Anyone else find it unsurprising that these are all foreign cars?

Japanese, Korean and British... the new Big Three.

what about Ford Focus? It gets 37/37 mpg?

what about Ford Focus? It gets 37/37 mpg.

What about the Dodge Caliber it gets 32-37.

What a car claims to get compared to it's actual fuel economy are two different things. The Caliber claims 32/37, but it's lucky to get 26 in the city and 33 on the highway *thats based on my father's caliber with CVT Auto Transmission*. Same thing with the focus *although I do know a guy with a focus and swears he can get 520 km on 37 litres of gas, combined.*

Edit: The title also says *Top Ten*, not *only cars that get 30mpg+* They are probably rated on reliability, price, satisfaction etc...

Should be interesting once the 2008 stats are being used, I bet the amount of 30+mpg cars through GM will plummet to only a few *as right now they claim to have tons that get 30+*

My Dodge Neon averages 32mpg. But they quit making them an went to the Caliber.
The target for the average car should be 50 mpg

Tired of anti-American car slant of just about all media. Plenty of good American cars that get 30 MPG +.

There is a reason for "anti american slant" American cars are junk. They have been junk for years. People are now going for jap trucks. Dodge,Chevy, and Ford trucks are gas guzzling pigs. They will go the way of the Ford Explorer.

There is a reason for "anti american slant" American cars are junk. They have been junk for years. People are now going for jap trucks. Dodge,Chevy, and Ford trucks are gas guzzling pigs. They will go the way of the Ford Explorer.

LOL

You know why the American Cars only get 30MPG and were the butt of Al Gores Global Warming angst

American Gallon = 3.785412 litres.
1 imperial gallon (1 gal) = 4.546099 litres.

American Cars are never going to go as far on a "Gallon" as the rest of the world.

I'm sure the Americans are as good as the rest of the world at exploding Petrol with a metalic casing to produce rotary motion. After all it's not rocket science and I'm sure the Shuttle went up from Florida this morning ;-)

Make it a great day

Dave

How about the Chevy Aveo? It gets mileage at least as good as those mentioned.

Of course you can always use efficient driving techniques to squeeze extra mileage out of any car.

Efficient driving techniques

My link did not work, I'll see if this works:

Efficient driving techniques:

http://www.frugal4life.com/?p=27

My link did not work, I'll see if this works:

Efficient driving techniques:

http://www.frugal4life.com/?p=27

Jimmy Love,

You are partially correct, while the American cars were not as good as the competition, they are getting much better now. It won't happen over night, but they are showing a ton of improvment just over the past few years. You can read about the latest line up of Fords having MUCH better quality than the past years, second to only Toyota. And you talking about Dodge Chevy and Ford TRUCKS being gas guzzling pigs, well.... what trucks aren't? My Tundra gets around 16-20(20mpg if I don't have a load and drive 55mph) 16 is the norm driving between 65-75. The Titan gets horrible mileage, and the new Tundra is even worse than the old one in the mileage department. Give me a break about only Ford Chevy and Dodge trucks getting bad mileage, because you are WAY off base with that comment, and might need to do a little more homework.

See.... Google.

wes

They did not include the Volkswagen Rabbit (Golf) which gets better MPG than all of the cars in this group if you get the diesel. The diesel VWs are also very powerful and fun cars to drive.

Its a shame the US car companies have not decided to upgraded the cars they build, they seem to spend on TV adds and rebates rather than quality materials. I have no doubt they know how to do it, I suspect they feel that most people will not research the quality problems.

It cant be easy to compete on price when you pay your top executives 20+ million per year and up.

I should be fair to American makers and say the Mini Cooper has had more mechanical problems than any other car in the group.

"Plenty of good American cars that get 30 MPG +."

Really, Protometal? Name some. Oh, the Aveo is actually a Korean car rebaged as a Chevy.

Jimmy your comments are totally unfounded. I have a 03 F150 4x4 that the only little minor problem ive had with it since i got it is the seat squeaking. Other than that the truck has been totally reliable. Then you talk about gas mileage and how much better the foreign cars are which is BS. My truck is full size with the FX4 package so its geared low. A guy at work has a 2005 Nissan Fronteir (compact truck) 4x4 with their NISMO offroad package. Well his has a 3.8L v6 and mine has a 5.4L V8. Guess who gets better gas mileage? Me!!!!!!! Because mine is an 03 he is pretty close to me in HP but mine has a ton more torque and it shows in the towing weights that ours can handle. He also has to put at least 91 octane gas in his truck so he has to pay for premium and i can put regular unleaded in mine. Guess who has had more problems with their truck too? Him!!. He has had his fuel pump go out and something else went wrong (i forgot what it was). Am i saying foreign cars are junk? No. But not all american cars are junk.

