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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / General Car Topics / June 2008Best gas mileage in something used & affordable?
What RELIABLE car can I pickup used, for the least cost, between the years of say, 1992-1996, that will get the very best real life gas mileage in city driving, and I can get with fully automatic trans and AC? >What RELIABLE car can I pickup used, for the least cost, between the years >of say, 1992-1996, that will get the very best real life gas mileage in >city driving, and I can get with fully automatic trans and AC? If you can handle the smaller size, consider a Toyota Tercel. They get in the mid to high 30's local driving and up to around 40 over the road. I bought my wife one new in 1993 and she is still happily driving it with 165K on the clock and counting. > What RELIABLE car can I pickup used, for the least cost, between the years > of say, 1992-1996, that will get the very best real life gas mileage in > city driving, and I can get with fully automatic trans and AC? Toyota Corolla, Toyota Echo, and Honda Civic should all give you good mileage. However, if you want the best mileage (and a cheaper price), get a standard (manual) transmission and learn to drive a manual. Jeff >> What RELIABLE car can I pickup used, for the least cost, between the >> years of say, 1992-1996, that will get the very best real life gas [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Jeff Is there still much difference in gas mileage between standards & automatics? I got the impression that it's down to a pretty negligible amount... Cathy >>> What RELIABLE car can I pickup used, for the least cost, between the >>> years of say, 1992-1996, that will get the very best real life gas [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Cathy It's usually 1 or 2 mpg. But, the OP did say "least cost" and "best real life gas mileage." Standards are usually cheaper to buy than automatics, because there are so few people willing to drive them. Then again, the OP wants good and cheap. Unfortunately, to get good you can't be cheap. Jeff >>>> What RELIABLE car can I pickup used, for the least cost, between the >>>> years of say, 1992-1996, that will get the very best real life gas [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > > Jeff Like the old sign says: "You can have it good, you can have it cheap, and you can have it fast. Pick any two of the three, but you can't have all three." I always caution people that if they have any back problems to think real hard before getting a manual. I had to give up manual trannies due to how the clutch aggravates the back. I drove a Subaru manual for years - and it had an extremely light clutch, and I couldn't believe much better my back got when I sold it and started driving an automatic for my daily driver. I have a daughter that is discovering the same thing, and she and her husband are in the process of switching their two manuals over to automatics. Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x') <...> > I always caution people that if they have any back problems to think > real hard before getting a manual. I had to give up manual trannies due [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > thing, and she and her husband are in the process of switching their two > manuals over to automatics. Interesting. I can see how this would help some people with back problems. How is she switching the manuals over? Is she buying new transmissions and parts? Wouldn't it be easier to just buy new cars with automatic transmissions? ;-) Jeff > Bill Putney > (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my > address with the letter 'x') > <...> > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Jeff Smarta$$ :) Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x') > I always caution people that if they have any back problems to think > real hard before getting a manual. I had to give up manual trannies due > to how the clutch aggravates the back. I drove a Subaru manual for > years - and it had an extremely light clutch, and I couldn't believe > much better my back got when I sold it and started driving an automatic > for my daily driver. An auto tranny is also ideal if you do lots of stop-start driving in town or the city which would otherwise give you cramps in the left leg if you use a manual. Jeff <kidsdoc2000@hotmail.com> wrote : > It's usually 1 or 2 mpg. But, the OP did say "least cost" and "best > real life gas mileage." Standards are usually cheaper to buy than [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Jeff I'd sacrified 1-2 MPG for automatic. We saw a car parked in front of a pizza place this evening, that looked like a Smart Car from a distance. My friend said; no it's not a smart car, it's too big. It turned out to be a Yaris that the pizza delivery guy was driving. >>> What RELIABLE car can I pickup used, for the least cost, between the >>> years of say, 1992-1996, that will get the very best real life gas [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Cathy It depends on the skill and attention of the driver. If you take the engine up to redline before each shift, fuel economy will suffer. The EPA mileage is pretty much the same because automatic transmisisons have become more efficient and have more gears.  