What are the hypermile "sleepers"
 

With local prices of Hondas, Geos, etc skyrocketing...

What are the sleepers? The equivalents in hot rods would be something like an old Chevy Vega... with a 350cu V8 under the hood, or more recently a stock looking Civic with a hotrodded VTEC. You get the idea.

But we want a hypermiler sleeper, you know, cars that most people wouldn't think of being FE, but really doing a darn good job.

So give me your lists, what are the obvious, and what are the sleepers!!

I feel sorry for some of you Honda guys getting in the low 30's when I drive a Scion xB getting 40-41 lifetime average - this tank 43mpg (was 44 for a while then some short hops killed it) for a big white box! Here's a sleeper for ya!

That is super for a box!!

Volvo 850 wagon 5 speed. 35mpg at 65mph.
BMW 318i 5 speed with a few minor tweaks. 40mpg at 65mph.

I dont' know why there are no Corollas on this board, but the new ones do better than new civics and the older ones can't be that much worse. What about a 2 door Tercel from back in the day? That's prolly not too shabby. I guess more of these cars are in automatic form than Honda. I dunno--seems worth a look.

My neighbors used to have an old Mazda 323. Real basic car. Prolly like an '86 or '87. That thing was great on gas. So I'd say a real basic budget Mazda. You can use the www.fueleconomy.gov and search different makes and models from the time period you are interested in.

I'd say any Japanese or really foreign vehicle is going to be better than American made for FE and I'm not just referring to their generally smaller size and motors--even them little American Makes just don't seem to have very sophisticated engines for saving fuel. But that's just my opinion.

Olderish Kias and Hyundais dont' seem to be very good either. But maybe late models have improved.

I know nothing of small Nissans Fuel Economy. If I had to choose a non Honda make, I'd probably go with Toyota (Corolla) or Mazda (323 or similarly small/budget). I may edit this post if I can think of or discover other sleepers.

EDIT

1998 Findings: City/Hwy. The following vehicles are 1998 Manual Transmission. All MPG are new EPA.

A regular civic gets 27/34.
An HX gets 30/39.

Mazda Protoge gets 26/33
Toyota Corolla gets 27/34 (same as regular civic)
Toyota Tercel gets 27/35. (I believe this is the CE trim)
Saturn SL and SC gets 24/36.
Hyundai Accent gets 25/33
Suzuki Esteem 26/33 but probably sister badge to the Mazda Protoge.

VW Jetta Diesel gets 33/44

Reply with roughly the year you are looking at and/or how much you are looking to spend and I will post more findings. :)

1999 Tercel gets 28/36 (CE trim I believe)
1997 Tercel gets 28/35 (I believe this is the CE trim)
1996 Tercel gets 29/36 (CE trim I think) That's not so far off '98 Civic HX territory.https://www.canadiandriver.com/articl...s/96tercel.jpg

2000 Toyota Echo gets 29/37 (the Automatic only gets 26/34)

People with 4th generation Camaros (1993-2002) in both v6 and v8 commonly report 27mpg. I suspect, owned and driven by an experienced hypermiler, it could reach 35mpg.

The new 5th generation that's coming out next year will most likely be offered (in the base model) with a 300hp v6 GDI (Gasoline Direct Injection) engine, which combines some of the efficiencies of a diesel engine (no throttle, so no intake pumping losses at any RPM/gas pedal level). That engine will most likely be offered (again, in the base model) with a 6 speed manual. Unfortunately it's going to be pretty heavy (probably 3,600 to 3,800 pounds) and not extremely aerodynamic, but EPA rating may be as high as 30mpg highway.

chevy, don't laugh, prizm. less expensive than its corolla twin!

old EPA, which can be achieved/beaten, is 32/41(5 speed).

i'm getting 40+ combined w/ more mods to come.

Your right about the Chevy Prism. It's just largely a rebranded Toyota Corolla.

Toyota Camry's with a 4 speed automatic are pretty good. Another non-obvious possibility is a Saturn. Their biggest issue mechanically is the timing chain, but they seem to be good for about 200,000.

A Honda with a blown head gasket is a pretty cheap canditate. For a $1000 you can get a used engine installed or for a couple of $100 and replacement of the head gasket, more often than not the engines are Ok. I'd get a multi-level steel head gasket, instead of putting it a stock head gasket.

