If not a Prius, then what car for great MPG?

OP, if your commute had been 64 miles on open roads, I'd have recommended a diesel Passat: my Dad has one, and gets better MPG than I do on long runs: on drives from Northern England to the South of France, he gets 65-70MPG.

But given that you're dealing with stop-start traffic, I don't think there is anything that comes close to a Prius.

If you need more room, could a Hybrid Camry do the job? I don't know when they were launched in the US, or how mch they cost. Here in Australia, the oldest ones are from 2010, and they cost around A$ 14,000 at auction, so I'm guessing (given that cars are way more expensive here than they are in the US) that if there are 2008 or 2009 HyCams in America, you might be getting close to US$ 7,000 for a high-milage, ex-fleet one at auction. They're not quite as good on fuel as a Prius, but they're pretty good, especially in stop-start traffic.

Failing that, how about one of those huge American things, like a Crown Vic or whatever, converted to run on LPG?

 

The conversion to LPG on a vic is pretty straightforward. There are kits for all ford fleet vehicles from crown Vic's to econolines.

 

I had no idea about the BSM issue. My Dad's on about his fourth Passat, I think, and he always buys nearly-new ones.

Could a Merc diesel be an option? Again, I know nothing about car prices in the US.

And do you think a Hybrid Camry could be an option? Again, I don't know about US pricing. I've driven a couple and there seems to be a lot more room in the driver's seat than in a Prius.

If the budget is strict, have you looked at the auction houses? Here, you can save 30-40% over dealer prices by buying at auction - I don't know what the deal is over there. You don't get the warranty you get from a dealer, but given how difficult it can be to get a dealer to honour a warranty, I'd have thought that, especially with Japanese cars, they're reliable enough to justify the money you might save at auction.

 

You don't have Skodas or SEATs in the US, do you? It can be a cheap way into a VW diesel.

 

Nope

 

Woodyard Auto Sales 540-288-8800

Dealer near me always has nice VW diesels as well as Hondas and toyotas in stock for less than 10k. If you could find something like this near you I think you might be better off getting a conventional car and keeping $5,000 in your pocket.

 

Do Crown Vics and other Fords with big front seats have the same 4.0 straight six that Australian Ford Falcons have? Here, a huge proportion of Falcon owners have either factory LPG or aftermarket conversions (LPG is about half the price of petrol here), and everyone I know who's done it says it's great.

There is one potential problem with a Crown Vic, though, especially if you like to go along the highway at 80.

I recently rented a Holden Commodore (they're sold as Chevy Caprice police cars in the US). It was white, and they're often used as police cars in Australia. On the highway, everyone in front of me would suddenly slow to the speed limit when they saw my car in the mirror: they assumed I was a cop. This really slowed my progress. I suspect you might have similar problems with a Crown Vic.

 

For $10k you find an early 2000s Mercedes diesel if lucky. Most likely it will be a late'90s with 100k+ miles. The $7000 range will be the early '90s and '80s. Good cars if you want to get into WVO though. For a diesel car that isn't too old or high on miles, we are pretty much stuck with VWs.

A 2007 Camry hybrid with 100k miles can be had for $10,000, or 150k miles for $7500.

The previous gen Fusion hybrids don't have any of controversy that the new has. Owners here had only good things to say about them. But they are higher priced than the Camry on Cars.com. A more thorough, local search might yield better results.

 

The advantage is it is easier to pass when the car in front is going slower.
A Prius would be much cheaper to fuel that a large 6 on LPG. I've done the excercise with a Toyota Crown on dedicated gas and the Prius would cream it. LPG has about 10% less energy per litre so there is a 10% increase in litres used. A 6 cylinder commodore or Falcon at 13 L/100km (petrol) would use 14.3 L/100km (LPG). The cost is about half per litre so the big 6 would have an equivalent of 7.6 L/100km while my gen II uses 4.3 around town and 5.2 on the highway, real numbers.
(I'm not just using highway numbers like some do, we mostly drive in urban environments)

 

It's 4.6L V8 here. Rated 20 to 24mpg highway here, though it's claimed it can do better. But finding one for $5000 or so will be easy.
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Likely hard to find, there was a CNG version made. There is only 3 on Cars.com right now. All under 5 grand.

Used Ford - Wagon in 19019 Area - on Cars.com

This had to be shared.
1955 Ford Crown Victoria, $39,995 -
Cars.com

Knew someone that once had that problem, but his car still had the external floodlight on it. Of course, going slower will help the fuel economy.

 

Ah, that's a shame. They're VWs, but cheaper. In Britain, both SEAT and Skoda do very well; here, there are Skodas, but no SEATs. I hired a Skoda Superb wagon (a 1.8 petrol turbo that is based on a stretched Passat platform and has an unbelievable amount of room) a couple of years ago in Perth, and it was a really lovely car.

 

It's a 4.6 V8 here. And yes you have the same problem driving a vic here as a Holden there.

Ford Crown Victoria CNG | WorldCNG

 

Yes, that'd be right. The big LPG cars are not going to be as cheap to run as a Prius. But if the OP is looking for a low purchase price and lots of room, they might be the next-best thing.

 

Lots of nice cars that I can't get here. I would love a Falcon XR8 and a Ford Sierra Cosworth.

 

Ah. Thanks for that.

That's lovely.

Yes. But it doesn't help me travel the 300km from the airport to my meeting in a hurry.

 

Cossies were fantastic cars in their day. Sub-6-second 0-60 times in a sensibly-priced four-door saloon came as a bit of a shock in the 80s.

The XR8s have been discontinued, but have a look at FPV (Ford Performance Vehicles) and HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) for the very fast versions of the big Australian cars and utes. I remain to be convinced of the actual need for a Corvette engine in a pick-up truck, but I would very much like to have a go at driving one.

 

The Jetta will of course be a bit smaller. But they are very comfortable.

I can sympathise on the move from fancy German cars. I moved to the Prius (via a Golf) from an oldish but very good Merc CL600. It was ... ummm .... not brilliant on the economy front, which surprised me given its spartan spec and frugal 6.0 V12. But it was unbelievably comfortable. And very fast.

Although I only got about 12MPG out of it, I don't think fuel costs were the main concern of the previous owner. In the ten years before I bought it, it had done 60,000km. And in that time, the value had dropped from HK$ 2.2 million (US$ 280,000) to HK$ 60,000 (US$ 7,700). So while fuel will have cost about US$ 4 per kilometre over that time, depreciation cost US$ 35 per kilometre. Still, I sold it at a profit, so it was OK for me.