My Goal...#1 car in USA, fine print to follow
 

OK, so I just hit 43+ mpg in my Chevy Cvalier personally my best ever but not even close to topping the list. So without getting too specific (but I will anyway) I was wondering what it would take, numbers wise, to be the most fuel efficient...

4 wheeled automobile
automatic transmission
gasoline powered
non-hybrid

all the above mentioned crieteria reduce economy and efficiency but this is waht I have to work with, no room to buy a "project". If anyone is out there who thinks they are #1 meeting the above category let me know I want to be you

check out the volkswagon 1 liter car... that will give you the best 4 wheel automobile fuel (diesel) milage that I know of... less than 1 liter per 100 kilometers. It's also a non-hybrid. not sure about the others...

extremely common quest. to find the best is the past. Fuel injected? 40mpg in a cavalier seems unbelievable. maybe there was gas vapors in the air that day..

to target an engine
1. least friction, maintaining strength. As less friction allows the engine to try harder anyway.
2. 2 liters and up has limitations. 40mpg is outstanding.
3. inline fours are not the best. 40mpg is outstanding for a regular car like cavalier size (reality sized if you know what I mean)
4. highway capable, at least 80mph casual. this requires weight and more than 2500 pounds (there are big breezes out there)


Upon 20 years of driving, I went all the way back to my first..a 3 main boxered subaru. the air cooled beetles, even lacking benefits of some physics with liquid cool, still has a 65mpg version.
the engine as the best is a 3 main boxer four,
it can withstand a heavier vehicle for reality, and go hypermile easily...for a loong looong time.
I have had the others over the years. transverse drivetrain are no longer a part of my life (never again). I had a chevette, and well, the inline has flaws, not just chevette. I concluded it does not matter how the inline is mounted...the thoughts of the best of the best is not going to happen with one. hope I helped. What you want is extinct. Find a keeper.

I looked through the EcoModder Fleet list - EcoModder.com of gasoline vehicles, and the highest ranked automatic I found was #143 - chuckm's 2002 Toyota Corolla.

There may have been a higher ranked automatic, I got tired of seeing Metro after Metro, so I may have skipped a few, but if that is the highest, you're not too far away. That 90-day MPG is 45.3, so you're only a few MPG's away from being the best meeting your criteria. At least, as far as Ecomodder is concerned.

getting to #1, the deck may be stacked against you

41 hwy mpg - smart
36 hwy mpg - metro/firefly/swift, civic, echo, forte, accent, prizm/corolla
35 hwy mpg - yaris, fit, xA, tercel, rio
....
30 hwy mpg - '02 cavalier

back around when gas was $4/gal i pulled a couple 45+ out of mine (sc1 auto rated 33 hwy) anymore i usually run 37-38

There are a couple of guys on cleanmpg.com averaging over 50 mpg month after month in AT Honda Fits and Toyota Yarises. I think one of them had over 20 consecutive tanks over 50 mpg. You've got your work cut out for you.

If you want to be #1 in the USA, you need an extreme vehicle. A four wheeled version of this: HyperRocket: 125 mpg, 100+ mph 3-wheel motorcycle | Hypermiling, Fuel Economy, and EcoModding News - EcoModder.com would do it.

If you wanted something that's a normal car under the hood, the most efficient cars happen to be hybrids. You could do a hybrid-delete to a 2010 Prius or a first-gen Insight with CVT (maybe drop a CRX-HF motor in it?) and you'd end up with a pretty good car.

But if you add the criterion "wasn't originally a hybrid", then it's Basjoos' Aerocivic. Or make your own out of a CRX, which has a smaller frontal area and shorter overall length, and so lends itself better to being streamlined.

If aeromods are also out of the question, just buy one of the very good but unremarkable economy cars listed above.

I'm right with you on your quest :) I'm not specifically trying to be the best, but I'd like to get 50+ average for my commute. I've hit 54mpg over 427 miles on a all highway trip so I got a bit of work to get 50+ on a 50/50 city/highway commute. Anyhow, after looking at your gas log, you've made tremendous progress and haven't pleateued yet, I've hit a pleatue around 43/44 mpg. I've found that I need to mod around my commute, as well as drive better. I'm easily hitting 50-60mpg on the highway portion, but the city traffic and stop lights are killing me, not being able to EOC really hurts us compared to the mtx fellas. Focus on mods that will make your regular commute more effcient.
For myself, I think 50+ is completely reasonable to hit next year, God willing :D I think you should expect the same!

Actually, swoody's 2000 Honda Civic DX is the best automatic gasoline powered car, running at 46.55mpg on his last three tanks. I'm a distant second, but I've got a few other mods planned.

