Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with mileage

I need a car!

Purtle — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:13:01 -0800

What car should I buy? I have to replace my 2003 Cavalier (worth 6k), and I want to find something with better gas mileage that is reliable. I don't think I can afford more than $10,000, and the closer to $6,000 the better. Hi,

I deliver sandwiches for my summer job, and a week ago my car was totaled while I was on the clock. An Escalade backed into my passenger side and did $5,500 in damage. My car is apparently only worth $6,000. It was a 2003 Cavalier with just under 60k miles. My parents and I bought it brand new in 2003 for $9,300 because of all the rebates and our GM employee discount. We decided to buy a brand new car for a couple of reasons:

1. My neighbor bought a 2002 Cavalier for $9,000 at the same time, and it seemed silly not to buy a new one for only $300 more.

2. My parents are terrified of their daughter stranded in the middle of nowhere. They wanted a reliable car so I could make the five hour drive from school to my hometown. They sprang for the extended warranty, and it paid off when I had to have the engine replaced at 40k miles. Ever since that happened I've been a believer in buying a car with a warranty.

Fast forward to 2008 and it's a totally different car market. Suddenly compact cars are in high demand, and for me to get a car that has a warranty (my Cavalier still had a year or two left) and similar MPG I have to spend at least 11k it seems. Everyone is telling me to buy a used Corolla, but the best I could get is a 2002 with 80K miles for $10,000. It seems to me that while a Toyota is more reliable than a GM car, if I have to spend 10k to get a decent one then I might as well buy a brand new GM. I could get an Aveo for about 9k or so, and it would have a warranty.

I also don't know what I need for this point in my life. I was relying on this car to get me through grad school, and now I have a year left and no car. My GTA stipend is not quite enough for me to pay rent AND a car payment. I could make a car payment for a month and then take my student loans and pay the car off in September. But I may not even need a car next year, or I may have a job that pays well enough that I could afford a good car. So what do I do for this year? Do I buy a used car and hope it doesn't need repairs, because I definitely can't afford that. Should I buy a brand new cheap Aveo and trade it in or sell it in a year? Would the Aveo maintain it's value to make that worthwhile? Should I just lease a car and decide what to get a year from now when I know what I'll be doing in the next phase of my life? Is that just throwing money away? Do you lose enough value in a brand new car that it would equal the cost of leasing a cheap car for a year? Can you lease a car for just one year?

The stress is killing me, and I need to figure this out fast. This is how I make a living, and while the other guy's insurance is going to pay for my damages and rental car, they're not going to pay for a rental for very long once they write me a check for the totaled car. I think I have about a week and a half to get a car.

Is there a google map type service for calculating gas usage?

jujube — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:24:50 -0800

By using Google maps, I can figure out not just how to get from point A to point B, but also the number of miles and approximate time it would take to get from A to B. Is there a map that will also let me approximate gallons of gas? Of course, while I can figure out a very rough approximate myself by dividing miles by my car's mpg, the mpg varies by road condition. So driving 50 miles instead of 40 miles doesn't automatically mean that I'm using more gas choosing the 50 mile route.
I'm assuming that when Google Maps (or Mapquest, etc.) gives me an approximate time, there is a database of various posted speed limits on the roads along the route that it is using to calculate estimated arrival time. So is there something that uses posted speed limits, density of cars, number of traffic lights/stop signs, etc., to approximate gallons of gas if I entered my make and year of car?

is extremely low mileage bad

umlaut — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:12:05 -0800

A friend has a 10-year old Lexus (with only ~50k miles on it!) that gets driven 2-4 miles per week. Is there any harm in this? (It is a second car for one person.) Oil would keep recirculating due to the weekly drive and the alternator should keep the battery charged. Right? I mean, if the car is fueled only once every 12-18 months can that be good for it? (sediment?) Would any other problems be likely?

Best mileage when traveling with a bike

Toekneesan — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:43:57 -0800

Driving from Pennsylvania to South Carolina with a bike and a kid cart for the bike. Which will create less drag, putting them on top of our Ford Focus wagon, or on a bike rack on the back?