Plain & Simple trucks get bad gas mileage so it doesn't matter if its an american vehicle (Ford/Chevy/Dodge) or a Foreign Vehicle: Nissan Titan, Toyota Tundra, or a toyota sequoia.

those numbers are a bunch of crud.
thats' based on EPA estimates.. and they always seem to be wrong...

don't let the "top ten" fool you i drive a crown victoria and when hotrodding i get 15.5 MPG average but when i drive REALLY nice and gentle (grandpa style) it'll shoot to over 25MPG

so if your little 4cly is getting 16 MPG then you should consult your local mechanic... because my V-8 is blowing you away!

*but you must also take into account the following:
if you have a truck no matter what the engine they are GEARED differant
tire pressure helps ALOT
while a "normally 4cyl is 2L displacement and my V-8 is 4.6..
your car will cruise 60MPH at 2500+RPM and i cruise at 60 at 1200RPM

the V-8 creates a HUGE amount of torque in that you can have much more extreame gearing

those numbers are a bunch of crud.
thats' based on EPA estimates.. and they always seem to be wrong...

don't let the "top ten" fool you i drive a crown victoria and when hotrodding i get 15.5 MPG average but when i drive REALLY nice and gentle (grandpa style) it'll shoot to over 25MPG

so if your little 4cly is getting 16 MPG then you should consult your local mechanic... because my V-8 is blowing you away!

*but you must also take into account the following:
if you have a truck no matter what the engine they are GEARED differant
tire pressure helps ALOT
while a "normally 4cyl is 2L displacement and my V-8 is 4.6..
your car will cruise 60MPH at 2500+RPM and i cruise at 60 at 1200RPM

the V-8 creates a HUGE amount of torque in that you can have much more extreame gearing

I agree with the comment on Diesel engined vehicles. I have a VW Golf (Rabbit in the US)., and it returns over 58mpg (UK), (about 45mpg US) at a steady 70 Miles per hour. Around town this drops to about 45mpg (37 US). And its top speed is over 125mph!!

Ignatius, the modern mini is German, but I don't know where they make them (the British sold them). And don't you dare talk about Toyota being "unAmerican." In terms of fabrication and assembly (i.e. the worker) the Camry is the most American car in current production. Toyota also has engineering in Michigan and engineering test facilities I believe in Arizona. American manufacturers suffer from overly powerful unions. It's hard to compete when unions demand $25/hr to push a button and eat a banana while threatening to strike if anything gets automated.

David Autumn:
1) the rest of the world doesn't use gallons, they use liters.
2) the EPA is anentity of the American federal government. They do not measure fuel mileage of foreign cars in different units than the domesticly badged vehicles.

Brent,
05'+ Frontier is midsize, 4.0L v6 and takes plain unleaded just fine. I'll grant that 92+octane will actually (marginally) help the mileage of the Frontier, but it plays fine with 87.
Mine's a SE not a NISMO with a 6-speed (you didn't mention what your friends truck had for a tranny)
I get 17 around town, 22 in high gear at 65, and ~20 at 75. If I'm pulling a 2000+lb load, at highway speeds, I do have to drop to 5th and pull in about 15mpg for that portion of the trip.
I've also had no problems with my truck, not even seat squaking.
If you are beating your friend's mpg, he has a lead foot and you are babying it.

Brent, MINI is a subsidiary of BMW but it is still based in England where the cars are manufactured.

General comment,
I have a 95 Ford Ranger XLT with 265,000 miles on it and is still in decent working order. Cannot complain at all about the quality of the truck especially considering what I've put it through and how long it has lasted ... doesn't hurt that it's been paid off for years. I'll tell you though, with each passing year the gas efficiency gets worse and worse and I'm now spending about $600 per month in gas with my long commute which is about half city/ half highway. Thinking its time to park the truck and get a small car for commuting. Might actually come out ahead even with a car payment. Considering the Mazda 3 ... that is a sharp looking car that looks like it has some substance to it. A relative of mine has a Sentra and it still feels a little like a tin can that can get blown off the road with a stiff wind. Comments?

To a great extent fuel consumption depends on your driving style. For example, my father-in-law drives so fluently that he manages to squeeze 3.9 liters per one hundred kilometers from his diesel Volkswagen wagon.

Of course the car helps, but real mpg also deppends on how you drive..

one simple example.. if you are stopped and you know that one or two blocks away you will have to stop again (a stop sign for example) you dont need to accelerate to 60 mph even if the road limit "let" you... its just waste.. you will save maybe a couple of seconds but burn a lot more gas...
Sometimes you need to accelerate fast, but most of the time, you dont... think about this next time you drive..

If you think this doesnt make that much difference.. I did sometime ago an experiment with my father small truck. (its a 4.3 V6 gas).
Filled up the tank.. drove for aproximatly 150miles inside the city but like an a crazy (no speeding, but really accelerating and breaking hard) filled it up again. After that i drove the same 150 miles but driving really nice... (its a small city, so no traffic influence)
Guess what.. i got 3 TIMES more mpg the second time.
of course I exaggerated in my drinving style... but the experiment was in very similar conditions, same gas pump, no load on the truck, always alone, same city, same weather.. etc..

Another thing that i forgot..

Try doing this same list with the car available in europe. Since there is no diesel here, you can exclude the diesel from the european list as well..

