You’re sick of your SUV and thinking of getting a car that’s new to you, but which ones get the best gas mileage for the price? Consumer Reports has the answer — a list of the 7 most fuel efficient used cars for under $10,000.
Why buy used? Well, as CR says “depreciation accounts for 46 percent of the owner costs over a five-year period.” Why not let someone else take the hit?
By focusing on a nearly-new model, say 2-3 years old, you can find a vehicle that offers comparable fuel economy, performance, safety, and reliability as a new car, often with some transferable warranty coverage remaining.
Amen! Anyway, here’s the list. Some of the cars are older than 2-3 years, but hey. They’re all under $10k.
Here’s the list:
- 2000 Honda Insight (manual) 51 mpg
- 2001-02 Toyota Prius 41 mpg
- 2000-05 Toyota Echo 38 mpg
- 1998-2002 Chevrolet Prizm 32 mpg
- 1998 Mazda Protegé LX 32 mpg
- 1998-2000 Toyota Corolla LE 32 mpg
- 1998-2001 Acura Integra LS (manual) 32 mpg
Consumer Reports also has a list of the top cars from $10,000-$20,000, which you can view here.
Best used cars for fuel economy [Consumer Reports]
(Photo: smcgee )
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@battra92: Oooh, way to push the envelope
We should have had these cars ten years ago and they should be boasting about mpgs in the 50s and 60s by now.
My 1991 Isuzu Stylus gets 37 MPG (Imperial) on average, and it has a semi usable backseat and deep trunk.
Are these two really purchasable for 10k right now? If you can even find an Insight, they weren’t exactly that common in most of the US, even when originally produced.
1. 2000 Honda Insight (manual) 51 mpg
2. 2001-02 Toyota Prius 41 mpg
These two are pieces of crap and truly “econo-cars.” The Prizm much moreso than the Echo.
3. 2000-05 Toyota Echo 38 mpg
4. 1998-2002 Chevrolet Prizm 32 mpg
These two are actually pretty decent cars.
5. 1998 Mazda Protegé LX 32 mpg
6. 1998-2000 Toyota Corolla LE 32 mpg
Any of this model year Integra I’ve seen has been beat up and abused. Even the lower powered LS/GS models.
7. 1998-2001 Acura Integra LS (manual) 32 mpg
@battra92: My 2004 Kia Rio does. Never put more than 8.4 gallons in that thing.
Wow – I’ve got a 1992 Honda Accord LX that I’ve taken extremely good care of. Just replaced the fuel injection and I”m getting 30 mpg freeway and 25 around town. It has a couple of very minor cosmetic defects but it runs almost like new. In fact it runs better than my wife’s much newer car (stupid Ford…).
Where’s the Chevy Aveo? I bought my 2006 Aveo NEW for less than $10K and it gets almost 40 per gallon on the highway.
Why do they say 2-3 years old when nearly all of the cars listed are 5-8 years old.
Sorry not buyin’ a 2000 anything.
You can’t get an Insight for under $10k. Unless it’s a complete basket case. You’ll be lucky if you can find a nice one for less than $15k today.
Second, that mpg number is horse shit. I’ve never, ever got less than 55mpg with my ’01 Insight – that’s a long freeway trip where mileage is as bad as can be. Around town I average 65-75mpg depending on the season. No, that’s not an exaggeration. I track mileage carefully and these are averages over a tankful.
I don’t understand all the Prius hate.
I am glad someone’s 91 CRX gets good mileage. I love my Prius, both for the fact that I often get 50 miles per gallon and the fact that it is loaded with awesome features. GPS, handsfree, voice command, backup camera. I could care less what it cost me. I like the car.
I love my civic.
@astraelraen: I have a ’93 Acura Integra (no letters after the name) with an automatic and get 30-36 MPG…at over 200K miles. It was in great shape when I bought it in 2000 for $5000, and I intend to keep it just about forever.
On a somewhat unrelated note, my husband has been experimenting with hydrogen generation on his (notoriously underpowered) ’86 Isuzu Trooper, and so far has gotten about a 30% increase in gas mileage and a HUGE performance increase. The Acura will get hydrogen generators next. I don’t expect a great increase in gas mileage, but I do expect a large performance increase. People who tell you Hydrogen doesn’t work are forgetting that to increase efficiency, you have to fool the sensors into cutting back on the fuel delivered to the cylinders…the sensors don’t detect hydrogen as a fuel and end up making the car run too rich, resulting in LOST gas mileage.
My 2001 Echo (manual) gets 41 MPG. My husband is religious with maintenance and we’ve had very few maintenance issues. We are very happy with our car.
@B1663R: On our last trip from the Bay Area to Tahoe in our Prius, we got 38 mpg on the way there (uphill) and 55 mpg on the way back (downhill) all at an average speed between 60-70 mph. Is that “city driving”? Yes, you don’t get the 50/60 mpg that Toyota used to advertise, but we routinely get between 40 and 50 mpg, depending on how we drive, and without any particular mileage optimizing tricks.
I’m another Saturn-lover. Got my 5-speed 2002 SC-1 in 2004 for $7500, and it gets just a hair under 30mpg in city traffic and close to 40mpg on the highway. Weirdly, it seems to get its best mileage when heavily loaded and driving through mountains.
Good luck finding a 2001-02 Prius under $10,000
Sorry, a 1998 Acura Integra??? Is there such a thing as an un-abused version of this car available anywhere in the world??? I call foul.
That’s kinda funny.. If I drive right, I can squeeze out 30mpg out of my 1995 Z28 Camaro (V8)..
