What's your best bet for an automatic?
 

My mom, despite my best attempts, is a hardcore, non-negotiable automatic driver. A "new" (read: used) car purchase may be sometime in the near future, and I am looking for recommendations for a mileage-concious automatic. (I have a '92 Metro and a scooter that gets about 110 imperial MPG, so I'm doing ok)

Another Metro with an auto is not bad especially if it's not highway driven all the time.

Well, we're in a suburb and the main way into town is a freeway, so you could say it's pretty frequently "highway driven". (It's only 90km/hr at least) I test drove an automatic Metro a while back and I was pretty turned off by its highway performance. (Even in general it just seemed very very gutless, compared to the relatively peppy manual.) I was thinking of it as an option, but maybe something with a 4th gear or overdrive would be better.

Every Prius ever made is an automatic, so that's a good place to start. Most cars with CVTs get good mileage also. Otherwise, a 4-speed auto should be the minimum number of gears.

You need to tell us what price range we can shop in before we can get more specific than that.

That's a good point, about the price range. (Prius is definitely above that range) Let's say $5000 or under for the sake of argument. (Ultimately I'm not sure what she would want to spend, but we aren't exactly what I would call a wealthy family, so let's start there.)

Most "larger" 4-cylinder cars are going to be better on a freeway than a Metro. I had a Ford Tempo about 7 years ago and I loved it. About 30 mpg before I knew what hypermiling was. I also had a '96 Pontiac Grand Prix that got ~25 mpg with a small 3.1L 6-cylinder, and that was when gas was $1.75 a gallon over here and I was 19. The Ford Escort is another decent small car.

If you are doing that much "highway", in your price range any smaller 4 cylinder with a 4 speed auto will do decently. However, I would look for one with a lockup torque converter. This won't be too hard since just about everything since 1985 or so has them.

Once you get the mass rolling, it does not take a large amount of power to keep it going at that speed. The changes in velocity take power, either in the case of engine power for acceleration, or braking power (heat) for deceleration. Turning also takes some power as you are still changing the direction of the velocity, but not as much.

Working the driving style to improve mpg is certainly a help. The Neon that I am currently running is an auto (for now...will be changing it to a manual over the winter) and I have been averaging 29+. This is with an older style 3 speed transmission. I don't do the whole engine off thing (more into trying to make the car efficient) but I do put it in neutral at stop lights and have done some areo mods.

A friend just picked up a 2000 Mazda Protoge for $1500 in almost pristine condition, and it has been getting 35 (75%highway/25%in town) with the 1.6l and the 4 speed auto. He drives this 90% of the time as compared to his wife's lincoln which gets 19/24. we did do some basic mods like air intake and a front air dam to get it to 35 though. It was the first one we found that his 6' 5" heavyset frame fit in. He does no real hypermiling, runs on cruisse at the speed limit most of the time.

If I was going to do a metro auto, I would likely opt for the 4 cyl 1.3l, but I live where there are a lot of hills/mountains. It may not be an issue for you. The drivability would be worth th 2mpg to me.

Every manufacturer makes a car that can fit the bill (ok...maybe not Laborguini or Rolls Royce) so I would say find a car that your mom likes and is comfortable in. From there, make it as efficient as that car can be. If she is comfortable and feels safe in it...and likes the car, those are certainly deciding factors as well.

In general you will see a 12-25% loss in an auto tranny as compared to a manual. But any savings is worth it. Make sure that you maintain the auto trans and change the fluid and filter.

Jim

There are lots of 4 cylinder cars that might fit the bill.
You should be able to get a reasonable guesstimate of FE for anything you/she looks at by going to

Fuel Economy - User Estimates
Example:Ford Escort ( be sure to click the Show All links eg Show Alll for 2001 )

Look for something your mom likes.
Mpg won't matter if she doesn't like the car!
How mileage-conscious is you mom?
And how many miles does she drive a year?
I suggest you make some tables based on that number of miles and gas at
various prices. eg

5,000 miles @ 25 mpg & $4 per gallon gas = $800 of gas.
5,000 miles @ 30 mpg & $4 per gallon gas = $667 of gas.
5,000 miles @ 35 mpg & $4 per gallon gas = $571 of gas.
5,000 miles @ 50 mpg & $4 per gallon gas = $400 of gas.

5,000 miles @ 25 mpg & $5 per gallon gas = $1,000 of gas.
5,000 miles @ 30 mpg & $5 per gallon gas = $833 of gas.
5,000 miles @ 35 mpg & $5 per gallon gas = $714 of gas.
5,000 miles @ 50 mpg & $5 per gallon gas = $500 of gas.

(5 years)
25,000 miles @ 25 mpg & $4 per gallon gas = $4,000 of gas.
25,000 miles @ 30 mpg & $4 per gallon gas = $3,333 of gas.
25,000 miles @ 35 mpg & $4 per gallon gas = $2,857 of gas.
25,000 miles @ 50 mpg & $4 per gallon gas = $2,000 of gas.

my 07 cam with 4 cyc a 5 speed auto, gets low 30's easy on the highway.
my wifes tc that we got rid of did about the same witha 4speed auto and the same 4 cyc motor

my sister has a 02 protege 5 auto with the 2.0 and get 29-32 mpg all the time. she dont care about gas she dont pay for it she just drives it.

Older 4cyl. Grand Am is good on highway, 60mph@2k rpms.

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

I recommend the Corolla or a Civic.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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