Do you consider gas mileage....

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by recycled sixtie

when you buy a vehicle? Or do you just go for it? Am considering a hybrid but not going full electric yet. Your thoughts?

If the vehicle isn't a 3/4 or 1 ton truck I'm buying for business use, yeah I think about fuel mileage. I've been impressed with my dad's Corolla Cross hybrid (except for the adaptive cruise). I would have bought a Rav4 Hybrid had they not gone bonkers on price in 2022 when I bought my Rav. Best of both worlds is PHEV. I really wanted a Rav4 Prime but prices were out of this world due to demand.

[Cajundaddy]

Mileage is one of many factors in our vehicle purchase but probably not top 5 right now. At one point we were both commuting many miles and transporting kids to sports practice after work so 30k miles per year was not uncommon. In those days gas mileage was important and Toyotas were a family staple.

These days I am retired and wife commutes only 20 min to work so mileage is much less. My truck and RV average 16mpg, Lexus averages 22mpg, Porsche averages 22mpg and that is just fine. I have no interest in super high gas mileage because fuel expense is pretty low each month. There are better ways to reduce expenses in our lives and our carbon footprint is relatively low, as if that even matters.

My son in law drives 1 hr each way into downtown Houston every day and by driving a Tesla his commuting expense is rock bottom. This is where an EV makes sense in the family. His weekend fun car is a Corvette Z-06.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by masraum

I've never had a hybrid or an EV. If I was going to get something like that, I'd be more likely to get a hybrid. Those seem like a better way to go to me today.


I get 21-22mpg in the boxster in my commute (84 miles one way). The wife's Outback gets ~25-26mpg. I tried driving her car for my commute. I hated commuting in it and stopped. It's a great car. When we are going to visit the kids and are taking a ton of stuff, it's great and I don't mind driving it at all. It's got the 3.6L flat 6 motor, so it's got good torque and will go.

But when I'm commuting, I'd rather pay the extra money for gas and drive the boxster.

Honestly all of the modern Porsche sports cars get pretty respectable MPG, I wouldn’t consider any of them as gas guzzlers.

[Tim Hancock]

At this stage in life, I don't worry about gas mileage in any of our cars/trucks. That said, I do not love the 6-7 mpg my diesel pusher uses and we don't use it as often as we could for an extended weekend type 1000 mile round trip. Thankfully diesel has come down a bit recently but when it was nearly $5/gallon it really sucked spending $800 just on fuel for a few day trip to the Smokies from Ohio.

[Bill Douglas]

I do.

My drivin' around town car is Corolla with CVT transmission. It rev's somewhere between 1,000rpm and 2,000rpm so uses almost no fuel.

The other car is a SC. And being a SC doesn't use much fuel.

[rwest]

When I was working and putting 40 plus miles a day it mattered a great deal to me and I would try and get small manual cars that got 40 mpg or better.

My “just kills me” mpg would be anything less than 20 mpg.

Bad gas mileage can also mean needing to fill up more often unless the tank is huge.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Honestly all of the modern Porsche sports cars get pretty respectable MPG, I wouldn’t consider any of them as gas guzzlers.

The 21.5mpg vs 25mpg of the Boxster vs Outback was just a part of the equation. The boxster requires 93 octane while the outback takes 87 octane, so the price is about 75% as well as the outback getting about 16% better fuel economy).

Yeah, my Box-S isn't bad. I'm sure that I could probably squeeze it up into the 23mpg range if I tried. It's a shame that a regular boxster gets much better mileage than a Box-S, and then a corvette gets better mileage than both. I'm sure the vette gets high numbers because on the highway it's loping along at 1200-1500 rpms in top gear. My boxster in 6th at 83 revs at 3400 rpms, so I'm not exactly loping.

But then I didn't get the car for it's fuel economy.

[oldE]

There are so many factors and fuel mileage is just one.
6 years ago I sold my na Miata and F 150 and was looking for something, but was open for almost anything. My guy had Volvo S60 (I think) and a Mercedes C280 awd. I thought the Merc was interesting, it drove well and the seats suited me better than the Volvo.
I was surprised to find the Mercedes matched the Miata on mileage on trips. Both cars gave about 30mpg. However the Merc needed premium.
After about 5 years and 36,000 km, I got tired of it and got the '16 Jetta (old man's car). Surprisingly the car is just as comfortable and probably because it's a 1.8 turbo (same drive train as the wife's Golf Sportwagon) and isn't hauling as much weight, gets far better milage (35mpg getting along briskly) on regular gas. Good thing too, as I have put on more than 40,000km in 19 months.
Best
Les

[Eric 951]

My (2) DD are a 1-ton gas Super Duty and a Suburban.
so, no.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by rwest

When I was working and putting 40 plus miles a day it mattered a great deal to me and I would try and get small manual cars that got 40 mpg or better.

