Gas Mileage and Car Choice

[Dave Winslow]

With gas prices over $3.00 bucks a gallon and fears of what kind of crazy hike in price we'll get by the spring and summer, I was wondering if anyone has changed chase vehicles and opted for something more efficient and "green." I have always driven a small foreign car with a 4 cyclinder engine (I can't afford much else), and I recently bought a 2006 Toyota Corolla manual transmission that has been getting me 41 mpg on long distance highway trips.

Anyone else going with a more efficient car? What kind of car do you drive and what has the performance been while chasing on dirt roads, etc?

I couldn't afford it, but while shopping I noticed a Volkswagen Golf Turbo Diesel from 2006 and before that gets 42-47 mpg ighway consistently, and it runs on bio-diesel. That's about as good as I could find for a non-hybrid car with great engine life.

 

[Forrest lambert]

i have a 2000 chevy s10 4x4 pickup with the 4.3L v6, mabe getting 22mpg on the highway. im gonna get a other s10 thats a crew cab model because of the more room that it has. i dont wanna be stuck in mud while chasing so im gonna stay with a 4x4. my s10 now is only a reg cab and it doesnt have much room for anything. but i can see with gas being $3 a gallon alot of people might get cars. but not me im a truck guy and always will be!

 

[Shane Adams]

POS blue and rust 1993 Nissan Sentra with a busted windshield and a Kojak rig. I don't win any style points, get crowds of people around me when I stop, or impress anyone who wants to see inside my ride. But I do get a little over 400 miles to the tank, which comes to about $30/fill up even at $3/gallon. It does well on most kept-up back roads, and back on October 14 I even did a little creek driving west of Martha, OK when I encountered a bridge that was out.

When gas is as high as it is right now, it's cool to be uncool

 

[Dan Robinson]

2005 Ford Freestyle. I get about 450 miles to a 17-gallon tank (about 26 mpg) on level ground, which at today's prices runs about $55. Not bad for a car of that size, which is the main reason I bought it. No other car at that price point with that much interior room gets as much mpg.

 

[Joel Wright]

I made the mistake of giving in to my love of cars and ended up buying a 400 horsepower 2005 GTO. A lot of fun, but not all that great for chasing. Luckily, my buddy has a pretty nice truck that doesn't get too bad of gas mileage, so we usually take that and obviously split gas costs.

My next vehicle is going to be something considerably more fuel efficient. (Although my GTO gets up to 24mpg highway which isn't THAT bad). I'm thinking about getting a hybrid Toyota Camry next time. I have a buddy that works at a Toyota dealership and is constantly raving about how great a car they are, and the outstanding gas mileage they achieve...

 

[Nick Parker]

Not much of a "conserver" here. Looking to buy a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 diesel with a 6 speed manual in Feb. to replace the ole Avalanche. However, my 16.9 mpg Chevy compared to 21-22 mpg Cummins doesn't sound to bad. And I can actually tow something without being lugged down to death!

I know fuel is going up. We all know we can't really live without it so you'll just have to find ways to save and/or things to give up to pay for this hobby. I count my stars that I'll have a service truck to drive back and forth from work. Now if I could get em to put a jottodesk and wireless card in that thing.....ya'll thought the DOW's were big chase vehicles...hehe

 

[Brandon Sullivan]

I am looking to purchase a 2004 Jeep Libery Renegade. They are rated at about 22mpg.. I cant really find much in a good price range, that is 4WD, that gets any better MPG. But if someone knows something.. Let me know!!

 

[Steve Miller]

2004 Dodge Ram Hemi - 14MPG on a good day (mine)
2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 - 11MPG (9MPG when I drive it) (wife's)
2002 Jeep Wrangler - 14MPG (toy)
2007 Mariah boat - wide open throttle = 19.5 gallons per hour (my toy)
Yes, I invest in energy futures since my household can influence them.

I too am looking at a diesel for chasing use. My dream chase vehicle would be the Ford Excursion with the diesel but they're no longer manufactured and I don't like buying things that are discontinued. I'm keeping an eye on a rumor that the Ford Expedition EL (Extra Long?) will have a diesel for 2009.
Otherwise a Ford F250 would be a nice ride.

 

[Mark Farnik]

My first chase vehicle was a light brown 1990 Mercedes Benz 300TE station wagon. Yes, ladies and gentleman, I chased in a Mercedes. It was a very capable chase car, it had the 4MATIC all wheel drive, which got me out of some very sticky dirt road situations, had a very roomy interior and was very comfortable on long trips. It got somewhere around 22-24 mpg on the highway, which wasn't great but for a 3500 pound AWD midsize wagon it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, due to being defrauded by the dealership that sold me the car, I wound up suing and they are going to buy the car back from me next month.
Due to some questionable mechanical reliability issues with the Benz, I wound up parking it and borrowing my dad's dark blue 1997 Ford F-150 4x4 extended cab pickup to chase in. If gas wasn't so freakin' expensive, I would have one for my chase vehicle. I loved that truck; it was powerful, roomy, fairly comfortable on long road trips, and the low range 4x4 transfer case saved my ass on the pig grease dirt roads of northwestern Kansas back on March 28th... But it only got about 17 mpg on the highway and it cost about $75 to fill it up each time, though it did have a 450 mile range. And my dad sold the truck in July. I was sad to see it go, we had it for 7 years and put 75,000 miles on it. Oh yeah, and it survived being driven into a tornado, so I have to give it some extra props for that.

