 25 mpg on a long trip in a sure-footed quattro all-wheel-drive, three-row, seven-seat SUV. You do have to fuel it with diesel, which costs a bit more than gasoline, but you will only have to do that every 600-something miles. And you won’t pay any other penalties because the performance and smoothness of the drivetrain are indistinguishable from that of a comparable gas turbo V6.
-
Buick LaCrosse eAssist
EPA MPG city/highway/combined (estimated): 25/37/31
Drivetrain: 2.4-l 4-cyl. Hybrid, 6-sp auto
Vehicle category: mid-size car
Here’s a midsized Buick — with all the luxury the brand implies — that delivers 37 mpg on the highway. The old advertising slogan was “Wouldn’t you really rather drive a Buick?” The answer to that question for many
years was “no,” but now that the company’s products have become excellent, if the alternative is some cramped, buzzy econobox, here’s your 37 mpg solution. Because of the compact size of the “eAssist” mild hybrid system, the rear seats fold flat for a pass-through from the trunk — a feature that isn’t available in full hybrid sedans because the space behind the seat is occupied by electric drive electronics.
-
Chevrolet Equinox
EPA MPG city/highway/combined: 22/32/26
Drivetrain: 2.4-l 4-cyl, 6-sp auto
Vehicle category: SUV
Compact SUVs are the new family cars for many consumers, but even though they aren’t gargantuan ground-pounders, they can still get pretty mediocre fuel economy, especially when equipped with a V6. Chevy has dropped in a brawny-but-smooth four-cylinder that delivers 32 mpg in highway driving, and buyers have been snapping them up as fast as the company can build them.
-
Chevrolet Corvette
EPA MPG city/highway/combined: 16/26/19
Drivetrain: 6.2-l V8, 6-sp man.
Vehicle category: two-seater
No one buys sports cars for their fuel economy, but wouldn’t it be nice if some ludicrously fast 430 hp rocket also delivered 26 mpg on the highway? Well, here it is. The Corvette will crank out mile after mile of mid-20s mileage while you’re on the highway driving to the best curvy mountain roads or some distant race circuit for a bit of track day fun.
-
Ford Fusion Hybrid
EPA MPG city/highway/combined: 41/36/39
Drivetrain: 2.5-l 4-cyl. hybrid, CVT
Vehicle category: midsize car
Here’s the most efficient vehicle on this list, with 39 mpg in combined driving — the 41 mpg city, 36 mpg highway Ford Fusion Hybrid. It doesn’t carry the humpbacked styling or overt political connotations of a Prius, but it does deliver nearly the same gas mileage in a vehicle with a more comfortable ride and vastly better handling.
-
Ford F-150
EPA MPG city/highway/combined: 17/23/20
Drivetrain: 3.7-l V6, 6-sp auto
Vehicle category: full-size truck
It takes energy to move a load, and that energy comes from gas. Trucks burn more gas than cars even when they aren’t hauling loads because they are built big and sturdy enough to withstand heavy-duty use. That has typically meant that gas mileage ranged between “dismal” and merely “bad.” But Ford’s new V6-powered F-150 has achieved the widely accepted threshold of “decent” gas mileage — 20 mpg. That’s the truck’s combined EPA rating, and they EPA says it can do even better on the highway at 23 mpg. Our testing scored 20 mpg highway too, but other reviewers did better. Regardless, it is a big step forward considering that old trucks wouldn’t go 20 miles on a gallon of gas even if they started driving atop the Continental Divide.
-
Honda Odyssey
EPA MPG city/highway/combined: 19/28/22
Drivetrain: 3.5-l V6, 6-sp auto
Vehicle category: minivan
Remind me: Why do we call these things “minivans” again? They were pretty small when they started out, but now they are 4,500-pound, eight-passenger behemoths. It would be asking a lot for something this big to get reasonable gas mileage, but the Odyssey delivers, using cylinder deactivation to run on three cylinders when possible, along with a six-speed transmission to get the power to the wheels as efficiently as possible.
-
Hyundai Sonata
EPA MPG city/highway/combined: 24/35/28
Drivetrain: 2.4-l, 6-sp man.
Vehicle category: large car
The Hyundai Sonata has a smidge more interior space than the Fusion or LaCrosse and rates 35 mpg highway with its base engine and transmission. Hyundai also offers a hybrid version, but the everyday model provides 35 mpg on the window sticker, and anecdotal evidence says it will even get 40 mpg on the highway.
-
Hyundai Elantra
EPA MPG city/highway/combined: 29/40/33
Drivetrain: 1.8-l 4-cyl, 6-sp auto
Vehicle category: Compact car
Forty mpg might be a stretch for the Sonata, but the compact Elantra should do that without breaking a sweat, according to the EPA’s 40 mpg highway rating. As with the bigger Hyundai, the Elantra achieves its segment-benchmark fuel economy rating with its base drivetrain, so the hundreds of thousands of Elantras the company sells will all contribute to the fleet of 40 mpg cars on the road. This is in contrast to the special, high-efficiency models from competitors, which cost more and will account for a paltry few percent of sales.
-
Volkswagen Passat
EPA MPG city/highway/combined (estimated): 31/43/35
Drivetrain: 2.0-l 4-cyl. diesel, 6-sp. dual-clutch auto-manual
Vehicle category: large car
If the diesel engine in the Q7 can get 26 mpg on the highway, what could one in a slippery sedan achieve? According to VW, the answer will be 43 mpg when the EPA’s official numbers are announced. That means the Passat will go more than 800 miles on a tank. Those of us who love pumping gas in the freezing cold or blazing heat might miss standing out in the weather regularly, but for the rest of us, incredible efficiency matched with a large fuel tank combine to provide unprecedented freedom from pumping fuel.
“ ”