Okay, I know people are going to say things like, "I used to have this Ford Ltd that got 80mpg."
Please, only measured results, not rough guesses by how far you got on the last half of the tank. Fuel gauges are incredibly non-linear.

Here's mine:

I have a 1995 Mazda Protege. It's a run-of-the-mill 1.6 liter(I think) 4-cylinder gasoline-burning sedan with nothing power or auto at all. I like it that way. It's a small sedan but I can fit a full-size single mattress in it with the back seat down!

Anyway, it's supposed to get something like 40 or 42 Imperial mpg (35 US mpg) and a few years ago I tried to wring the most mileage I could out of it with various strategies on a 7-hour road trip.
I started with a completely full tank (filled it myself) and topped it off at the end and carefully calculated.
I did it again on the same trip in the other direction and I got the same mileage(within 0.5 mpg) both ways. Both trials were basically highway only and started and ended with a carefully topped off tank. I triple checked the results because at first I couldn't believe it.

I got 59 mpg! (Imperial gallons) (49 US mpg)

That's about a 50% improvement. Instead of a 50-dollar trip it was a 33-dollar trip. It also made the usually extremely boring Saskatoon-Calgary-Saskatoon trip much more interesting. It may have taken longer but it seemed to go by quicker.

Here's what I did:

I drove about 85-90 kph (55mph). Driving this slowly annoys people less than driving a little slowly, at least on that kind of road with very little traffic. They can pass you quickly.

I short shifted and carefully chose when and if to downshift for hills.

I glided down hills, even if I slowed to about 70 kph, but only if no one was behind me.

I scanned ahead and put it in neutral and coasted down when a light was coming up or other reason to stop.

I drove smoothly, didn't use the AC (because I don't have it! ).

I never passed unless I could do it without speeding up.

This all would be very hard to do in a lot of places I realize, but even there mileage can be improved with some of these strategies.

Admittedly, there's little reason (apart from sheer fun) to have such huge power in a 1 ton (2200lb) car, but I'm capable of returning 7.8ltr/100km (around 32mpg) with it. when most motorway driving is at around 120kmh (75mph)


I once manged 65mpg from my 1.2ltr Vauxhall Nova

I drove my 1983 Mitsubishi Cordia (5 speed manual) from Rock Springs Wyo to Sacramento, CA (800+ miles) and got a little over 50 mpg. This was in the days of the 55 mph speed limit and I did use all my gas saving tricks, slow accelerations, and stopping only for fuel (once).

Mmm. I had a 1300 Triumph Spitfire that used to to around 30mpg...till one day I had too drive back from a new years day party and it had snowed...and there were no gritters and no bulldozers and it had rear wheel drive and I had to go 90 miles...and believe me if it took more than a gallon and a half to do it I would be surprised.

The merest touch on the accelerator in ANY gear would send it sliding and I simply could not get it over 50mph. Took forever, we froze, but we got there in the end with barely any movement on the gauge at all.

The key is sub 55mph and as steady a speed as you can arrange. Stops and starts eat fuel.

My Astro van has a readout that shows the gas mileage, both cumulative and instantaneous. The van gets about 18 mpg overall, but you can see the other readout change as you drive. I once saw 99 mpg while coasting at high speed on a long steep down hill gradient, of course you could see it drop to 7 mpg on the next high speed uphill gradient.
Dave chewning Sr.

By eck, thats worse than my Cat.

21 mpg average, but at least it will hit 60 in about 5 seconds and top 150mph..

EEK, I just realized my post is for miles per Canadian gallon. US gallons are different.
Does someone remember the conversion factor? Something like 3.8 to 4.5 but I can't remember which way.
IN the Uk do...I mean did...they use the Canadian or US gallon?

My 2003 protege is supposed to do 26 city 32 mpg hwy, but on our first hwy trip, ( not broken in yet), cruise control locked at 65 mph and air conditioning on, got 42 mpg for the trip.

This car is normally used for city use where it has never done less than 30 mpg. It is a stick shift, and the high performance tires it has seem to have very low rolling resistance, but still, these are pretty good numbers IMHO.


Dean in Milwaukee

A fellow Protege owner.
I had high perf. tires on my old Honda civic but now I don't bother with them because I can have more fun without the police having a fit using tires that break free more easily.

Low power, good steering and brakes, marginal traction but not squishy tires (good tires on oily surface?) that's the recipe for safe, cop-free fun.
mmm. I wish I had my own racetrack.

sorry, I digress.

VW Passat 1.8 L Turbo
32 mpg regularly, 37 mpg (US) on rural highways

2002 RAV-4 Toyota, std shift.. Over-all (mostly city), 28 mpg, using a/c, reasonable acceleration, 4sth gear above 40 mph. 32 highway, 70 mph, a/c when needed.

My last toyota (1980), I traded in after 22 years, 120,000 miles, had clutch replaced at 60,000.

neat cars.
howell

Originally Posted by jay flay tway

EEK, I just realized my post is for miles per Canadian gallon. US gallons are different.
Does someone remember the conversion factor? Something like 3.8 to 4.5 but I can't remember which way.
IN the Uk do...I mean did...they use the Canadian or US gallon?

You use our gallon the US has their own weirdly smaller one...

SH

Originally Posted by cmhshh

You use our gallon the US has their own weirdly smaller one...

SH

Yes, that's right. Last night I just remembered that in Canada it's called the "Imperial gallon."
Thanks, I couldn't remember which was smaller.
so it's 4.54 US gallons = 3.79 Imp gallons

So I guess my car was rated at 35 US mpg
And I got 49 US mpg.

on an extended trip in a v-8 powered taurus sho i got 34mpg cruising around 80-85 mph. this was very surprising since i was only used to getting low 20's for 'local highway' use..

How about the worst?

Porchce '89 944 Turbo S, Gingerman raceway, 6 mpg (40 liters/100km). About what my short-geared Chevy 454 pickup got when I babied it around town.

Same P-car will do 32 mpg (7 l/100km)on the open road if you can keep yer foot out of it. Not bad for a 160+ mph/5 second 0-60 car.
/Adam