I see. I am a “buy the best car you can afford” type person. The sad fact is GM, Ford, and Chrysler sell economy cars that can’t compete with American made Hondas and Toyotas. The so-called domestic companies get worse fuel economy and worse reliability, and their small cars are usually made abroad. My Honda Civic, however, was made in Ohio, just like your Cobalt.
I’ve had a number of good small(er) cars. One was a '95 Civic HX - on 1 9500 mile trip to Alaska we averaged a fraction over 45mpg. However, as I aged its low height became a problem for my creaking joints. I switched to a smart fortwo - mileage is not quite so good. But it is easy to get in and out of, seating is higher, it works on the interstates (have made a number of 3k mile trips with it - have put some 40k miles on it in just about 2 1/2 years.
However, I would suggest that the best small cars are not yet in the U.S. They still are restricted to Europe and a number of other countries. There are many factors that can go into determining what is best - fuel mileage is just one. And small should not equate to being cheap.
My brother would be very disappointed if I failed to mention his constant 40+ mpgs in either of his two Civics with manuals. Edit - my mistake, they have/had auto trannys. To quote him “The 44.5 mpg is for my '01 4-dr, and I got ~the same in my '98 Civic 4-dr w/auto).”
I have to ask, exactly how old are you that you do not believe that the ability for a car to actually come to an emergency stop is NOT important?
The ability to STOP a car has to be the most important item for a car, otherwise you WILL have an accident, and you WILL be testing out the rest of the safety features, including the seatbelts and airbags, very quickly.
Please stop trolling the thread with your desires in a car when the subject is about the OP’s desires in a car.
Facts straight!!
Have a CE 1999 3 speed auto getting 30/31 without a/c,with a/c 28/29 city, hwy 34/36 with a/c
Just rented for out of town 3 week trip, LE, 4 speed auto 25/31 in dense city traffic, hwy 40/41, both with a/c going full blast.
Maybe drivers attitude reflects upon mpg?
Agree; the good news is that now the US, Europe and Canada have all settled on the same bumper standard, and the tailpipe emissions are very close now too. In the past the modifcations needed priced many European cars out of the US market, but that will no longer be a problem. So we look forward to may exciting small and frugal cars in the US market. Ford just announced it is closing 3 truck plants, and converting some to build small cars. A total of 8 European Ford cars, including the Fiesta, will be on sale soon in the US. We can only hope that the quality and reliability this time around will be at least as good the better US products and most Asian imports.
Honda Fit
“Best” is highly subjective. I bought my 1998 BMW 328 sedan (manual transmission) 3 1/2 years ago with 52k miles for $13,000. It gets 21 - 22 mpg around town and 33 mpg on the highway (average speed 80+). It’s one of the “best” cars to drive (Car & Driver top 10 car for almost 20 years) – lots of fun to drive, great style, comfort and space. With 88k miles, it still looks and drives like a new car. Regular maintenance and no problems whatsoever. I’d take a used BMW over a new Honda, Toyota, etc. (can’t stand FWD).
It’s still worth about $10k, so depreciation cost is very low (when you buy used). Depreciation can be a significant part of the total cost per mile over the lifespan of a vehicle. Gas mileage is not the only factor to consider.
Hope this helps,
Twotone
I have a ‘93 Geo Prizm (re-badged Corolla) with manual transmission. I get between 31-36 mpg on the highway. I, too, check my mileage religiously, much like b.l.e., and I don’t doubt that his Yaris’ mileage is accurate.
I’ve been looking for a replacement vehicle, and the Corolla keeps coming up as a strong (maybe the only?) possibility if I want good mileage. I had steered away from the Fit, Yaris and Versa mainly because they have less room than my car yet get reportedly worse mileage, even from some of the owners whom I’ve asked. I’m glad to see that the actual mileage may be more a reflection of driving style and habits. (I accelerate slowly and keep to the speed limit.) I was also encouraged to hear about such good mileage in the hill country around Austin, TX, where driving with the air conditioning on is a necessity. I may have to re-consider these other models.