@B1663R:
Hybrid fuel economy changes in response to driving style FAR more than does fuel economy on non-hybrids (which can already see substantial savings or losses). Some drivers do NOT report what your friends do. I’m not talking just about hypermiling, but more subtle variations in how people apply the brake in the gas.
It’s the way your friends drive.
Also, the Insight is a highly fuel-efficient car even after the batteries die and the hybrid features diminish in their effectiveness. (I hear it can run without batteries, on the engine alone…and that the Prius cannot, at least not without modification.)
Oh, and hybrids are SUPPOSED to get better city fuel economy than highway.
My 97 Nissan Sentra is rated 39 highway. I bought it used for less than $10k OTD (11k miles).
WHERE ARE THE JETTA/GOLF TDIs?
My ’03 gets 45-50mpg.
#4 is my car. Bought new in ’00. And yeah, it still gets that mileage. Suckaz.
@sir_eccles: I’ve seen worse. Car companies that advertise their vehicles as “fuel-efficient” when they get less than 20 MPG by any measure? I say indiscriminate grievous bodily harm is in order.
@ibanix, @sleze69: Not on sale in the US. You mean the diesels, right?
Also let me chime in with praise for the Saturn SL1. 1998, got it for about $8000 back in 2002, regularly hit around 30 MPG. Sure, it completely fell apart several months ago, but that was after 120,000 miles.
my 97 civic ex gets an average of 30-35mpg on a tank, and thats mostly city but some freeway. i got it for 6,500.
good car, and i’m tall and fit so i recommend it.
2001 Hyundai Accent hatchback 5-speed manual has been getting me 30-33mpg since I bought it.
Hopefully the gas mileage will help me get a bit more for it — I’m planning on getting rid of it early next year. I guess it will help only if I sell it myself though..
@B1663R: Your friends either had unrealistic expectations, or they weren’t very schooled on the real advantage (that you mentioned) of hybrid technology: More efficient stop-and-go-driving.
Any modern car with 4-6 cylinders should be able to do 25+ mpg on the highway easily, just by the simple fact that you aren’t constantly stopping for red lights, stop signs, and heavy traffic. Hybrids effectively make wasteful idling (ZERO mpg) a thing of the past when you are stopped or slowed by those obstacles–which is why your city MPG is often higher than highway MPG.
I’ve found that the same people who dis hybrids because of ‘the math’ in gas savings are often the same people who obsess over resale value, ignoring the fact that cars are guaranteed depreciating assets.
My wife and I both drove ECHOs until she traded her 2001 model in for a 2008 Scion xB. Her (automatic transmission) ECHO averaged 34mpg. The xB is at 25mpg.
I plan to keep driving my 2002 ECHO until a decent plug-in hybrid is available.
Woo Hoo for my ’98 Mazda Protege! This is my second Protege, and I tell you, the car is impossible to kill. I had my first (a 1990) for 8 years and this one for 10 and I have yet to have any type of problem with either car. I just do regular maintenance.
I easily get 32 mpg…and on longer highway trips I do much better. I plan to drive this thing until it falls apart. It’s starting to look ugly, but I love it anyway.
Mazda Miata 31 mpg at 70 with the top down lol wut
I got an ’02 Echo and I like that I only have to fill up every 1 1/2 weeks. I mostly just drive to and from work. Downside is that the car doesn’t accelerate too quickly. Makes it difficult when trying to merge onto the interstate with the traffic going 65 and I’m trying to match their speed so I don’t get run off the road. Also when I have to take it in, the guys at the shop always call it a Yaris.
@drjayphd:
Only 120,000 miles? That’s complete crap these days. Even an abused Toyota or Honda can go past 200,000.
@econobiker
I can also confirm this. My 1997 Neon 5-Speed always got above 30 around town and up to 40 on the highway. But I hear the Automatics didn’t do as well, more standard 25-30 mpg.
I drive a pathetic Cadillac SRX and I want to get out, but I’m broke. Maybe next time I should try hire purchase or something. Oh, and the SRX has the worst gas mileage I’ve seen.
@smint: Well, I abused the crap out of mine, too. Almost 100K in six years, driving all over the state the last four. Besides, it didn’t exactly fall apart, just needed more in repairs than the Blue Book value.
My 98 Prizm gets horrible gas mileage, but that’s also because I sometimes have to play the nickel-and-dime game (only filling it up to 1/2).
Fill it all the way up, it lasts forever.
Also worth noting is the LSi models (the ones equipped with overdrive) get better mileage than the non-LSi models.
@raleel: Yes, the Honda Fit is a bit of a disappointment for the size that it is versus fuel economy. I saw one and thought about it as a potential new car until I saw that epa est mileage was 28-34 for the 5 speed. I could rebuild two 5speed neons for the price of the a new Fit.
bigmacjw: I had also heard that the automatic Neons were more piggish than the 5 speeds. Nothing is free…
Nobody, for whatever reason, ever includes the Hyundai Elantra.
You can buy it new for 12-14k, and a 2006 used one is about 9,500.
They get between 32 and 40 mpg – I think 34 is their “official” mpg, though mine regularly gets 39 in-town, and better on the highway.
I have a 2005 Corrolla (the wife gets to drive that one) AND a 2000 Saturn SL1. Yay! Nice to see a lot of love here for both brands.
I’ve never fetishized cars – I just don’t get the appeal of driving some monstrous machine to go run errands and get to work. I have always shopped for reliable, affordable, and non-flashy cars.
the older acura integras actually get almost the same mpg as the newer ones. My ’89 integra ls gets 30-35 mpg