Mid/Full Size Car with Decent Aero/MPG

[DragBean]

You haven't even talked about engine mods. If you can find a charging location at work, you could easily get one deep cycle battery and pull the belt (and field wire) on your alternator. That will give you at least 5% mpg probably 10% gains. Two batterries will get you the 80 miles there and 80 miles back.

[spdfrk]

Don't be too quick to hate on the Epsilon platform. I have gotten great results with my LX9 3.5L pushrod on that platform with OBX headers and Magnaflow catback. The engines they've been putting in is what you need to watch for. Epsilon is used for Opel Vector, Saab 93, Pontiac G6, Chevrolet Malibu, Saturn Aura and many others (so lotsa aftermarket mods available).

The 4 cyl Malibu gets worse than the same year v6's in cases where the torque generated is not sufficient to run the 3.05 final drive so they bump it up shorter at 3.63 so there goes your 4 cyl efficiency out the window.

Look for something with the highest torque at the lowest rpm and tallest final drive and low frontal area and coefficient of drag.

Prius could be cool and you can add a tandem battery pack if you want extra range.

[Miller88]

Are you sure there's not something wrong with the Focus like bad wheel bearings? Mine is super quiet on the highway and 40MPG is easily attainable. Mine does have the "fuel conomy" 3.56 gearing. But even running at 75-80 on the highway it gets 35MPG with no aeromods at all.

My old Taurus would get 34MPG running at 65 on the highway.

[rta]

Originally Posted by Miller88

Are you sure there's not something wrong with the Focus like bad wheel bearings? Mine is super quiet on the highway and 40MPG is easily attainable. Mine does have the "fuel conomy" 3.56 gearing. But even running at 75-80 on the highway it gets 35MPG with no aeromods at all.

My old Taurus would get 34MPG running at 65 on the highway.

Mine has 3.82 final drive ratio, so I am north of 3k rpm at 80. I am fairly certain the noise is coming from the engine. If I pop it into neutral and coast it quiets right down. No exhaust leaks or other excessive noise at idle or at lower speeds... I think it's just winding it out.

If I drive 65 I can get 33 out of my mixed driving commute. I'd imagine that means mid to high 30s on the highway. I don't have an ultra gauge yet, but empirically I have discovered that I get around 30 driving normal speeds.

[royanddoreen]

I would say the Toyota Camry hybrid would be a good choice.

[UFO]

The new Volvos have some good aerodynamics going on.

[Hersbird]

Some of these suggestions never read the $5000 part...

[roosterk0031]

Missed it at first as well, that's why I changed it too keep driving what you got. Not enought info on his Focus but I if it's a 2012+ based on the 37 mpg hwy, I would think it should do that even at 70 mph, based on my GM experience.

[2000mc]

Originally Posted by Miller88

Are you sure there's not something wrong with the Focus like bad wheel bearings?

Originally Posted by rta

I am fairly certain the noise is coming from the engine. If I pop it into neutral and coast it quiets right down. No exhaust leaks or other excessive noise at idle or at lower speeds... I think it's just winding it out

If there was some problem that caused a loss of mileage, it would also cause increased engine / exhaust / intake noise.

If I attached a parachute to your car to cause it to go from getting 30mpg to 20mpg, you would also be using more throttle, or be loading the engine more to get that lower fuel economy, and hear more engine noise. Same would be true of any other load on your car. Replace that parachute with a low tire, bad alignment, wheel bearing, or dragging brakes... They may or may not cause any noise themselves, but each could cause additional engine load, in turn causing more noise

[vskid3]

I think my Prius is pretty quiet on the freeway, maybe I'm just used to it (or have the radio too loud to notice). I think it's the only midsize car you could get for under $5k that would get much better mileage at those speeds.