any non-hybrid SUV's good on gas? Need car suggestions

[rottiemom]

We have a 2002 Saturn Vue Stick shift that gets around 26 city/32 highway and we love it! I swear I will keep that car until the tires fall off! It's so comfortable to drive and has plenty of room for our needs.

I wonder if the manual tranny makes a difference on MPG?

I have a 2005 Honda CR-V (stick) and get 27-28 MPG for my daily commute, 30 MPG highway (yes, I've been figuring my mileage every time I fill up & was surprised by how good it was, considering). I hope this car lasts forever because I'm dreading trying to replace it...I'll only drive stick!

The CR-V gives us plenty of room inside but with a carseat in the back you can only fit 2 skinny adults along with it. Otherwise it's plenty big enough for our family of 3 plus rottweiler & all of our acoutrements.

 

[Lisa_M]

The VUE seems like it may be a promising vehicle for us. In our range, roomy, and nice looking. Is the backseat comfortable to ride in? I rode in the far backseat of my dad's Ford Edge the other day and it was so bumpy I thought I was going to be sick.

 

[RichieTruxillo]

My 2006 Honda CR-V gets 28 miles to the gallon when I fill it with 5w-20 synthetic blend oil and STP fuel injection cleaner.

Love my CR-V, have had zero problems with it.

 

[ceecee]

Glad to hear the positives on the CR-V, we're leaning towards that, it's considerably cheaper than the RAV we looked at. Consumer Reports and Edmunds all have great ratings on it too. I have heard some not so great things on the Saturn, I really wanted to buy American but I guess they are all made all over now. My mom's Buick was made in Canada and the Toyota Sienna is made in the US.

 

[Shadeaux]

My 2006 Honda CR-V gets 28 miles to the gallon when I fill it with 5w-20 synthetic blend oil and STP fuel injection cleaner.

Love my CR-V, have had zero problems with it.

How much more expensive is synthentic oil? I haven't had the oil changed in my CR-V yet, but when I do, I'm thinking about switching to synthetic.

 

[Lisa_M]

Glad to hear the positives on the CR-V, we're leaning towards that, it's considerably cheaper than the RAV we looked at. Consumer Reports and Edmunds all have great ratings on it too. I have heard some not so great things on the Saturn, I really wanted to buy American but I guess they are all made all over now. My mom's Buick was made in Canada and the Toyota Sienna is made in the US.

what kinds of not so great things have you heard?

 

[dismom24]

The kids tell me the Vue backseat is great. We usually only have 2 in the back (both in booster seats), but one of my older boys came with us the otehr day and said he had plenty of room with the 2 booster seats.

 

[ceecee]

We have two friends who have Saturn Vues and a girl I worked with just traded her's in. You can read the reviews on Edmunds and Consumer Reports, Saturns are not as high as the Honda and Toyotas. My friend with the older Saturn (4 -5 yrs) said it didn't get very good gas mileage, about as much as their van. I think the newer ones do better. DH's friend has the Hybrid Vue and likes it, it had a few kinks but he was overall happy with it. Our other friends have had theirs for just about a year and loved it, but it's been in the shop 4 times already.

 

[eclairemom]

We got a RAV 4 last year and love it, love it. It has a lot more room than you would think and is a great vehicle.

 

[NotUrsula]

What do you mean?!?! I have NEVER bought a car without taking it home for a day or two. That is way to expensive of a purchase to get without really finding out if you like it or not! I have never had a dealership tell me no - they often times even offer.

Most dealerships around here get very nervous if you're not back in under an hour with a new car, though they don't usually insist on a saleman ride-along like you find in some areas. I seriously doubt you could get overnight unless you were very well-known at the dealership. Since I only buy a car about once every 7-8 years, no dealership knows me that well. I've got excellent credit, but I still don't think they would go for it.