I had a 1992 camaro RS 5.0 with a 5-speed that got up to 33 mpg but as low as 12 mpg in all city so it was a huge difference

Cars equipped with GM's 3800 motor.

I owned a 2002 Hyundai Accent GS 2 door 5 speed 1.6L DOHC hatchback. It got low 30's in town and an easy 40+ mpg on the highway. I should have never traded it in on the 2003 SRT-4.


I also had a 1991 Chevrolet Cavalier RS 2 door coupe 5 speed 2.2L OHV 4 cylinder. It too would usually get just over 30 mpg in town and just over 40 mpg on the highway. I saw as high as 45 mpg on the highway with it, and that's before I knew how to drive to get the best FE!!


The 2nd generation Cavaliers ('90-'94) can be bought for $500 - $1k in running shape and they're a dime a dozen in junk yards so parts are cheap and easy to get. I'll be playing with aero mods on my '91 Cavalier Station Wagon to see what it can get on the highway in the next few months.

Just look at my Mazda, 1995 Protege Lx 5speed. Getting great results using what i have learned from this website. The best i could get when i bought it used was 37 mpg hwy 30 or so city, i drove it "normal"(70 to 75 on the hwy, fast starts, no shut off at lights, worn parts). I could still pick one up around 1500 or so with 120k on the clock. They are safe for a small car with crash bars and solid, sturdy passenger cabin.

The old Saturns are pretty good. my wife gets low 30's out of her 94 SL2 auto and she beats the TAR out of it!! Barly runs under 75mph!! With some care, it should easly get upper 30's

Malibu Maxx. Only made 4 years and taken off the market BECAUSE it's an FE sleeper. I can get 41.8 MPG sustained at 62 MPH on flat ground on cruise control, bone stock, and my wife's is the luxury model.

It has more cargo room than a Jeep Liberty, seats 5, and is actually 1/2" SHORTER than its smaller brother the Malibu. 40+ MPG for a "station wagon"!!!

Since Mazda Protege was mentioned -

Ford Escort - I've had a wagon for almost 10 years now (gave it to my daughter 2 years ago but left it in my name). She claims to break 40mpg every so often, judging by the line of cars I've seen behind her when passing her out on the road, I believe it. :(

i suppose my integra could be considered as such

my last couple of tanks have been 43mpg and 40mpg respectively.

Dodge/Mitsubishi Colt is one to look out for as well. As well as any other relatives like the Eagle Summit. 80s versions had a "dual stick" feature, basically high and low range gearing for sport or economy, or if you like, an "8 speed" gearbox.

I agree with Three6eight. But ONLY for highway use. Around town is a poor18-19 mpg. Paid $1000 for this ride. How much do you expect to "save" with an expensive ride?

https://www.gassavers.org/garage/view/1266

Hmm...so the GM 3800 v6 is good? The 1980 4.1 in my Buick is an expanded version of that engine.... ;)

A 2007+ Mini with the new 4cyl from PSA is supposed to get low 30s. The S model is turbocharged now instead of supercharged. I'll bet a good driver could realistically get upper 30s with the normally aspirated version at least.

That said, how about old sports cars? Opel GTs, Saab Sonnet, Fiat 850. I've never owned those but they're small, lightweight, and have very small engines.

The new 3200 and 3800 GM engines are WAY different than that 4.1 - different injectors, pattern and computer, giving MUCH better FE.

Anyone else have a 40+ MPG station wagon? Malibu Maxx gets BETTER mileage than the Malibu!

Yeah, I was joking about the 4.1. It's got a 4bbl carb, so you can damn well bet on the "different injectors". :D In fact, my car has no computer or o2 sensors, though the manual says that some with the 3.8 did.

Nissan Bluebird (Altima). EPA is low (21 or something?) but I was getting 54MPG as my hypermiling improved. The only aero mods were a partial front grille block, and tiny rear wheel skirts (two inches from the top of the arch only), with driving style being the main factor. If you could find a 2.0 SR20DE Altima I think this would be a good base for hypermiling (especially as that engine has good low-down torque).

Yeah around town they are horrible.

I have the Supercharged variant and its pulled off a best off 33 MPG on the freeway from San Diego to FairField, last time I made that trip it pulled off 31.5. No one beleives me when I say that but its true :)

88 Nissan Sentra
 

In college I had a 1988 Nissan Sentra with no A/C or power anything. I had no idea what hypermiling was, and still got around 30 MPG. That was in the 90s and the car was about 10 years old.

https://www.gassavers.org/gaslog/sig.php?id=1477

Bmw 318is in my book, but with 4 valves per cylinder and double overhead cams and 4 ignition coils and multiport fuel rails you REALLY have to drive this car SUPER nice to see 35mpg.
Otherwise if you drive it normal, 20-25...

