What's your best bet for an automatic?

[hamorhead]

get a civic they do great on gas even if u dont know how to drive
i used to hit 4k rpms pretty much every time before shifting and still got 33mpg

[dremd]

I recommend the Corolla or a Civic.

[Crono]

Thanks for the suggestions, my mom isn't too picky about the kind of car, I was just wondering what the better ones for automatic were. I should note that we're also in Canada here, and on an island at that, so gas prices are fairly high. (Even now with oil being down as far as it is we're still paying almost $1.20 per litre)

Anyhow, thanks for the suggestions, I'll bear them in mind.

[i_am_socket]

Go with a used Civic or Corolla. You likely won't get near the theoretical $5k limit and they'll be good for ~35 mpg US.

[Andyman]

The best mileage I ever got with an automatic transmission was in a 1994 Saab 9000 Turbo. I took a highway trip of about 100 miles and reset the trip computer at the beginning. I drove 45 to 60 MPH most of the time, but there were also a few stops. At the end of the trip, the car's computer said that the average MPG was 43. This is better than the Saab 900 which usually can't get more than 33 MPG. The 9000 probably has a higher gear in the transmission. If the speed goes below 45 MPH, the car shifts down to third and the fuel economy goes down. For low speed driving, something with a smaller engine should be more efficient. The Saab 9000 has a 2.3 liter engine.

I remember reading in Consumer Reports that a Saturn SL with automatic transmission achieved 50 MPG in their highway test. Old Toyota Camrys before 1992 got about 46 MPG in the Consumer Reports highway mileage test.

[ALS]

GM Cobalt, Malibu, in four cylinder. Ford Focus. Nissan Sentra or even an Altima 4 cylinder. Any of the Hyundai 4 cylinders. Honda Civic.
$5K is making this real tough since most of the economy cars are holding their value due to gas prices. If you can go $7,500 to $10K it opens a whole lot of cars up to your purchase price. Basically anything under $5K is going to have pretty high miles and have problems the present owner doesn't want to spend money to fix.

[IndyIan]

Not that I don't like Mazda but they don't really don't get awesome mileage in my experience. Sometimes they put short final drive ratios in to make the car sportier but it hurts mileage a bit.
You might find an early Echo sedan for $5k, that should pretty much trump anything else for mileage and passenger space. You would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the echo and the corolla if you were blind folded.
Ian