Are you aware of any commercially available cars that use carbon fiber bodies?
No, but there are people working on making carbon fiber car bodies affordable. Maybe carbon fiber wasn’t a good example. A better example of emerging technology is clean diesel. It is already being used overseas. Within the next couple years, clean diesel cars will become more available in the US than they are currently. They will undoubtedly get better fuel economy than the Yaris and the Fit. I just think we are on the verge of several decent advances in fuel economy. For example, Honda has pledged to have EFI on all of their motorcycles soon.
It would be the Scion XB if not for the center speedometer, etc., one of Toyota’s bonehead ideas. So, it’s the Nissan Versa.
The Yaris also has a center speedometer. You get used to it fairly quickly. I suspect that it’s that way to minimize the production line changes when they make a batch of cars for the British or other markets where the driver sits in the right seat. Your passenger can also see the speedo just as well as you can, bad news if you are Walter Mitty.
In Japan, they also use right-hand drive, so the center placement of the speedometer does help them to minimize production line changes. The fewer variations on the assembly line, the lower the cost of production, and this is definitely a factor with cheaper cars like the Yaris and the Xb. You won’t ever see this type of thing on a higher-priced car, but on a cheaper one, they look for a lot of ways to cut production costs.
I prefer the word “inexpensive” to “cheap”. Inexpensive means leaving out the bells and whistles. Cheap means low quality. I’ll bet that when these cars are 15 years old and have a quarter million miles on them, the windows will still roll up and down, the doors will still lock and unlock, the switches will all still work, and so on.
I have a 2004 Subaru Forrester, my “town” driving average is 22mpg, highway 30mpg. Usually I have both town and highway driving on a tank of gas, so my average every two weeks is is 24.5mpg. So at this point I see no reason to trade in my AWD car. Safety is very important to me, I do not think these smaller, lighter cars can compare to mine…am I right or wrong? MS DDT!
Well it would appear you’ve already made up your mind on this one I’m guessing…
In my opinion pretty much any new car sold in the U.S. with basic safety equipment (ABS, air bags) is plenty safe. I mean are you accident prone or something, or plan on plowing into someone?
People run around worried that the world is coming to an end and they’re not safe if they’re not driving a large vehicle of some sorts. It’s all relative anyway, in 10 years your “super safe” Subaru Forrester won’t be considered safe any more compared to anything sold. People will say “Oh that’s old and unsafe” get something new. Personally, I’ve been in 3 totalled cars in my lifetime (Twice as a passenger and none my fault) and none of them would be considered even remotely safe by today’s standards, but I managed to live and tell about it. It’s a roll of the dice-you can buy the safest car in the world and get killed, or you could wreck a motorcycle at 100mph and walk away.
In the end buy what makes you happy and what you enjoy driving. Of course if we all did that Volvo would go out of business when all the paranoid and nervous folks stopped showing up.
That’s probably what the guy in the Suburban in the other lane is thinking about as well.
well, that and “damn gas guzzler, I need to ditch this thing pronto.”
What I find most ironic is that a lot of the same people who wouldn’t be caught dead in a “unsafe small car” seem to have no problem with going down the freeway like they are on their way to a fire while yakking on their cell phones on their way home from a night of bar-hopping.
“you could wreck a motorcycle at 100mph and walk away.”
Survive? Possibly
Walk away? Absolutely not!
I’m going to strongly disagree with you-do you ride bikes? I’m guessing not. If a rider is in full gear (Suit, helmet, brace) on pavement and he goes into a slide he should be just fine if it’s at 100mph. Maybe badly bruised, maybe even a broken arm-but able to walk away. Believe it or not riders go down every day around the world on race tracks at speeds faster than that-it’s part of motorcycle racing and everyone goes down.
As for smashing into something else at those speeds, you may not walk away, but you could survive. This fellow plowed a street sign and guard rail at 140mph: http://www.araiamericas.com/News_From_Us/2006-apr-05-damaged.html