Wow, that's very surprising guys! :)

Dude, update your fuel log! I thought I had a chance to pass you after I put on the rear wheel skirts and took care of my rear bumper parachute.

Well that fuel log is up to date. I haven't driven the car in about a year now.
I should have been keeping track of my walking/biking mileage, too ;)

Hmm... and maybe a little friendly competition now, eh? Maybe time to bring out some more duct tape ;)

I'm all for some friendly competition. :)

I'll see your duct tape and raise you some coroplast and sheet metal. :eek:

Great start, now change vehicles
 

I like the idea...I tried to do the same thing...I have a 1996 Ford Ranger...terrible mpgs (around 20 they say, on the highway...debateable!)

Anyway, added all sorts of eco mods...big air dam, wheel covers, dropped the weight a bit, hypermiled the best I could, added a bed cover...you know what I got maybe 1 or 2 mpg's better...it might just have been that I changed my driving style...Plus now, there was no possible way I could trade in my heavily modded vehicle for a new car, or sell it to a normal person.

So I removed all that crap, and now try to never take the vehicle over 50 mph. Result: almost the same mileage.

End result: if you want better mpg's get a vehicle that gets better mpg's to start with. Trucks are a bad place to start. It's almost pointless with a truck. If you want to get good mpg's you need to be light weight, conversely if you want to haul stuff (truck) you aren't going to be light weight.

I just settled for using other transport as much as possible: motorcycle, bicycle, walking, bus even from time to time. When I get another car, it will be an economical a to b commuter, and I'll just use the truck for hauling when I need to haul...

Good luck with your mpg's !

I'll debate it. Mine's a 4WD 4 liter Super with 32" Mud-terrains, bad bearings and my commute includes a nightly climb to 4,675 feet. Even when my auto wouldn't shift into 4th for a couple of tanks and had to be rebuilt, my (admittedly only 4 tank) average was 18 mpg. In winter. I think 20 is quite doable with mine (I don't commute with it, so it doesn't get logs unless another car is broken down), and 22 if I actually modded it.

good
 

That sounds great... If you had something to back it up with like real data from a scan gauge it would be even better. I'm amazed...Esp since the new EPA mpg figures list our 4.0 liter rangers as having even worse mpg's than before (average of city and hwy driving now comes in at a pathetic 16 mpg). If you're getting 18mpg up big hills with big tires that's great!

I think this is one of the key problems with the eco debates...People (myself included) want to believe that our mpg's are better than they actually are.

When I took long term readings over the course of 30, 40, 50 tanks of fuel, and a well tuned engine, and low speed driving, I still found that the 4. liter Ford ranger got no better than the EPA said it did. I wish it was different. I wish some mods made by a homeowner could counteract the team of designers, and engineers that designed this truck, but I can't.

So, 18, 20 or 22 still sucks. So we'd both be better off with smaller cars!

Unfortunately I don't have any instrumentation in that vehicle since it only sees duty when I need to haul stuff or get out in the snow. Four tanks isn't a very long record, but all four were in the winter, and two were with fourth gear out.

BTW, something else you might consider if you have the auto: my truck couldn't beat 16 mpg until the transmission was rebuilt. Until the rebuild, it would shift late (revving up and then slamming into gear), go in and out of overdrive and, I assume, never lock up the TC. After the rebuild and until I lost fourth, I was getting 18-19 mpg. Also, my truck is geared 4.5% taller due to the larger tires; perhaps that makes up for their horrible rolling resistance. (That 4.5% was verified with two GPS units and is now factored into each tank I report.)

I think I could do a lot better with instrumentation and a 5-speed, but I'm concentrating my efforts on the Clunker, which is my primary commuter (36,000+ miles per year), and which gets numbers I can be proud of.

Oh no, no my friend :)

If you're looking to go greener, and not just trying to get the best mileage from gas, trucks are a GREAT place to start! They have the perfect setup for something a little greener:

Ranger conversion kits

There are many kits like that one out there. You can find a lot of info with Google :) Regardless, if you're looking to be kinder to the environment, and don't mind giving up oil changes, filter changes, fuel cleaners, exhaust fumes, stopping at gas stations, tune-ups, and a loud engine, and don't mind a cheaper, more reliable, silent, truck that will hold it's value for a *long* time, then an EV conversion just might be something to look into! :thumbup:

These kits basically come with everything you should need, and if you're good with a wrench, you can do the conversion yourself. However, if you'd be a little weary, or just know outright that you wouldn't be able to tackle a project like this, there are also *many* shops out there who specialize in EV conversions. So don't think that it can't happen to you ;)