Top Picks for Fuel-efficient Cars

4 Years ago, I bought my 93 Geo Metro. The car really gets 50
MPG whether City and/or Highway driving.It has been a marvelous,
well designed little, dependable car.It handles wonderfully in the
snow, ice and rain.I never intended to buy a Metro, but when I
heard a late night radio show discussing the Oil Companies plan to
the shoot Gas Prices up, I realized that I'm not likely to get
nearly the gas mileage unless I spent over $20K for a Prius or an
Insite.I use it for work and running around town; as well as for
trips.The seats are surprisingly comfortable.I have save a fortune
in Gasoline, and it always passes the smog tests with flying
colors.

We had a 1987 Subaru that we just loved. It got 30 - 35 miles to
the gallon and ran like a charm. A couple of years ago we went to
buy a new car. To our sad surprise, Subarus no longer got very good
gas mileage! We purchased a Toyota Prius instead. We average just
slightly over 50 mpg. It's a great commuter car but we wouldn't
dare take it all the places our old Subaru would go. I'm hoping by
the time we buy a new vehicle, we can get a sturdy off-road vehicle
that gets at least 40 mpg.

I have a 2007 Toyota Yaris and have had it for over a year now,
we've put 41,000 miles on it already. I love it. I wanted a hybrid,
but it was more expensive and my double stroller didn't fit in the
trunk - so I bought the Yaris. I get about 45 mpg highway - almost
as good as a hybrid. Its definately a great bet if you're looking
for fuel economy.

A couple years ago I was visited by a deer on my ride home from
work and was forced to get a new car. I got a 2004 hyundai elantra
gt and love it. I regularly get 32 mpg and often get as high as
38mpg on my 45 mile ride each way every day. I want to know why the
car manufacturers are going down in mileage instead of up. I used
to have a chevy sprint turbo that I could easily get over 50 mpg
on. Now the best gas only cars are far below that. I am anxiously
awaiting what I hope to be my new car. I found it at
www.theaircar.comI hope that it is true and not just a silly pipe
dream.

Half of the electric power is from burning coal in this country.
Coal is the dirtiest power from birth to ash. Majority of the coal
is surface mined in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Wyoming by blowing
away mountain tops; burying valleys of trees and water streams;
transforming American forests into desert like mine sites. I
recommend the book "Lost Mountain" by Erik Reece. I am not sure
electric car saves the environment, unless it's plug into an
alternative power grid like wind, solar, or bio fuel.

It is generally true that jobs follow money. Buying
domestic-made batteries and electric motors, reduces our dependence
on foreign oil, which makes sense. BTW, GM is possibly
manufacturing the Chevy Volt, a vehicle that is similar to Dave
Arthurs' genius creation. So now we can have our domestic cake and
tell foreign oil to "eat it" to.

Perhaps as Americans we should show a little more respinsibility
to domestic companies and the people they employ when we review new
vehicles. Rather that just praising Honda and Toyota over and over
again, it would be a nice change to see the most efficient American
cars included even if their numbers are not as impressive at the
imports. My CHEVROLET HHR will get 34 mpg. For a larger,
useful,comfortable vehicle I think that is quite good.

Better still for fuel economy, why not get your existing older
model car converted to battery-electric to use as your new commuter
car and freedom from oil? Just plug it in overnight, same as you do
with your cell phone. It works out at about a quarter of the cost
of gasoline to run, so you can go 4 times further with electricity
than burning fossil fuels, and you help clean up the environment,
as well. We're converting cars to run on electricity at Village
Energy for as little as $10K. Once converted, you'll never need to
stop for gas again. Think of it. No more gas, oil, spark plugs,
filters, smog tests, and a minimum on maintenance, etc., etc.
Electric Cars are Victory Cars. Get Serious About Going Electric.
Sincerely, EV Rider at Drive-electric dot com.

My contribution to the enviroment came after bad finances a few
months ago. The car died and i was forced onto my pushbike and to
use public transport. It wasn't long before I realized i should've
done this years ago. The money I'm saving in fuel, insurance, rego
and upkeep of the car is more than enough to cover rental cars when
need be and the odd taxi and still have lots of money left over.
Not to mention what the saving is for polution bill of this lovely
planet. I'm sorry to say it had to take bad finances for me to wake
up to the fact that it can be great not to own a car. I use to own
a 425 hp muscle car, so this is a big but still very positive
change.

Last July I bought a 2006 Toyota Corolla with manual
transmission, no frills and have consistently over13,000 miles of
driving on and careful recordingof data gotten 44.5 mpg. I drive
between 60 mph and 66 mph, accelerate gradually and slow down
before applying the brake. I am very pleased and frankly somewhat
surprised as this is above the predicted performance. I get my
vehicles serviced as recommended and watch the air pressure in the
tires diligently.

I commute 140 miles round trip to work everyday. We looked for a
fuel efficient vehicle and chose a 2006 Saturn Ion. It averages
about 35 mpg and sometimes gets as much as 40 mpg. They are safe
cars as well and have held up well to hitting a few deer.