My “just kills me” mpg would be anything less than 20 mpg.

Bad gas mileage can also mean needing to fill up more often unless the tank is huge.

I do miss the 22.5 gallon gas tank in my old '88 911. My boxster's got a 16.9 gallon tank. It holds just enough gas to get me to work and back 2 days unless it's super cold or I get stuck in weird traffic or something.

[WPOZZZ]

MPG is a consideration, but a very small one. I woud say it would be more of a bonus, after the purchase. I prefer a car that I enjoy driving, or that has a special purpose. I like SUVs for a daily because they can carry almost anything I need or want most of the time. I bought a Tacoma for working on my house and to do dump runs. That is not a vehicle I enjoy driving, but it does the job.

[Cajundaddy]

Originally Posted by masraum

The 21.5mpg vs 25mpg of the Boxster vs Outback was just a part of the equation. The boxster requires 93 octane while the outback takes 87 octane, so the price is about 75% as well as the outback getting about 16% better fuel economy).

Yeah, my Box-S isn't bad. I'm sure that I could probably squeeze it up into the 23mpg range if I tried. It's a shame that a regular boxster gets much better mileage than a Box-S, and then a corvette gets better mileage than both. I'm sure the vette gets high numbers because on the highway it's loping along at 1200-1500 rpms in top gear. My boxster in 6th at 83 revs at 3400 rpms, so I'm not exactly loping.

But then I didn't get the car for it's fuel economy.

Your Boxster, like my 2009 Cayman probably gets close to 30mpg on the highway if you keep a light right foot. That last bit is the rub so I rarely see 30mpg.

[Brian 162]

Nope, I’m retired so I don’t drive much unless we’re heading to Florida. I do check the amount of km’s/miles I get per tank. I did get 25-28 mpg on I-40 heading to Arizona last year.doing 80-85mph.
Vehicle is a Tahoe with a 5.3.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Cajundaddy

Your Boxster, like my 2009 Cayman probably gets close to 30mpg on the highway if you keep a light right foot. That last bit is the rub so I rarely see 30mpg.

To get 30 mpg, I'd probably have to do all of the hypermiler tricks. My commute is 84 miles of interstate. I generally have my cruise set at 83. Last year, I very consistently got 21.5mpg. This year, I very consistently got 22.5mpg. No idea why, and I noticed the same in my wife's car, about 1mpg more than last year, so it's not just me or the car. I do pass people, and that often means that I run up to 100-ish. I occasionally hit 110-115. So yeah, I'm sure I could get more, but I think it would require a lot to get up to 30mpg, and I don't think I could pull that off. I don't have that kind of will power.

All of the screenshots below are from the Excellence website.
https://www.excellence-mag.com/resources/specs/192

2009 Cayman/Boxster


2008 Boxster or Cayman


2008 Cayman or Boxster S

[vash]

YES!!

I almost bought a FJ80 like Seahawks but the owner told me he got 13mpg on a good day. I backed away, slowly avoiding eye contact.

I am a long distance dude. far lakes, far hunting spots, far road trips..13mpg would be a bummer. I dont care how cool I looked.

[Flat Six]

Going through this right now myself. Don't drive a whole lot (~750 miles/month) so don't care much about MPG but wouldn't mind something that gets 25+ around town. Won't go electric, no way no how. Ditto for most hybrids; not opposed to them per se, but hate CVTs -- never driven one that I actually like to drive. There are a few hybrids (Kia comes to mind) that still use real transmissions that I'd consider.

[Alan A]

Didn’t until the current one. It needs premium - so 93 here - and gets 12 on a good day. Premium is a buck a gallon over regular, so not that long ago it was costing me $125 a fill for 250-75 miles of range.

The next one will take regular and needs to do rather better mpg.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I've never bought a car because of gas mileage but I coast down big hills in the Cayenne to make up for hitting the PSM and Sport mode buttons a lot.

[berettafan]

Absolutely. My daily for several years got 11.7 mpg and that started to wear on me. Bought a fun little commuter this past summer (GTI) and the ability to use non premium and good mpg were near the top of the list. A bit jealous of the civic si mpg but strongly prefer a hatch and like the extra hp.

[KFC911]

My last commuter vehicles .... a Dodge Ram 250 Conversion van (perfect for camping on weekends) or my 911 never getting outta 3rd and 80 mph on back roads in the fun zone...

20K miles per year ...

So ...Nope!