SUV With The Best Gas Mileage
The SUV has been a controversial addition to the motor vehicle lineup. They have been extremely popular because of their versatility, but gas mileage has been an issue. What is the SUV with the best gas mileage?
The Sport Utility Vehicle, or SUV, has enjoyed a great deal of recent popularity. It is truly a versatile vehicle that combines car, truck, and even van into one package. Most often equipped with four wheel drive for off road driving and room for extra passengers and cargo, the SUV gave the driver just about everything they could ask for except a low sticker price and good gas mileage. Pressure to improve SUV gas mileage found a good ally with the introduction of hybrid technology. The SUV with the best gas mileage in 2008, not surprisingly is a hybrid.
Hybrid technology uses a combination of an electric and gasoline engine to provide power to the drive train of the SUV. Under normal circumstances, the electric engine is providing much of the power, but the problem with electric powered cars has always been the inability to maintain electrical supply. The hybrid has a gasoline engine that can kick in to help recharge the batteries while providing power when needed. Although the gasoline engine is needed often, obviously whatever help is given by electrical power reduces gasoline use.
So, it is no surprise that the SUV with the best gas mileage is a Hybrid. In fact, there is a three way tie on top of the list. Two of the models are four wheel drive vehicles (FWD). They are the Ford Escape Hybrid and the Mercury Mariner Hybrid. These two score a very impressive 34 miles per gallon in the city and 30 miles per gallon on the highway. The third vehicle on the list is the Mazda Tribute which hits the same figures, but is only a two wheel drive model.
There are many people that are looking at what is called “the bang for the buck” rating. The idea of this rating is that a vehicle that costs five times as much as another model will not ultimately result in any savings despite a higher EPA mpg rating. The figure used is the estimated cost of fuel per year. Since the Environmental Protection Agency publishes lists giving the estimated yearly cost of fuel based on their ratings and average driving miles, this figure can be compared with the sticker prices to give a better idea of actual savings.
This figure is important because Hybrid vehicles are still priced fairly high in comparison to some vehicles that do not score quite so high on the EPA ratings. This is really true of the popular SUVs. The cost and the bang for the buck figures might be something getting even more attention in the coming years. The demand for better fuel mileage is being backed by proposed Federal laws, the ever increasing price of gasoline at the pumps, and even the insistence of an increasingly influential environmental community.