I give an strong candidate the golf family with the FSI engines.. or even the new 1.4 turbo... they all get more than 30mpg (US gallons) and are good cars..

I know that you guys can name more..

My point is.. why bother selling these cars in the US, if they are very happy (at least were) with their gas guzzlers.

Chevy has both a sedan and a coupe (Aveo) that have a combined MPG of 34.5 making it number two. This article makes no mention of them.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov does not state how mileage is calculated and drops an entire 10 MPG for the Aveo average score. FAQ states the tests will be revised in 08:

EPA has changed the way it estimates MPG.

Starting in model year 2008, estimates will reflect the effects of
Faster Speeds & Acceleration
Air Conditioner Use
Colder Outside Temperatures

Chevy offers 8 cars w/ over 30mpg combined scores that are Based on EPA estimates and segmentation.

What gives? It's like our own .gov sites want us to buy foreign. Some o the best MPG deals happen to in fact be domestic. They include e85 support, bio diesel support, flex fuel, active fuel management, electric & fuel cell R&D as well. Lets not forget who made the 1st electric car either...

Brent;
I am sick and tired of people like you bashing unions. Am not union member am not even a production worker, I am an engineer for a supplier to most of the auto manufacturers. I have been in several final assembly, stamping and engine assembly plants. American and transplants, they all work hard for their money. But the big difference is when the nonunion employees gets old and is more prone to repetitive stress injures they are shipped off to a less demanding jog and paid and they wages cut, or worst yet terminated, that’s no way to treat someone that has dedicated years of hard work to a company. And when they retire, the company health plan no longer available for them, they have to rely on Medicare, (US TAX DOLLARS) for health care. Before you talk crap about unions go visit a union assembly plant. Unions are what made it possible for people like you to earn a decent wage in a safe environment. Unions have done some wrongs but what the good they have done for the American middle class far outweighs the wrongs they have done.
Last I check Ford was number on in JD Powers’s initial quality, with Mazda, being the most trouble free auto bran in the world.
VOLKSWAGEN JETTA TDI, using B20 biodiesel 49.9 mpg vs. EPA highway rating of 42 mpg, beats out Toyota Purist on highways
Can we say Diesel hybrid…

Bla bla bla

The American auto makers dug this hole for themselves and now they have to reap what they have sown. GM, Ford, Chrysler all had ample warning (since the 1970's) and decided that the best strategy was to abandon all thoughts of fuel efficiency and reliablity and go for the "big margin" sales of big, ugly, inefficient, and poorly conceived/designed vehicles. So now, here we are, 30 years later, and gas prices are through the roof, but the "big three" are still pumping out vehicles that nobody with a brain larger than a pea wants.

You know what, I used to work for GM, and I only bought GM cars for 20 years. Now I buy the car that makes the most sense, and my entire family drives Toyotas.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS THIS: THE BIG THREE MUST START MAKING FUEL EFFICIENT VEHICLES OR THEY ARE GOING TO BE BANKRUPT IN A DECADE.

And you know what, I'm tired of people griping about "oh, I NEED a Suburban because I have a big family", well guess what Buckwheat, 99% of us don't have a big family who needs a Suburban, and 99% of the time when I see a Suburban driving down the road (or more likely at the gas station), there's only one jacka$$ in it.

Oil will be gone in 50 years. QUIT SCREWING OVER OUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS FOR YOUR PERSONAL VANITY!!!

The only absolute is there are no absolutes. You all need to search for your equipment, 'cuz your crying like someone took it...

My equipment's fine. You lookin' for yours? Try a microscope.

Right, keep telling yourself that, it'll be okay...

Dear Obviously DaMoron:

Try an electron microscope.

:~D

Wow, are you 12? I don't think I've used the try a microscope thing since I was preteen. But then again, I did suggest that you were a crybaby.

DaMoron:

Ooooh please stop, you're hurting my feelings.

LMAO

You're not a preteen? Sorry, I'd just assumed from your writings that you hadn't graduated from junior high yet. My bad.

But by all means, lets keep flaming each other, I like egging idiots on, it makes the day go much more quickly....

For exactly what are you flaming me? Do you even know?

Wow, I get it, I call you immature then you call me immature. Wait, if I say "na na na na boo boo" are you gonna say it too?

Probably. I'm not flaming you man, I'm just passing the time. I don't really have any more to say anyways. No offense man. :~P

Cool Man.

The gas mileage stated here is not true. I went to Yahoo.com and pulled up each of these cars and checked the EPA gas mileage against this page and they have inflated the mileage significantly here. For instance the number one car on this page, the Honda Fit gets a best 28 mpg City and 34 mpg Highway with the Manual transmission only. Most people will buy the Auto and get 27/34 mpg and from my experience you end up with even less gas mileage than the EPA ratings. So basically they are lying or misleading by a difference of up to 4 mpg City and 3 mpg Highway if not more. Check the new 2009 Chevrolet Aveo 5, it will be getting 27 mpg City and 34 mpg Highway, costs around $10,000 and has a 7 year warranty, much better deal.