Gas Mileage

We hadn't driven a 2013 Nissan Sentra, the all-new compact sedan, until last week. And our drive was hardly representative, since we spent the bulk of it in the peculiar world of freeway traffic in Los Angeles. That means traffic moving at average speeds of anywhere from 60 to 85 mph, with...

The choice of subcompact cars on the market has never been better. Not just better in terms of numbers either, but in quality, reliability, safety, equipment and every other factor the average buyer looks for in a car. Gas mileage isn't bad either, even if it doesn't match some of the paper-thin...

The quest toward better gas mileage and incremental gains isn't relegated just to engine and transmission improvements, or to aerodynamics or weight reduction. Even when we're not talking hybrids, the move to smart electric components can bring some significant gains. Beyond electric power...

When a weather system dumps an uncommon amount of snow in your part of the world, thoughts often turn to how you might get about in it. Provided you've not got a seven-foot drift blocking you indoors, those plans might involve an all-wheel drive car. 4WD is no substitute for careful driving and a...

The Detroit Auto Show last month marked the debut of the a car with the lowest coefficient of drag of any production car--just 0.23. That car was the Mercedes-Benz CLA, a small sport sedan powered by a gasoline engine. Efficiency figures haven't yet been released, but we can imagine it being quite...

Who'da thunk it? Young buyers may love Camaros and Mustangs, but when it comes to smaller cars, American brands have traditionally played second best to imports. But the Chevrolet Spark minicar is proving much more successful, bucking all the trends. It's even stealing plenty of buyers off its...

We're always interested to hear what sort of cars our readers drive. We're even more interested to hear what gas mileage you're all getting from those cars. Testing a car for a weekend, or a week, is all well and good, but a wide cross-section of owners will always get wildly varying results...

Every month, the University of Michigan sends out its weighted average of the gas mileage of all new cars sold the previous month. And for January, the news is good. The new vehicles sold in the U.S. during January scored a sales-weighted average fuel efficiency of 24.5 mpg. That's up 0.4 mpg from...

We tend to like small cars, as a personal preference. But the very smallest of cars often don't get the best gas mileage, and they can feel subjectively unsafe in some driving conditions. So how did our 2013 Chevrolet Spark minicar do on gas mileage? We've concluded that--depending how you use...

All eyes are on Ford at the moment, following criticism that its hybrid models aren't getting anywhere near official EPA gas mileage. Consumer Reports has confirmed this, with the result of its testing on the 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid returning a bittersweet 39 mpg figure. On the one hand, 39 mpg is...

The 2013 Detroit Auto Show will mark the debut of a crossover concept from Honda, dubbed the 'Urban SUV' concept. It's set to be based on the next-generation Honda Fit, making it the latest in a line of downsized crossovers promising chunky styling with a fuel-efficient twist. They're a world away...

Chevrolet Volt owners love their cars. That's one thing we've realized since the Volt hit the market in December 2010. It's subsequently topped customer satisfaction surveys, saved a supertanker worth of gas, and driven over a hundred million miles on electricity alone. Now, one year after buying...

Cars averaging 23.8 mpg don't usually get much coverage on GreenCarReports--they simply aren't that green. In this instance though, that gas mileage figure doesn't refer to a particular car--it refers to every car sold in 2012. Researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research...

Startups making small, economical vehicles come and go, but one company offering a high-efficiency vehicle has big plans, buying a former General Motors assembly plant. Elio Motors is the company behind a three-wheeled car capable of 84 mpg highway, on nothing more complicated than gasoline...

The 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid is a comfortable, quiet, well appointed five-door compact hybrid hatchback that appears to get 35 to 40 mpg in most real-world usage. But it is not a 47-mpg car, from the bulk of the evidence available. The C-Max is selling well--much faster than the original Prius did...

High-mileage option packages have become quite familiar over the last few years, as buyers begin to seek ways to lower their gas bills. Ford SFE models, Cruze Ecos, HF-spec Civics and more: They're all designed to eke out an extra few MPG, using subtle but effective eco tweaks to largely standard...

It isn't just Hyundai and Kia in deep water over misleading MPG claims--now Ford is the subject of a lawsuit over the MPG of its hybrid models. The federal lawsuit concerns the fuel economy of its most recent hybrid models, the C-Max Hybrid and Fusion Hybrid. Filed on December 7, the lawsuit says...

Toyota has admitted that its Yaris small car isn't a marketing priority right now in the U.S. Instead, much of the company's efforts are going into the top-selling Corolla line--but when the firm's next-generation small car hits the streets, things could change. The next Toyota subcompact isn't yet...

In olden days, new models for the following year came out in September. Now, they're all over the calendar. The latest example is the 2014 Mazda Mazda6 sedan, of which several hundred already sit in Mazda showrooms across the country. Its highly efficient 184-hp SkyActiv 2.5-liter four-cylinder...

GM's full-size hybrid pickups, the Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid and GMC Sierra Hybrid, for much of the time they've been on sale, have offered the highest gas mileage of any full-size truck on the U.S. market. Yet these hybrid pickups, which were introduced for the 2009 model year, have been...