I just recently purchased a black 1982 Mercedes 300SD Turbodiesel for my daily driver. It has 221k two owner miles and was very well maintained. But it's not perfect, I only gave $1900 for it, and it needs about $2k worth of work to make it a fully functional. It gets 30 mpg on the highway, though and is uber roomy/comfy... but I can't use it to chase in because RWD + dirt roads are not a good combination, and I don't want it to get beat up by hail... so I decided to get an AWD wagon/small suv for my chase/bad weather vehicle.

So after much research, I've decided that I'm going to purchase either a 1997-2002 Subaru Outback or 1998-2003 Subaru Forester for a number of reasons. Subaru's are pretty much a chaser's dream (ask Verne Carlson about his Impreza). First off, the standard AWD. No, they don't have a locking differential, but they'll get you through 85% of the adverse driving situations you'll encounter, and they have excellent ground clearance (7.5+ inches, which is amazing for a passnger car), so unless you drive into 6 inches + of mud you'll be fine. The tradeoff for lacking a locking differential is that they are great on gas (they get high 20's to low 30's on the highway). They are very safe cars, the Outback and Forester earned Top Pick ratings from the IIHS and 5 Star ratings from the government. And finally, they're pretty much bulletproof reliability wise. I know of many Subie owners who, with regular maintenance, have driven them 250-300k without major problems. Oh yeah, as an extra perk, they have a built in weatherband radio. Save a locking differential, they have everything I could ever want in a chase vehicle. I would prefer an Outback, but if I find a decent Forester I'd be happy with that, too. I'm looking around right now, and hope to buy one by the end of January so I can get it set up in time for March chasing.

 

[Andrew Revering]

Hey Dave... how's Sioux City treating you? (we ran into each other once or twice at SCSU I believe)

I bought at 2007 Dodge Caliber just under 2 months ago. Just breached 3000 miles and had my first oil change yesterday.

I'm actually quite happy with the vehicle. It's a cheaper vehicle. I paid right around 20k after all taxes and toys added on the base model.

I actually did an extensive study on its gas mileage, created a chart, all that geeky stuff. I figure it gets 38 mpg at 36 mph. But its not often you're going to set the cruise at 36 mph. I made a run up to the end of the Gunflint Trail (dave probably knows where that is in the BWCA of MN), and round trip averaged over 27 mpg. If I cruise around 62 mph I'll average around 31 mpg, downhill from there the faster you go, gets better the slower you go down to 36 mph.

Anyway, I love the vehicle. Back seats fold down, nice hatchback trunk which I like for easy access in and out. Fog lights which are great on 2 lane roads at night in the rain. It has a 4 can/bottle cooler which will take either air conditioning or outside air (whichever is cooler) and bring it into the can cooler, which is above the glove box, and keep your cans cool. Not as good as a fridge, but its good for chocolate and other things that you may want to keep slightly cool.

 

[Jeremy Lemanski]

I am looking to purchase a 2004 Jeep Libery Renegade. They are rated at about 22mpg.. I cant really find much in a good price range, that is 4WD, that gets any better MPG. But if someone knows something.. Let me know!!

i co-worker of mine has a 4wd geo tracker. Gets about 33 mpg and they have taken it off road more then once without getting stuck. Thats what i'm looking for, a small 4 cyl. truck or suv with 4wd to replace my current 13 year old fwd dodge shadow.

 

[Patrick Martin]

My chase vehicle is my daily driver, which is a 2005 Honda Accord, 4cyl, 5spd auto. It has a 15 gallon tank, I average in the low 30's mpg combined city/hwy driving and routinely go 500 miles before filling up. On a highway run, it'll be in the upper 30's for mpg. It does well on maintained dirt roads that are dry, but I would not want to attempt any mud bogging with it.

We've thought about using my wife's SUV, but generally, the extra 3 inches of ground clearance and 4x4 capability does not offset that it only has a range of 250 miles on it's 14 gallon tank.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

I played around with the idea of getting a Prius. Then I could be the first chase yuppy on the board. Then I realized that it was RWD only and I live on a hill, so winter would be not-so-fun. People give a lot of attention to these hybrids these days, but Honda has been making cars in the hybrids' mileage range for years now.

I have to stick with the 4WD ... I actually do think it helps when it's raining hard out there or that road you are on in Kansas suddenly turns to mud.

I'll be looking for something that is more gas pump friendly this year, though. Maybe a Nissan or Toyota or something along that line -

 

[Paul Knightley]

Go diesel! It returns much better MPG

 

[John O'Keeffe]

This past year I chased with a Chrysler 300 that had a HEMI. I was getting roughly 17 miles to the gallon(Ouch!). Next year I will be chasing with a Ford Escape Hybrid that is currently giving me 28 miles per gallon and the car has AWD. I have been happy with the car so far, except the fact that it is only has a 4 cylinder engine. I miss the pick up of the HEMI.