Every year there are winners and losers for the title of best gas mileage car. And while you may know who the current MPG leader in the current year, do you remember which model was the most fuel efficient three years ago? What about five? To help you in your search for cheap used cars that get great gas mileage every weekend we will pick a year and review the best mileage leaders for that particular year. This week we start with the best gas mileage cars of 2011.
Best Gas Mileage Cars
Toyota Prius
Honda Civic hybrid
Honda Insight
Chevrolet Cruze
Smart fortwo
Hyundai Elantra
Lexus CT 200h
Ford Fiesta
Honda CR-Z
MINI Cooper
51 City / 48 Hwy
40 City / 43 Hwy
40 City / 43 Hwy
28 City / 42 Hwy
33 City / 41 Hwy
29 City / 40 Hwy
43 City / 40 Hwy
29 City / 38 Hwy
31 City / 37 Hwy
29 City / 37 Hwy
We start this weekend with some fairly recent cars so finding the cheap used cars on this list might be a bit of a struggle since most will be fairly new with low miles. The good news is there are plenty of 40 mpg cars still to choose from, something you won't find much of as we go back into farther years. It's no surprise hybrid cars rule this list either, though it is a bit of a surprise to see a Lexus over 40 MPG highway as well as so many Honda cars. While the Prius is likely to be widely known as the best bas mileage car, there still are several sleeper cars to investigate such as the Elantra and Fiesta.
Best Gas Mileage Trucks 2011
Ford Ranger
Toyota Tacoma
GMC Canyon
Nissan Frontier
Silverado 1500
22 City / 27 Hwy
20 City / 26 Hwy
18 City / 25 Hwy
19 City / 23 Hwy
15 City / 21 Hwy
No question light trucks are going to rule this list, with the Ford Ranger leading all other used trucks in the MPG category. Midsized trucks like the GMC Canyon (and its sister truck the Chevy Colorado) and the Nissan Frontier also do very well if you need a truck with good gas mileage but don't need a full size pickup. If you do need to graduate to the full size, the Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 are the best used trucks for 2011 with 15 mpg city and 21 mpg highway.
Best Gas Mileage SUVs 2011
Chevrolet HHR
GMC Terrain
Hyundai Tucson
Jeep Patriot
Honda CR-V
22 City / 32 Hwy
22 City / 32 Hwy
22 City / 30 Hwy
23 City / 29 Hwy
21 City / 28 Hwy
While many might complain, possibly correctly, that the HHR is more of a car masquerading as a SUV then an SUV that somewhat resembles a car, the GMC Terrain (and Chevy Equinox), Hyundai Tucson, Jeep Patriot, and Honda CR-V offer some attractive targets to shop for in the cheap SUV category that get good gas mileage. While none of these models seat more then five, additional passenger space generally comes at the cost of fuel economy. See some of our other articles on cars that seat more passengers to compare those models. That's it for this week, check back next week as we review the best gas mileage cars of 2010.