SignatureRay O (correct punctuation to reply) "Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote in message >> Is there still much difference in gas mileage between standards & >> automatics? I got the impression that it's down to a pretty negligible >> amount... [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > EPA mileage is pretty much the same because automatic transmisisons have > become more efficient and have more gears. I think that you have it it Ray. Lots to do with the driver. If you have a low power car and automatic, some drivers will tend to just put the gas to the floor at each stop light. While it was a long time back, I had a 81 Datsun and was in the dealer for new brakes. Talking to another that was there , it seems we had the same car except his was an auto. I was getting about 10 mpg more (35 for me and about 25 for him). He was complaining about how slow his car was to take off from a stoplight. My car had a 5 speed. The 5 th was more like an overdrive . > "Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote in message >> Is there > still much difference in gas mileage between standards & [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > He was complaining about how slow his car was to take off from a > stoplight. My car had a 5 speed. The 5 th was more like an overdrive . That is same speech I used to give customers who complained about fuel economy... SignatureRay O (correct punctuation to reply) > I think that you have it it Ray. Lots to do with the driver. > If you have a low power car and automatic, some drivers will tend to just [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > complaining about how slow his car was to take off from a stoplight. My > car had a 5 speed. The 5 th was more like an overdrive . I remember that those old Datsuns had 3 speed autos with wide ratios, no torque converter lock-up and no electronic control, unlike the autos of today. >> getting about 10 mpg more (35 for me and about 25 for him). He was >> complaining about how slow his car was to take off from a stoplight. My [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > torque converter lock-up and no electronic control, unlike the autos of > today. I have an '89 Subaru GL Coupe with one of these. Still manages 28 MPG overall! > Is there still much difference in gas mileage between standards & > automatics? I got the impression that it's down to a > pretty negligible amount... You are correct, though it is somewhat manufacturer dependent. Some automatics even beat manuals for years after about 2002. fueleconomy.gov is a good resource for comparing two different cars. For Toyota, consider especially the early 1990s Toyota Tercels. Jeff <kidsdoc2000@hotmail.com> wrote : >> What RELIABLE car can I pickup used, for the least cost, between the >> years of say, 1992-1996, that will get the very best real life gas [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Jeff No way. I drive too much, it would be a real pain. > Jeff <kidsdoc2000@hotmail.com> wrote : > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > No way. I drive too much, it would be a real pain. Not once you learn it - shifting becomes automatic. <g> I still often reach for the shift lever when starting from a dead stop. I drove manuals for 31 years, & have had automatics for the last 10 years; old habits die hard. Cathy >> Jeff <kidsdoc2000@hotmail.com> wrote : >> [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Cathy Hah! I drove manuals for so long, I have to make myself *not* let up on the gas pedal at shift points when I'm driving automatics. Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x') >> I still often reach for the shift lever when starting from a dead stop. I >> drove manuals for 31 years, & have had automatics for the last 10 years; old [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Hah! I drove manuals for so long, I have to make myself *not* let up on > the gas pedal at shift points when I'm driving automatics. The *REAL* hard part of driving ATs is NOT punching the 'clutch' and hitting the wider brake pedal and sending everything flying to the front of the car! >>> I still often reach for the shift lever when starting from a dead stop. >>> I [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > hitting the wider brake pedal and sending everything flying to the front > of the car! I've never done that, but have slammed my left foot against the floor a few times - mostly in the first year of driving an automatic. Haven't done that fruitless little maneuver in a l-o-n-g time, thank goodness. Cathy "Cathy F."... > "Hachiroku" ... >> Cathy wrote: [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > Cathy What I find myself doing now is doing the PriusFoot thing where I lift up on the pedal and then lightly press it back down when I reach cruising speed on both the manual Jeep and the automatic Sienna... Tomes > "Cathy F."... >> "Hachiroku" ... [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > speed on both the manual Jeep and the automatic Sienna... > Tomes The very, very first thing I did 'wrong' was when I drove my (first) new '98 automatic off the dealer's lot. There's a tad of an incline for a few feet adjacent to the road. You have to pull up as far/as near to the road as you can - for visibility, then check the oncoming traffic. Turned out there was a lot of traffic & there's no shoulder on that road, so I went to let the car roll back a few inches away from the edge of the lot/the road. Ha! No such thing happened any longer! I do miss that little perk of a manual. Cathy >> I've never done that, but have slammed my left foot against the floor a >> few times - mostly in the first year of driving an automatic. Haven't [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > up on the pedal and then lightly press it back down when I reach > cruising speed on both the manual Jeep and the automatic Sienna... Tomes It probably works well by getting you into a higher gear sooner, eh? "Hachiroku ... >>> I've never done that, but have slammed my left foot against the floor a >>> few times - mostly in the first year of driving an automatic. Haven't [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > It probably works well by getting you into a higher gear sooner, eh? Don't think so in the Sienna, I usually do it at a line-out speed, but it might. Have not thought that thru. In