The fire truck I drive for work has a lifetime average of 2.9 mpg since new.
I tend to not do too bad with mileage on my personal vehicles. My worst was this 1989 Cab and Chassis Chevy with the TBI 454, SM465 and 4.56 gears. It averaged about 10.
But I'm also the guy who gets 25mpg out of my Honda Elements while everyone else in the world complains that they get 18 out of theirs.
Sounds like the 12mpg or so that I got with my wagon wasn't so bad. (And, FWIW, it got better mileage at 55mph than 70--no big surprise.)
All these old brass cars are pretty expected I feel like, but my 2018 Titan fits right in when it's towing. 24' enclosed with the racecar in it gets me 7.8mpg. For a modern engine, that's pretty awful, hah.
jimbbski said:A 1987 Chevy Suburban with the 454 TBI & Turbo 400 trans. It got 9-11 mpg. I could eek out 12-13 if I really worked for it. It also got 9 mpg when towing but you didn't know the trailer was there!
I had a 1990 model with the same powertrain, with about the same mpg results.
Probably for me would be my 78CJ7 at around 10mpg, my 2001 GMC Savana a close second at 12.5 empty 9 pulling a trailer, Vortec 350, 4L60E, 3:73 rear.
My 89 M3 could get 10 mpg tached out in third. 85 RX7 got 19mpg on a long road trip or driving it hard, didn't matter.
I forgot that I drove two other gas guzzlers but didn't own them. One was a Freightliner tractor & 49 ft. race trailer. I don't know what it got for mpg's since I only filled the tanks every 800-900 miles and I wasn't paying for the fuel. It had 2-300 gal fuel tanks!
The other was a 32ft Class A on a Chevy chassis. A 454 with a carb. It got 6-7 mpg. Of course you had a motel on wheels so you saved on lodging. That had a 70+ gallon fuel tank, don't know just how big but the gas pump stopped at 70 gal. when I had to fill it up. This was back in the day when gas was "only" $1.25!
I averaged 10mpg in my Maserati Bitrouble - granted - nearly every mile was full throttle. But that's pretty terrible for a light car with a 2.5l v6
I feel like for a lot of these vehicles, a "fuel burned per pound-mile" would be a more appropriate metric. Thus, 10 mpg for a 10,000 lb vehicle would be equivalent to 20 mpg for a 5,000 pound vehicle.
I used to have a 1980 Mercedes 450SL. It would get 14 mpg pretty much no matter how it was driven. Pretty appalling, considering that a '67 Imperial I used to have, which was carburetted, 3 liters more displacement, double the power, and hauling around almost a ton more mass would get about the same.
Appleseed said:The old man's 95 F-250 with a 460 got 8mph. Loaded or unloaded.
Feeling a bit better about my '97, which I would say tends to hit right around 11 (but as low as 9) regardless of load, no-load, trailer (very small cars)...
I did fail to do the the math for the week or so I made twenty-three one-mile trips to the dump with a four-yard dump trailer full of dirt...
Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:The fire truck I drive for work has a lifetime average of 2.9 mpg since new...
Does that include all of the idling time that fire trucks typically see?
My dirt bike hauling rig gets right at 9 mpg running 70-75 mph. 350 Vortec, 4L60, 3.42s. It doesn't matter if you're running locked up in 4th basically running on the torque curve (it's actually kind of fun...you can feel it become power limited over a band of throttle before it kicks down, so easy to hold just short of kickdown), or if you let the torque converter lock up and run 3000 rpm in 3rd, it's the same. 17 mpg empty.
The worst empty was a toyota Tundra platinum. Everyone seems to love those trucks, but I had a hard time with 13 mpg empty and a hyperactive transmission that was either kicking down too early or the engine just didn't have as much torque as I expected it to.
My first car - a 1976 Camaro with a straight six 250 C.I. engine matted to a three speed automatic averaged about 12 mpg.
BTW, a friend of mine had a Z28 also with an automatic and averaged two or three more mpg's with it.
I upgraded to a 1979 Celica with a R20 (2.0 Liter) matted to a five speed overdrive two years later and you couldn't get less than 27 mpg if you tried and it was wayyyyyy faster.
Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:The fire truck I drive for work has a lifetime average of 2.9 mpg since new.
I tend to not do too bad with mileage on my personal vehicles. My worst was this 1989 Cab and Chassis Chevy with the TBI 454, SM465 and 4.56 gears. It averaged about 10.
But I'm also the guy who gets 25mpg out of my Honda Elements while everyone else in the world complains that they get 18 out of theirs.
Gorgeous
buzzboy said:Personal ownership is pretty good. I think my worst overall average was the 62 Comet 289 3spd which got 18-22 usually. My jeep has seen as bad as 17 over a tank but that was 80mph into a 35mph headwind across Kansas with a surfboard on my roof. Heck, my racecar gets 15-17 at WOT on track.
My raceteam owned a 2003 E450 22passenger van with the 7.3 Powerchoke. It got 8 highway, 8 city, 8 towing, 8 unloaded. Then we put a tuner on it and got 9 highway/city. So every trip we took it on we spent a fortune on fuel and a fortune fixing that stupid T444E.
