Consumer Reports is the leader of the pack when it comes to giving the public the information that it needs to keep cash in their wallet. They devote enormous resources to testing and evaluating the models as they come out and publish data from their members on their personal experiences with each model. This comprehensive data bank allows them to recommend cars that are time tested and reliable. Their article “Top-20 most fuel-efficient used cars” by Liza Barth, gives the inside scoop on what to look for to when you want the most miles for your buck.
The range of miles per gallon on the models selected is from 33 to 51. With gas prices now over $4 per gallon, the fuel economy of your vehicle can make or break you budget.So before you need to take out a second mortgage to fill your gas tank, check out some of these babies. The Honda Civic Hybrid 2003-2010 gets 36-37 miles per gallon and is an extremely reliable car. Although you may pay more for a Honda, it tends to retain its book value on resale. When you factor in the dollars that you save, by not having it in the shop you come out way ahead of the pack. This car has a long history and your get what you pay for.
Toyota came out with the Prius in 2001 with 41 mpg and the 2004 model increased that to 44 mpg. Consumer Reports put a Prius with 200,000 miles on it through its paces and found very little had changed from the tests that it had run on it as a new car. This is quite remarkable given the miles it had traveled. You do still need to maintain any vehicle to keep it operating at is peak. In the middle of the miles per gallon pack, sits the 2010 VW Golf TDI at 38 mpg. Although not as dominant in the number of entries into the top 20 as Toyota with only 5 models compared to Toyota’s8, thereliability of this car is not the same as a Honda or Toyota.
The 2011 Honda Fit is also a good bet with highway fuel economy at 32-34 mpg. It has excellent reliability and will save you money by not being in the repair shop or at the pump. Buzz.comoffers a list of vehicles that are reliable and affordable in price ranges of under $5000 and $10,000 respectively. As you might have guessed, the list of the 10 most reliable less than 10K is dominated by Toyota with the Prius, Echo, Yaris and Camry and Honda’s Insight, Civic Hybrid and Cr-V. This site is worth a look see. For those who need to find out how to test drive a car or how to spot flaws in a used car, videos are provided for your convenience at about.com. This could help you hold on to your money when it comes to negotiating the best deal.