 

[kydisneyfans]

We bought an 08 Vue after having an 03 Vue. The mpg is about 2 mpg less. My wife averages 23.5 miles per gallon on her mixed use drive to work-she has 10 miles of stop and go, 11 miles of highway. Our last highway trip was 26.5.

It took some time to break it in though, we averaged 20 mpgs the first 4-5,000 miles.

We love the style and it handles very well. We did not go wrong with our choice.

 

[aprhj]

I just purchased a Jeep Patriot and love it. I'm averaging around 23 with mostly mixed, more city, driving on the first 2 tanks. I have had it up to 27mpg on the automated read out while on the highway, but the stop and go brings it down. It is a 2007, new off the lot 2 weeks ago, with a 2.4L engine, automatic, limited (loaded with leather, sirius radio, sun roof, etc) and I got it at around $18,500. My son has a big booster in the back and he has plenty of room. If you test drive one be aware the engine is a CVT, continuiously variable transmission, that works on a belt and has a different sound than you will normally be use to. In addition, the 2007, 2008, 2009 modles have a lifetime powertrain warrany to the origional purchaser, also Jeep is doing the lock on $2.99/gal gas for 3 years, up to 12,000 miles per year or about $2500 discount if you don't want the gas deal, unfortunately not on my 2007 but I got a pretty decent deal as the sticker was over $26,000. The Compas get good milage also, but I think its a little smaller. Look at www.jeepforum.com and their is a compass patriot board if you want some more info from owners.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Another vote for the Honda CR-V. Best new car I've ever had. ZERO issues. If I set the cruise control on the highway I get 31.5 mpg. The part of my daily commute that's not in an aircraft averages 26 MPG. LOVE IT! 8 airbags and 5 star ratings all around.... and you can't beat Honda on reliability.

The Escape I had several years ago, by way of contrast, had a million little issues. Fuel filter came loose, sunroof switch was fickle, developed a squeak in the back, other things. It was zippy but not very well put-together.

 

[adkkev]

I just purchased a Jeep Patriot and love it. I'm averaging around 23 with mostly mixed, more city, driving on the first 2 tanks. I have had it up to 27mpg on the automated read out while on the highway, but the stop and go brings it down. It is a 2007, new off the lot 2 weeks ago, with a 2.4L engine, automatic, limited (loaded with leather, sirius radio, sun roof, etc) and I got it at around $18,500. My son has a big booster in the back and he has plenty of room. If you test drive one be aware the engine is a CVT, continuiously variable transmission, that works on a belt and has a different sound than you will normally be use to. In addition, the 2007, 2008, 2009 modles have a lifetime powertrain warrany to the origional purchaser, also Jeep is doing the lock on $2.99/gal gas for 3 years, up to 12,000 miles per year or about $2500 discount if you don't want the gas deal, unfortunately not on my 2007 but I got a pretty decent deal as the sticker was over $26,000. The Compas get good milage also, but I think its a little smaller. Look at www.jeepforum.com and their is a compass patriot board if you want some more info from owners.

The Compass is the same size as the Patriot ... there is a difference in the cargo area because the Patriot has a more squared off rear end. The base Patriot comes with fewer features than the base Compass.

My best highway mileage was 28.1 (and I have the 4x4 model).

 

[harleyquinn]

I wonder if the manual tranny makes a difference on MPG?

Yes, a manual will always get you at least an extra mpg, sometimes up to 3 or 4 with really good driving.

The VUE seems like it may be a promising vehicle for us. In our range, roomy, and nice looking. Is the backseat comfortable to ride in? I rode in the far backseat of my dad's Ford Edge the other day and it was so bumpy I thought I was going to be sick.

The backseat is very roomy. Much better than our friend's gigantic Pathfinder in fact.

Glad to hear the positives on the CR-V, we're leaning towards that, it's considerably cheaper than the RAV we looked at. Consumer Reports and Edmunds all have great ratings on it too. I have heard some not so great things on the Saturn, I really wanted to buy American but I guess they are all made all over now. My mom's Buick was made in Canada and the Toyota Sienna is made in the US.