Feedyurhed said:I had a 1999 Jeep Cherokee with a 3" lift and 31" tires. In the winter/snow in AWD I would get 8-9 miles per gallon.
It always blows my mind to see what fuel economy other people get from XJs. Mine get's 21mpg city in the winter with snow tires. Admittedly I don't use 4x4 unless I absolutley need it.
We're on opposite ends of the spectrum. I'm getting 17 empty with my 7.3 and it's dual rear wheels and 4.10 gears. Something was wrong if you were getting 8 empty.
And I DD'd an XJ for a dozen years that I bought almost brand new. It was a stick and had 3.07 gears. Still struggled to get 15.
APEowner said:I drove my Camaro on the street for a while and that was probably the worst since the engine burned a gallon a minute on the dyno but it doesn't have an odometer or a gas gauge so I don't really know what kind of mileage it got.
If we discount the Camaro the worst mileage of any road vehicle I've ever owned is my current 2015 RAM 3500. It gets a solid 9 MPG when towing. To be fair, it's also the most powerful truck I've owned and that mileage is with the cruise control set at 82 MPH which it'll hold on just about any hill.
Either that 3500 is a gas truck or you're the first Cummins owner in the history of the internet to admit to less than 20 mpg.
Canyonero came to me with a lifetime average of 9.6. Before that it was the 12 I got out of my Sonoma.
A 401 CJ said:APEowner said:I drove my Camaro on the street for a while and that was probably the worst since the engine burned a gallon a minute on the dyno but it doesn't have an odometer or a gas gauge so I don't really know what kind of mileage it got.
If we discount the Camaro the worst mileage of any road vehicle I've ever owned is my current 2015 RAM 3500. It gets a solid 9 MPG when towing. To be fair, it's also the most powerful truck I've owned and that mileage is with the cruise control set at 82 MPH which it'll hold on just about any hill.
Either that 3500 is a gas truck or you're the first Cummins owner in the history of the internet to admit to less than 20 mpg.
It's got the 6.7L Cummins in it. I'm probably the first Cummins owner on the internet who still has all the original exhaust after treatment on his truck and hasn't messed with the factory tune. It kind of interesting that this truck gets such significantly worse mileage than the two diesels that preceded it.
My first diesel was a 1983 Dodge with the 12 valve Cummins, a manual transmission and a Banks Stage I. It got 19 MPG pretty much regardless of what you did with it. Loaded or unloaded. In fact it pretty much drove the same loaded or unloaded. Maybe a little smoother ride with some weight.
My next one was my '01 F250 with the 7.3L and a stick. That got around 21 MPG empty on the east coast and around 19 empty out here in the southwest where the speed limits are higher. Loaded it got around 14. While the RAM gets the worst mileage of the three it's the most powerful, quietest and produces lowest emissions. Everything in life and engineering is a compromise.
Wait. .. . The 1970 Oldsmobile 98 Regency was may be worse than the old dodge. I think it was 4-6 MPG. Loved that car. If I could find one today that was in good shape I would be really tempted!!!
1974 Dodge Monaco with 400 cubic inch engine. I loved that car. What I didn't love was 10 mpg on the highway and 7 in town.
But still in 1985 I was able to smoke a new Mustang Gt, and Camaro Z28.
So sad when I blew a hole in the side of the engine, and I couldn't afford the gas, or to fix the engine.
volvoclearinghouse said:I feel like for a lot of these vehicles, a "fuel burned per pound-mile" would be a more appropriate metric. Thus, 10 mpg for a 10,000 lb vehicle would be equivalent to 20 mpg for a 5,000 pound vehicle.
I used to have a 1980 Mercedes 450SL. It would get 14 mpg pretty much no matter how it was driven. Pretty appalling, considering that a '67 Imperial I used to have, which was carburetted, 3 liters more displacement, double the power, and hauling around almost a ton more mass would get about the same.
That '72 T-bird would knock down 24mpg at a constant 80mph.
E-350 and E450 motor homes got 6-7 mpg.
In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
I came to post a similar truck. Ours got 3 mpg but it was an 88 and we were also an insanely heavy steel trailer with a stock car on it.
In reply to gearheadE30 :
Wife's mom mobile is a '99 K2500 Suburban, 350 Vortec, 4L60E. Even on long trips, not towing, it barely eeks out 13 mpg. I've done tune up, run good oil, and checked for fuel leaks. Can't seem to get it any better. I was hoping for at least mid-teens, same as our old TBI 4x4 Suburban.
I've heard a lot of stories about how thirsty the Tundra's 5.6 V8 is. It's a rocketship, but it burns fuel like one, too.
Guess I've been lucky. 2nd gen CTS-V would dip down to 11-12mpg if I got rowdy
84 dodge ram 3/4 ton 4x4 longbed ex plow truck. 318 2bbl, headers, 4.56 gears, automatic, and i added 38 inch mud tires. And 8 inches of lift if i remember correctly.
Never got above 6mpg. Ever.
But that motherberkeleyer NEVER got stuck.
You'll need to log in to post.
