Truck with Highest MPG

[wkumtrider]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new here and I really like this site. I own a 2000 Dodge Dakota 2WD 5-speed and it is approaching 185,000 miles pretty much trouble free. I am looking at purchasing a used truck with a lot less miles. I want to get a small truck, probably with a 4 cylinder and 5-speed. Does anyone know which small truck gets the best mileage without hypermiling and aeromods? I was looking at the 4 cylinder Rangers and a Toyota Tacoma. I see that the new Rangers with the 4 cylinder is rated at 28 mpg on the highway. What other trucks get 25mpg or higher?

Thanks for the help!

[Frank Lee]

fueleconomy.gov lets you do side-by-side mpg comparisons.

[NeilBlanchard]

You can also look these up in the Ecomodder garage and see how folks who are trying to save gas are doing. I'd vote for the Tacoma, since my brother and father-in-law have had 5 or 6 between them and only one failed to hit 300K miles. That one did only 180K or so...

Finding one with a 4 cylinder and a 5 speed can take some effort...

[5speed5]

If you can get by with 2WD, a Ford Ranger is your best bet. If you need 4WD,
the Chevy Colorado / GMC Canyon are the best. (4WD Ford Rangers aren't available
with 4 cylinder).

[wkumtrider]

All I need is 2WD. I've been reading the forum about the 40+mpg Ranger on this site. Very cool. This looks like the way to go for me.

[sid]

I went through the same exercise this past spring and ended up with a 2010 4 cylinder Ranger. I'm averaging about 29 mpg overall so far. But this is mostly city driving. The couple of times I did have it on the highway, I had a kayak and racks on top, though it still managed about 32 mpg like this. I take the racks off when I don't need to transport my kayak, which is most of the time.

[IsaacCarlson]

I would think a smaller truck could get a LOT more mpg.
My truck is probably twice the size of a ranger! It can't be just the motor or just the diff that makes one truck get more mpg than another can it? It just doesn't seem to add up because nothing is constant. I don't know if this is worded right but I tried....

[IsaacCarlson]

put a 2:1 rear in it and tall tires and see what happened. I could probably idle down the road at 65 and get 45 mpg!

[wkumtrider]

Thanks for the response guys. I've been looking at the Ranger pretty hard. I drive mainly HW to work and I could probably get pretty decent mileage out of it.

[Frank Lee]

Car and trailer combos work well too...