Looking for a green family car

Reverend John — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 07:35:58 -0800

Help us pick a car! We're looking for a good used family car. We have two daughters, a 2 1/2 year old and a newborn and need a car that can accommodate an infant car carrier without putting the front passenger's knees in the glovebox. We'd really like something that gets good gas mileage and is reliable. We'd consider a hybrid, but its hard to find them (new or used) to test drive and check to see if the car seats fit well, and we're also a little concerned about the battery life on a used hybrid, as we've heard they can be expensive to replace.

A few more datapoints:

We really liked the Subaru Outback, but found its gas mileage to be a little disappointing. We also liked the Mazda 5 but were also disappointed with the gas mileage.

Can anyone suggest a used car with good fuel economy, decent room for the kids, and good reliability that we ought to consider?

At $4.40/gallon, OUCH!

LoopyG — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:44:39 -0800

Why is my cars gas mileage so low? 2 months ago I bought a '97 Honda Civic EX with 150K miles on it. Since that time I have performed some repiars including: New wheels and tires, replace all the belts, replace water pump, replace engine seals near the belts.

I have been watching my fuel usage, and have been seeing a measly 26mpg highway and 22mpg city. The manufacturer claims the car should get 38mpg highway and 32mpg city.

There are two factors I know probably reduce the mileage. One is the current tires are lower profile than the stock tires, and so probably knock about 2mpg off the mileage. Also, the car is old and has a lot of miles off it, so that should knock off a few mpg also. But other Civics the same age and miles driven get much better mileage than my car, so there must be something else.

The two ideas I have currently are get an oil change (its almost due anyway) and replace the air filter. But I am curious to other suggestions you MeFites have that could improve the mileage.

As for things like driving slower and combining trips, such suggestions are good tips but I already follow all such suggestions to the T. I drive an average of 150 miles per week (not including drives for vacations), and rarely go above 70mph. I also coast as much as possible, accelerate slowly, and use the brakes only when there isn't room to coast.

In any case, after this long post, I am eager to hear what suggestions you guys have for changes to make to the car or engine to improve the mileage. I am willing to spend as much as a couple hundred dollars to improve the mileage, as I estimate the lower mileage is costing me around $36/month in wasted gas.

Tricks to get better MPG

raikkohamilonso — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:21:09 -0800

Simple tricks to improve MPG? For instance, I've thought about removing the rear seats/internal molding to lighten my car. I've also thought about aero-improvements, such as moon-disc wheel covers, or even somehow making a cover over my rear wheel wells. I'll be removing my rear wing this weekend, but what other tweaks could I do? Other things: sealing off the "styling" holes in the front fascia, slightly over inflating tires, etc...

Do truck tuners and other supposed mileage boosting equipment work?

tosteka — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:02:24 -0800

Does the Hypertech Max Energy Programmer really increase fuel economy for trucks and SUVs? If so, why do auto manufacturers not simply include them in their vehicles so as to beat out the competition? I saw an ad for an aftermarket tuner that connects to the computer of trucks and SUVs and supposedly has an "economy" setting that can up your fuel economy by "2 to 6 MPG".

Do tuners really work to increase fuel economy, particularly for a 1/2 ton Ford with a 5.4L triton V8?

At first I was excited and wanted to try it, but with a price tag of nearly $380, I figured I'd better think twice. Still, at current fuel prices of $3.50/gal, and with only a 2 MPG increase, it would only take one year's worth of driving to pay for the unit with the fuel savings, assuming one drives 15,000 miles per year and goes from getting something like 16 MPG to something like 18 MPG.

I became skeptical, though, when I considered the pressure on the auto manufacturers to increase fuel economy. Surely if there were a legitimate way to boost efficiency by tweaking settings in the vehicle's computer, auto manufacturers would have already added the device to vehicles, with a switch in the dash as standard equipment, wouldn't they have?

