When shopping for used cars, the gas mileage is often a very important deciding factor. Gas mileage (mpg) relates to how far your car can go on one tank of gas on the highway or in the city. Purchasing a used car with good gas mileage can be the best overall way to save money. Here are some slightly used, top-rated vehicles to consider in your search that get great gas mileage:
Best Overall Gas Mileage/Compact Cars:
The Honda Insight, Toyota Prius, Honda Civic hybrid, Volkswagen Diesel, and Honda Civic are the top choices for this class of vehicles. The Insight obtains roughly 60 mpg city and 66 mpg highway with it’s 5-speed manual transmission. The Prius gets 60 mpg city and 51 mpg highway with a 4-cylinder engine and variable automatic transmission. With a similar engine configuration, the Civic hybrid obtains roughly 48 mpg city and 47 mpg highway. The Volkswagen clean diesel sounds like a normal car and gets roughly 38 mpg city and 46 mpg highway with it’s 5-speed transmission. The standard Honda Civic also gets great gas mileage with 36 mpg city and 44 mpg highway driving to make for great gas mileage.
Best Large Cars:
The Chevrolet Impala, Chevrolet Malibu Maxx, Chrysler Concorde, Dodge Intrepid, and Buick LeSabre rank the highest in gas mileage for this class of vehicles. These vehicles are all paired with 6-cylinder engines to give you more power while driving. The Impala gets roughly 21 mpg city and 32 mpg highway with it’s automatic transmission. The Malibu matches closely with 22 mpg city and 30 mpg highway with automatic transmission. The Chrysler Concorde and Dodge Intrepid get similar gas mileage at 21 mpg city and 29 mpg highway. Lastly, the Buick LeSabre obtains 20 mpg city and 29 mpg on the highway. These large sedans all get great gas mileage to get your family around without spending a tremendous amount on gas.
Best SUVs:
The Jeep Liberty, Nissan Murano AWD, Chevrolet Tracker, and Saturn VUE AWD are the top choices for this class of vehicles. The Liberty and Murano have similar fuel efficiency at roughly 20mpg city and 24mpg highway. The Murano, however, is paired with a more powerful 6-cylinder engine while the Liberty comes standard with a less powerful 4-cylinder. The Tracker obtains 19 mpg city and 22 mpg highway with a 6-cylinder engine while the VUE gets 19 mpg city and 25 mpg highway.
Best Standard Pickup Trucks:
This class of 2WD vehicles is topped off by the Ford Ranger, Mazda B2300, Nissan Frontier, Toyota Tacoma, and Chevrolet Colorado. The Ranger and B2300 get similar gas mileage at 24 mpg city and 29 mpg highway. The Frontier gets 22 mpg city and 27 mpg highway, while the Tacoma gets roughly 22 mpg city and 25 mpg highway. These vehicles are all paired with 4-cylinder engines. To finish it out, the Chevrolet Colorado obtains about 19 mpg city and 24 mpg highway with the only 5-cylinder engine out of these vehicles.
These options for fuel-efficient vehicles are not the only ones, but they are the best of their class for a reason. These are not the only fuel-efficient models but, hopefully, will give you an idea of which direction to go with your search.