You'll hear not too great things with just about every vehicle, but American brands (notice I didn't say American Made) are consistantly less reliable than Honda's or Toyota's. American is doing much better in this category than in the past.

The Vue is actually made in Mexico. But at least GM profits actually stay in the US to some extent.

The 08 Vue is the first model year of the new body style which no longer has Saturn's famous plastic panneling (which many long time Saturn owners are really mad about). So with a new body always comes weird little issues. BUT the body style is not actually new. It's from Opel, which is GMs European division. So there have been way fewer issues than normal with a new body.

You can read all about this at Edmunds.

I've done a TON of research on all the vehicles in the Compact SUV segment and would be happy to help if you need anything. Just PM me.

 

[JoyG]

I just purchased a Jeep Patriot and love it. I'm averaging around 23 with mostly mixed, more city, driving on the first 2 tanks. I have had it up to 27mpg on the automated read out while on the highway, but the stop and go brings it down. It is a 2007, new off the lot 2 weeks ago, with a 2.4L engine, automatic, limited (loaded with leather, sirius radio, sun roof, etc) and I got it at around $18,500. My son has a big booster in the back and he has plenty of room. If you test drive one be aware the engine is a CVT, continuiously variable transmission, that works on a belt and has a different sound than you will normally be use to. In addition, the 2007, 2008, 2009 modles have a lifetime powertrain warrany to the origional purchaser, also Jeep is doing the lock on $2.99/gal gas for 3 years, up to 12,000 miles per year or about $2500 discount if you don't want the gas deal, unfortunately not on my 2007 but I got a pretty decent deal as the sticker was over $26,000. The Compas get good milage also, but I think its a little smaller. Look at www.jeepforum.com and their is a compass patriot board if you want some more info from owners.

I'm thinking about buying a jeep patriot too. I test drove it last week and I liked it.

 

[Them!]

We own two Saturn Vues. One is an auto 6 cyl and the other a manual 4. Love them both!

 

[heartbeeps]

My '07 RAV 4 (6 cyl. 4WD) gets 20mpg avg. city & highway combined. We haven't taken it on any long trips. Would really like to do better than 20 but I guess I can't complain b'c b4 that, I had an '04 Explorer that got ~15mpg!

BTW, I also have an '02 Infiniti I-35 and it gets 27-28MPG avg. city & highway. Can you guess which one we're racking the miles on these days? (Only problem is it takes 91 octane.)

 

[Michelle67]

I know nothing about SUVs, but if you need more room, a little higher clearance, 4wd would be nice, but you want to keep the gas consumption down (not to mention insurance, SUVs usually insure at the same rate as sports cars, at least around here), you might consider something like a Subaru Forester or Outback. I'm not a big Subie fan myself, but some friends as well as my parents own them and LOVE them for all the reasons mentioned. Plus, my parents are on their second one, are NOT easy on cars, and the Subarus have been really reliable, tough vehicles for them. My dad is a native, parts of his rez that he likes to drive around are pretty "rustic" to say the least, and the Subie can take it. If it can take that, it can take just about anything you might throw at it. Plenty of room in back for hauling stuff around, comfortably roomy for carseats (I've driven it with my kids' two carseats in back) etc. It has just as much, if not more, storage space in back as my best friend's SUV has. Just a thought. Sorry if it is unwantedly OT. If you can't stomach a minivan because of the cool factor, though, then this may not be for you either. Although most young parents that I know who have said the same thing to me, became instant converts as soon as they tried one. There's something really great about being able to put your kids in the door, jump in yourself, shut the door and THEN get everyone buckled into carseats without leaning into a car with your back exposed to the weather.

 

[KayW]

After reading this I really miss my VUE. I had a 2005 VUE and loved it, but we traded it in for an 09 Toyota Matrix. Slightly smaller, but handles just as well as the VUE. I do miss the height though.