the Jeep it is a manual trans and all that does is make it pause a little bit... Tomes >"Hachiroku" <Trueno@e86.GTS> wrote... >>>> I still often reach for the shift lever when starting from a dead >>>> stop. I drove manuals for 31 years, & have had automatics for the last >>>> 10 years; old habits die hard. >>> >>> Hah! I drove manuals for so long, I have to make myself *not* let up >>> on the gas pedal at shift points when I'm driving automatics. Why not? It tells the transmission to 'shift now' - I still do it. It's not really necessary on a computer controlled tranny, because it can tell the ECU to cut fuel momentarily. But older cars with an all hydraulic valve body it picks up on the cue when you feather the pedal, and the shifts are much smoother. Then you get back on the gas. I've gotten to my destination, and found I left a half can of soda on the back bumper - it's still there. Drive smooth and easy, and the car will live a lot longer. >> The *REAL* hard part of driving ATs is NOT punching the 'clutch' and >> hitting the wider brake pedal and sending everything flying to the front [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >times - mostly in the first year of driving an automatic. Haven't done that >fruitless little maneuver in a l-o-n-g time, thank goodness. That brake pedal slam move is a lot more dramatic if you are driving passengers around for a living. Drive a stick car to work, then hop in a Van with an automatic to take people to their doctor's appointments. Did that for a few years in my misbegotten youth, and had to explain that 'pedal stab' more than once... Switch back and forth a lot, and you can also get the opposite. You're rolling up to the red light at the bottom of the off-ramp, and the car bucks twice and the engine dies if you aren't real fast. "Oh yeah, this one's stick. You have to push in the clutch..." BT, DT, Have the tee-shirt. --<< Bruce >>-- >> The *REAL* hard part of driving ATs is NOT punching the 'clutch' and >> hitting the wider brake pedal and sending everything flying to the [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > few times - mostly in the first year of driving an automatic. Haven't > done that fruitless little maneuver in a l-o-n-g time, thank goodness. I've been driving the Supra a lot recently (AT) since the weather has been really nice, but I drove the Mazda (5-sp) over the weekend, and the other day I got in the Supra and went to push the clutch to start the engine...DUH! But, I haven't done the foot-on-the-brake thing for a long time either...after almost getting rear ended when I was 21... >>> I still often reach for the shift lever when starting from a dead stop. >>> I [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > hitting the wider brake pedal and sending everything flying to the front > of the car! I have one this. Long ago, but it was done. Tomes > What RELIABLE car can I pickup used, for the least cost, between the years > of say, 1992-1996, that will get the very best real life gas mileage in > city driving, and I can get with fully automatic trans and AC? I bought a 95' Geo Prism/Toyota Corolla 3 years ago at 135K/mi and now have 190K/mi on it. I only paid $1500 for it and the a/c and heat both still work great. Any car I can get 55K miles out of for $1500 I would consider a great deal. "Reasoned Insanity" <nowhere@cox.net> wrote : >> What RELIABLE car can I pickup used, for the least cost, between the >> years of say, 1992-1996, that will get the very best real life gas >> mileage in city driving, and I can get with fully automatic trans >> and AC? > > I bought a 95' Geo Prism/Toyota Corolla Same car? > "Reasoned Insanity" <nowhere@cox.net> wrote : > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Same car? Pretty much, yes. SignatureRay O (correct punctuation to reply) "Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote : >> "Reasoned Insanity" <nowhere@cox.net> wrote : >> [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Pretty much, yes. Who made it though? > "Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote : > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > Who made it though? New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. ("NUMMI"), a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors, in Fremont, CA makes the Prism sold in the U.S. Corollas sold in the U.S. are either assembled by Toyota in Japan or Cambridge, Ontario, or by NUMMI. The Geo (later, Chevrolet) Prism and Corolla are based on the same platform and are essentially the same car. The Prism is basically a re-badged Corolla. SignatureRay O (correct punctuation to reply) >> "Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote : >> [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > and are essentially the same car. The Prism is basically a re-badged > Corolla. Except the Prism used Delco electrics. As they wear out or just break down, replace them with the equivalent Denso parts... Also, IIRC, the Corolla FX was made by NUMMI, but didn't use Delco electrics. > "Reasoned Insanity" <nowhere@cox.net> wrote : > > I bought a 95' Geo Prism/Toyota Corolla > > Same car? Almost, except for cosmetics and the lower resale price for the Prizm because few people know it's a Corolla under its skin. >> What RELIABLE car can I pickup used, for the least cost, between the >> years [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > still work great. Any car I can get 55K miles out of for $1500 I would > consider a great deal. I have never tried it, but have always thought it might be cheeper to buy a car for around $ 1000 or so and drive it without doing anything but maybe changing the oil and putting in gas. When it dies on the road, pull the license tag off and leave it for the state to pull off. Then get another car for around the same price. |
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