Is there any conceivable reason why auto manufacturers wouldn't have already added this device to every vehicle?

While we're on the subject, there are a variety of MPG increasing strategies at this website. If these strategies are legit, why are they not standard? Are there any standouts that are worth a try?

The peachtrees are killing my gas mileage!

wondercow — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 10:30:04 -0800

How can I maximize fuel economy in a car with an automatic transmission? I know the general tricks about reducing weight, keeping tires inflated, being light on the gas and brakes, etc. (as discussed previously), so this question is targeted specifically at how the automatic transmission could factor into gas mileage. This is my first car with an automatic transmission (having driven manuals my whole life until now) and I am curious about what transmission setting I should use to maximize gas mileage. In case it matters, I have an 04 Honda Civic (not hybrid).

Having moved recently to Atlanta, I find myself in a lot of stop-and-go traffic and constantly driving up and down hills. This leads to a lot of up- and down-shifting when I leave the car in "D". It occured to me that perhaps I would be a bit better off by leaving the car in "D3" (one notch below "D") so it wouldn't shift so much. Is it better for gas mileage to keep the RPMs in the low-to-mid-range all the time rather than to be pivoting between low and high-ish RPMs? Is gas consumption directly proportional to engine RPMs?

How to drive fast while sparing the planet?

spitbull — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 03:02:04 -0800

Hypothetical-sensible-dream-car-boyzone-filter: After a long phase of big-city living, I may have to drive a lot. I don't want to be a total pig about fuel consumption or emissions. But I want serious performance. Let's say I have $25K . . . . So, let's say you were an old (as in 40-something) gearhead who hasn't owned a car (or shopped for one) in 10 years, because you live in a major metropolitan area where a car is only a pain in the ass. But let's say you faced the prospect of relocating to a place where the driving is not only easy, but fun (mountains!).

And let's say your heart belongs to products of the Chrysler Corporation ca. 1968-1972, the glory years of the 318ci small block V8, which kicked up an enormous amount of dust very, very quickly when seated under the hood of a (he wells up) 71 Plymouth Sebring you loved like a bride once upon a time (not that you'd kick a Charger out of bed either. Or a suitably juiced Duster, even).

Sigh. But suppose further that you were a sensible person, and not the sort to want to get 14 miles per gallon and spewing a superbly noxious cloud while the sea swallows up the coasts. And even though you liked working on cars, you didn't want to spend *every* weekend under the hood. Safety ain't a bad thing either, I guess, though it's not a top priority.

And let's say you could drop something around the mid-20s, which is to say, not that much for these days. Something used -- up to 4 or 5 years old -- would work fine (I'd prefer it, actually, especially if I can work on it). Availability of manual gearbox a must. FWD is fine (once I would have laughed at that), or AWD if the mileage is OK. Otherwise I am open to suggestions. Power, handling, road-feel, and general hotness, in that order, are my priorities, but I won't accept less than 25mpg average fuel economy, and would like to do better. Small is fine, too.

What Would Burt Reynolds Do? Would he drive a Subaru WRXsti (one that caught my eye, I like their looks ca. 2002-4)? A similar pocket rocket with character is probably the right category.

Gentlemen (and Lady Speedsters), start your engines, rev up your biases, and let the arguments fly.

What is a good high mileage car?

taumeson — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:06:01 -0800

I'm going to have to start driving many many miles throughout the week...let's say around 500-600. What kind of car should I get? I can afford a decent used car..BMW or Lexus, etc. Any ideas?

Does a truck work extra to pull a drafting car?

condour75 — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 21:11:29 -0800

Does drafting a truck theoretically lower the truck's mileage? There have been a few articles about the practice of hypermiling (most recently I saw it on MotherJones via kottke.) Hypermilers try to extend their gas mileage to extreme lengths, and one of their more dangerous practices is drafting a truck -- tailgating it to ride the vaccum the truck creates as it moves forward.

