Top 15 Most Fuel-Efficient Cars in the U.S. & Why MPG Matters Post-COVID

It’s no secret that gasoline prices have been rising exponentially in the U.S. (and around the world) since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before we see the Top 15 Most Fuel Efficient Cars in the U.S., you should know how fast gasoline prices have been increasing since Apr. 2020. Here is a graph to enable you to visualise the Gasoline Price Rise data in the U.S.

The significant gasoline price rise over the last two years since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic shows why we need to consider the operational costs (mainly the fuel efficiency and MPG Ratings – Miles per Gallon) of owning a car, in addition to it’s cost price, while buying a new car. If you are already driving a gas-guzzler, you could save a lot of money by exchanging your old car with a new car with high MPG ratings.

Here is an example calculation that shows how much money you can save per year by switching to a more fuel-efficient car.

If you enter data like the beginning & ending odometer rating, no. of gallons of gas, cost per gallon, etc. in this Miles per Gallon calculator, you’ll get your current Miles per Gallon value for your existing car, and the amount you can save if you switch to a car with a higher Miles per Gallon.

In my example shown above, I would save $1328 USD per year if I change my current car giving 17.6 Miles per Gallon, to a new one that gives 30 Miles per Gallon. Yes, there are cars that have such MPG values as you’ll see below.

But in order to sell my current car, I need to calculate the depreciation value of my existing car. I can do that from this car depreciation calculator. It’s simple – just enter the original vehicle cost and the annual depreciation rate, and you’ll get year-by-year depreciation amount and written down value. When I entered the value ($30,000) and the age of my car (6-years), it showed me that I could trade-in my six-year old car for around $9250 USD.

The next step would be to calculate the budget for a new car – as I would want to take a car loan. In my case, I can make a downpayment of $1000 USD and make a monthly loan payment of $350 USD. So I entered those values along with the annual interest rate and loan duration in this car affordability calculator. Here is the data I got –

Based on the above data, I can conclude that I can afford to buy a new and a more fuel efficient car that doesn’t cost more than $32,000 USD.

Now comes the most important question: Which new car should I buy? Considering the exponentially rising fuel prices in the U.S. post-COVID, my preference would be for one of the most fuel efficient cars.

Top 15 Most Fuel Efficient Cars in the U.S. (Highest Miles per Gallon ratings)

S.No	Car Model	Avg. MPG
1	Dodge Neon	35
2	Honda Civic	32.5
3	Toyota Corolla	32
4	Saturn SL+SC+SW+EV1	32
5	Nissan Sentra	29.5
6	Mitsubishi Mirage	29.5
7	Ford Focus	29.5
8	Ford Escort	29.5
9	Mercury Cougar (FWD)	29
10	Plymouth Neon	28
11	Mazda Protégé	28
12	Acura Integra	28
13	Chevrolet Malibu	27.5
14	Chevrolet Cavalier	27
15	Plymouth Breeze	26.5

Frankly, until now, logic played a huge part in determining my decision of which car to buy. But in the end, it’s emotion that determines which car we actually buy. However, emotions need to be backed up with solid data, which is what I have done above. So, it’s better to restrict our emotions and choose a car from one of the fifteen models.

My choice would be Toyota Corolla. Don’t ask me why – it’s the emotional part of my brain making this decision.

However, since Toyota Corolla is one of the top three most fuel-efficient cars as per the above data, I can be sure that my decision has solid logic behind it, as well.

If you are curious to check the Miles per Gallon ratings of your favorite car (that’s not in this list), just go and select the model from this Gas Budget Calculator. The average MPG data for most cars in the U.S. is available there. It’s better to be safe and know how much your running costs will be, before buying a new car.