The thing about it is, most folks see a bmw they just don't assume you could get decent FE. The 318 all it has is a 4-banger, the mini cooper's engine but with a fuller body it doesn't look the 'mini' part.

As for power, she won't win any races but she will keep up with most of today's 6 cylinders, it's a car that will reach 100mph without much further ado and it LIKES to rev (think 3000+ rpm's), you can redline this baby time and again, the power curve pulls strong and throughout the entire 3000-6500 rpm range without any loss... The bmw is one of the only cars in the world that you DO push TO the redline before shifting, the 318 is by far not the fastest but for a 4-cylinder this is one peppy bitty roughly along the same lines as the Honda Prelude.


Which that might be another, the Prelude (4-cyl version, not V-tec).
Also I am thinking the Vw Golf GTI (again the 4-cyl).

I believe any of these is capable of getting decent FE but also keep you from having to eat crud all of the time. Again they won't win any races but these three are no joke in the acceleration and pep department (and I mean PEPpee). Now there will be those who will leave you eating dust but I can almost guarantee most of the Nascar rejects will think twice before racing you again.

So there's my line-up, in no particular order:
Bmw 318is, Honda Prelude, Vw Golf GTI

2000 Mitsu Mirage had an OLD EPA rating of 33/41 for the 5 speed w/ the 1.5L. I think the 1997-2000 was the same. Not sure beyond that. The 96 Accent I have had an OLD EPA rating of 37 highway, and the best I've done so far is 42. I would think I could get 46+ out of the Mirage then.

As long as you are including BMW's then the 325e and 528e from the 80's should be mentioned.. They both were designed for good mileage, low rpm, low friction engines with very high final drive ratios and an analog mpg readout stock from the factory.

The GTI is a good one. A decent percentage of GTI drivers on the golfmkv.com forum report 30 to 40 mpg, and there are a couple reports of 40+ from non-hypermilers. It's got a 2.0 liter 4 cylinder with turbo. Boost gets pretty strong at 2000 rpm so you probably have to really stay out of it, but it's got gobs of torque. The car unfortunately weighs about 3000 pounds, pretty heavy for its size.

Interesting bit about it: It's offered with either of two transmissions - 6 speed manual, or 6 speed DSG. No traditional automatic. No torque converter. The DSG is two manual transmissions and two clutches, and the computer operates them (automatically or as commanded by the driver). It's two instead of just one so it can shift insanely fast -- as quick as 8ms for an expected upshift. The computer has the inactive transmission in gear and the clutch halfway engaged, and dumps it as soon as the other clutch is loose.

Anyway, the DSG offers all the practical advantages of the manual, with almost none of the disadvantages. I suspect that a hypermiler could really squeeze a lot out of it. The big disadvantage: Low gearing. Despite having an additional gear, it has the same total range as my 5 speed. It can easily be shifted into 6th at 25mph, and is up to 3000 rpm at 70 mph, 2000 rpm at 50 mph, which means you're in some pretty heavy boost at highway speeds.

I have to give another point to the Chevy Prizim. My ex had a 2000 model with an auto trans. With no particular attempt to drive for maximum FE she could pull down a consistent 38mpg.

My current sweetie has a 1999 Saturn SL (base model w/5-spd). Since she brought her highway speeds down from 85mph to 60-70mph she is now pulling down ~42mpg (with her best current tank being 46mpg). We just aired her tires up to 38psi, and are expecting that mpg number to go higher.

For some reason Honda has fallen behind Toyota in the FE department. The Fit is a prime case in point. Although I think the xB and Fit get similar EPA numbers?

hmmm, interesting...
I don't get much out of my '88 325ic, 17-22 city, maybe 27 highway.
6 cylinder automatic convertible, maybe stick sedans are better and you did say the e (not the i)...

For myself my 325ic doesn't even lend itself to hypermiling nowhere near as much as I would like it to, but the 318is stick sure does wow I can do some EOC's in that one it's just amazing I can coast for miles it seems lol also dwb'ing is REAL nice, the stout shocks help it corner so the performance aspect widens the velocity margins at which one can still corner safely.