I blogged a little about this and mentioned that the drafting is technically zero-sum for the environment since the truck must use more gas to make up for towing the car. My brother disagreed, and suggested that the energy of the vacuum would otherwise be exerted on surrounding air.

Could this be one of those infuriating puzzles like the jet and the conveyor belt, or is there a simple answer?

mileage vs. age in used cars

needs more cowbell — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 10:22:58 -0800

All other things being equal, do I pick the older car with lower mileage or the later model with high mileage? I've seen the other thread, but I'm looking for advice that's a little more specific to my situation.

I'm buying my first car. It will be used, probably purchased privately, and it will cost less than $5000. It will probably be a Honda, Toyota, or Subaru (for their known reliability, etc). I also need an automatic transmission & four doors, which limits things a little when I'm looking for cheap cars. I live in Maryland, in case climate matters.

Should I go for lower mileage (under 100K, but probably over 80K from what I've seen) or for something that's newer but with high mileage? What about "really new" cars (say, 2001) that have 150K (or even more) on them? Let's say all the cars have been used for the same kind of driving (highway vs. city) and have been maintained equally well.

One thought I've heard is that ultimately it's rust, not usage, that kills cars, and cars rust regardless of how much they've been driven...hence newer is better, even with high mileage. I'm not sure if that makes sense, though. I had set 100K as an arbitrary limit, but I'm starting to wonder if that's silly.

How many miles are too many on a used vehicle?

JPigford — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 20:11:58 -0800

How many miles are too many on a used vehicle? My wife and I are looking to replace my '95 Chevy Blazer that has around 170k miles on it with something. We're going to be buying a used car as we just need something 4x4 for the winters and the convenience for when I need to make some trips out of our house (I work from home).

We've been looking at '97-'99 Ford Explorers and most seem to have around 65-90k miles on them at our price point (~$7-8,000).

Is a car with 80k miles worth buying? What's the key to a good deal on a used car as far as price/mileage match up?

wing on the back of a car increasing MPG? Color me dubious.

Wild_Eep — Fri, 05 May 2006 08:12:20 -0800

Last night on ABC news there was a guy with a VW beetle (silver) who put a wicked-huge wing on the back and claimed some ridiculously-high MPG figure. Alas, my google fu fails me. Why would this wing possibly work? They guy wasn't a tuner, AFAICT.

Old car with low miles = dry rot or not?

Slap Incognito — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 18:49:53 -0800

I just inherited a 1998 Mountaineer that has only 20,000 miles. It's never been tuned up and still has the original tires. I'm pretty sure the spark plugs are fouled because it's never been driven at highway speeds. Everything appears to be in great shape. What kind of problems can I expect from this car? I plan to give it a full tune up - new plugs, a new battery, new tires soon - but I'm wondering if components, such as hoses, might be prone to failure. Is dry rot an issue? I don't see any. My thanks in advance for your advice.

Reducing The Cost of Increasing Ones Milage

philmas — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 18:13:23 -0800

Are there any Federal tax credits or financial incentives (aside from the savings of minimizing fillup frequency) for buying a fuel efficient vehicle? The additional cost for the cars I've been looking at with high efficiency engines would take me roughly 3 years to break even (making a few assumptions about the cost of fuel, etc.). I'm looking for ways to soften the blow.

How do you make sure your car is getting the most mileage possible?

BuddhaInABucket — Sun, 29 May 2005 00:55:14 -0800

I'd really like to see what tricks of the trade you guys have to make sure your car is getting the most mileage it possibly can. I'm not interested in "buy a more fuel efficient car"- I'm already doing so. I want to know what driving habits I can pick up to make whatever I'm driving even more efficient.

For example, I've learned that if I accelerate slowly and stay below 2k RPMs (usually about 60mph on the freeway), I get almost 4 additional miles per gallon on my car then I do normally.

Is there anything else you guys would suggest?

what are the best "green" automobiles?

luriete — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 12:29:06 -0800

What are the most efficient cars readily available in the United States? Mileage, fuel & emissions and size are all important criteria.