The "e" on the 325e and 528e is for the Greek letter eta, which is often used in engineeringspeak to stand for efficiency.. In the case of the BMW eta models that is just what it meant, they were designed for efficiency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_M20

The 2.7 L M20B27 was designed for efficiency (thus the e for the Greek letter eta in 325e). It had an 84 mm (3.3 in) bore and a longer 81 mm (3.2 in) stroke for a total displacement of 2693 cc. The eta engine used the same "200" head casting as the carbureted 2.0 liter and K-jetronic 2.3 as featured in the E21 but only utilizes four camshaft bearings for reduced internal friction. The heads still have seven journals cast into them though and can be drilled to oil a seven bearing cam.

Output was 121 hp at 4250 RPM for all models produced through model year 1987 and 127 hp at 4800 RPM for the final year of production in 1988. Peak torque is 170 ft?lbf at about 3250 RPM for all years of the eta. This was the first engine BMW built with fuel economy as the top priority. In production it was coupled to either a 2.93:1 differential for the E28 5 series and most E30 3 series models or a 2.79:1 for early E30 3 series cars with manual transmissions. The tall final drive gearing was required to keep the engine in its best operating range at various road speeds. These features did achieve exceptional efficiency, but at the expense of the performance typically associated with the marque.

All eta engines used Bosch Motronic engine management systems that were calibrated for maximum fuel economy. The result was a very conservative spark advance curve and fuel delivery curve. In addition, the Motronic had a built-in rev limiter that engaged at about 4750 rpm. This very low redline was the result of the four bearing cam, soft valve springs, intake manifold and camshaft design. Due to the very low overlap and short duration of the cam and the intake manifold tuning, the motor does not make any power over about 5,000 RPM.

325e and 528e BMWs are still fairly easy to find on the used market.. A nice one can be had for around $2500 or so..

Parts are available, the little Bimmers are enthusiasts cars so there is a big aftermarket in keeping them running.

Good FE cars...

1975 Datsun B-210 (other years probably similar)...mine got up to 32 mpg w/o any unusual driving techniques

Just about any small diesel car (Chevette, VW Rabbit, Mazda 626) of the early '80s.

Something a little bigger? My '83 Eldorado runs at about 25 or so mpg on the freeway...not too bad for what it is. The later model Lincoln town cars (after about '91 or so) run around 24 mpg on the freeway.

The older MINI had a Brazilian Chrysler engine in it and the new one has a Peugeot/Citroen/BMW 4 in it. The 318 had a BMW engine.

BMW eta engines ARE great for FE in the BMW 6 department. But keep in mind the 4 cyls BMW was using at the time were great as well. The eta was a move to put a 6 cyl into a small US-bound BMW as there was no "6" option for the earlier 320i and 2002 cars while still being stingy on gas. So don't rule out the e30 318i, either.

I think my 9-5 is rather sleeperish myself being a big 3500 lb crusier that in my driving is seeing over 30 mpg

I used to have a 1980 Pontiac Bonneville, 5.7L V8. Got 30 hwy, cruise control, 55 MPH. No ethanol in the gas, either.

We fit 11 people in it one time, and had the larger 2-door (bigger than the 4-door!). Nobody in the trunk either, 11 people between front & back seats.

I had a genius mechanic. This was in college. I went back to him one time and he had just plain vanished, even the landlord didn't know how to get ahold of him. Wonder if he figured out some of those carb secrets.

The first time I got a tuneup from him, I asked him to turn on the car so I could hear what it sounded like. He politely informed me that it was indeed on! You couldn't hear this thing idle, the tailpipe was merely warm, but I went from 18 hwy to 30 MPG hwy due solely to his tuneup. Big cars CAN get good mileage. That's why I want to switch to propane.

I bet it was much lighter than an equivalent sized modern car. My 1980 2 door Lesabre weighs in at 3500 pounds, svelt for a car with a trunk big enough to park a VW in.

My dad actually put a 350 in a vega. He even put the 12 bolt posi in it and still is capable of over 30 mpg. The engine puts out roughly 300 hp. The transmission is a 700r4. This car could do a lot better with a smaller cam, fuel ingection, and some aero mods. This car could easily get 40 mpg and still outrun most cars on the road (chirping the tires in third). This car just goes to show a bigger hammer can be better

1984 Nissan Sentra Diesel.


regards
gary