If you want to increase the fuel economy on your diesel pickup, there are many ways you can do it.

Do you want to get better fuel economy from your diesel pickup? Here are some great tips that will help you squeeze a few extra MPGs out of your diesel powered pick up truck. Some of these tips are good for a few 10ths of an MPG, while others will give you substantially more miles out of every gallon of whatever you’re burning in there.

Tip 1 – Drive with the tailgate up. Sure, this flies in the face of everything you’ve been told about pick up aerodynamics since you were a kid, but it is true. Why does driving with the tailgate up get you better fuel economy than driving with it down? After all, when it’s down the air flows right over the roof, through the bed, and out the back. When it is up, the air slams into the tailgate, slowing down your truck, right? Wrong!

When the tailgate is raised, the air does not slam into it. What actually happens is that a rotating vortex of air forms in the truck’s bed. This vortex actually guides the air over the bed and deposits it gently beyond the tailgate, forming a nice smooth airflow over the bed and beyond. Opening the tailgate destroys this vortex, creates more aerodynamic drag, and kills your mileage.

Tip 2 – Drive and accelerate slower. Why sure, this is another one that you’ve heard since you were a kid, but this one happens to be true, and more so if your truck is jacked up into the stratosphere. Trucks are about as aerodynamic as the proverbial barn door, and the more it’s jacked up, the worse the aerodynamics are. It’s is a matter of both frontal area and a statistic called drag coefficient, which is a measure of how much resistance the vehicle presents to the air as it moves past. The combination of the two measures how hard it is to get your truck through the air. Jacking up your truck hits you with a double whammy. It increases the frontal area and makes your drag coefficient worse.

Since air resistance increases with the square of vehicle speed, relatively little air resistance at slow speeds turns into huge walls of air standing in the way of your truck at higher speeds. That means driving twice as fast will actually cause 4 times the air resistance. That means it takes 4 times more power to push your truck through the atmosphere at 70mph as it does when you’re driving 35mph. Take your foot out of it and you’ll save fuel.

Tip 3 – Clean up your act. All those tools you keep in the bed of your truck weigh a ton. Well maybe not a ton, but probably a few hundred pounds, especially since you keep them in that steel bed box. The combination is a heck of a lot of weight you’re carrying around every day. If you don’t use them all the time, remove them, or at least change the box to a lighter, plastic variety, especially if theft isn’t a concern. Every pound of extra weight you’re carrying takes more fuel to accelerate and take up hills. Even if your truck can tow 10,000 lbs, those 250lbs of extra tools you’re lugging around will still cost you money. It also burns up your brakes faster when you stop, costing you even more money. You could get .5% – 1.5% increase from this alone.

Tip 4 – Get an aerocap for the bed. This is a smooth, faired cover for the bed that extends form the top of the cab to the top of the tailgate. It significantly improves aerodynamics over the bed area. In fact, tests have revealed a 4% fuel economy improvement at only 55mph, with high speeds promising even better returns. These things must be expensive, right? Hardly, you can build one for less than $100. Even if you buy one and get it color matched for your truck, it should still set you back less than $500. Obviously you’ll have to remove it if you’re carrying anything in the bed that is too large.

Tip 5 – Conserve momentum when driving. This is one of the most effective driving techniques to increase fuel mileage. One of the reasons that hybrid vehicles deliver such outstanding fuel economy is because they recapture energy through regenerative braking. Since you can’t do that in your truck, you are going to conserve the momentum you have already built up.

There are 2 keys to accomplishing this. The first is to look far ahead when driving and anticipate when you might need to stop. Every time you use the brakes, you are turning your momentum into useless heat. That heat cost you precious fuel to get. Look at the traffic signals and traffic ahead of you. If traffic slows or the light turns red, get off the accelerator and coast. Your goal is to coast up to the light and get there after it has turned green, so you never have to stop. The same with heavily traffic situations. If traffic is slowing to a crawl or a complete stop, try to anticipate the flow, so you can slow down, but never entirely stop. In heavy traffic you’ll often be foiled by drivers cutting in ahead of you, but it is worth a try.

This technique avoids wasting the fuel it takes accelerating from a complete stop or a very slow speed, and sometimes can save you 10% depending on driving conditions.

Tip 6 – Drafting large trucks ca save substantial fuel, but can also get you killed. If you use this technique, make sure you’re not too close. Even having a large truck 100 feet ahead of you can offer substantial aerodynamic gains at freeway speeds. The problem is that at 65mph, you’re only about a second behind a vehicle at 100 feet. Thatb is about half the distance experts recommend for safe driving. Sure you can use the “I can stop faster than he can.” logic, and that may well be true when you’re talking about an 18 wheeler, but it is a big risk to take. If you do this, it is essential to be paying 100% attenuation at all times.

Tip 7 – Replace your factory air intake with a free flowing, after market unit. This reduced restriction in the intake tract, often leading to a 3% – 5% fuel economy improvement, depending on the truck you’re driving.

Tip 8 – Replace the exhaust system with a free flowing exhaust. Similar to the reasons that cause your engine to operate more efficiently when you change the intake system, you can do the same thing with the exhaust. Any time you lower the resistance, especially on a turbo charged engine, where exhaust tuning is less of a concern, you will improve fuel economy, throttle response, and hp/torque. All in all, a great deal.

Tip 9 – Maintain your truck. There is no sense in spending any money on any sort of add on if your truck isn’t operating at peak efficiency in the first place. Proper tire inflation, clean air filter, clean fuel injectors, and regularly changed oil all factor into your truck’s fuel mileage. Keeping your injectors clean is a matter of using a fuel additive at regular intervals. Crawling under your ride every few months to check on things, change the oil and lube things up isn’t a bad idea, either. A fuel additive will also help ensure there is no water in your fuel system and increase fuel lubricity, both of which are important to maintaining optimum performance. After spending 2 hours at the side of a road, in the middle of nowhere, waiting for a tow because the F-350 I was driving had gotten water in the fuel system, I can vouch for the fact that water and diesel do not mix.

Modern electroncis have done wonders for driveability, performance and feul economy. Thankfully, you can take it even further with some minor mods.

Tip 10 – Add an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) programmer targeted at increasing fuel mileage. These days virtually all engine and transmission functions are controlled by one or more electronic processing units. So it was only natural for people to soon try and market ECUs optimized for more power and better fuel economy. There a half a dozen or more of these things on the market from such manufacturers as Hypertech, Edge, Bully Dog and Jet. You’ll not only get improved fuel mileage, you’ll typically get improved performance as well. Several of theses units let you change the tune for your application. That means if you’re towing, for example, you can set the ECU in tow mode to increase low and midrange torque. It is easy to set it back to fuel economy mode for increased fuel economy in normal driving when you’re finished towing. As an added bonus you’ll often get lower exhaust gas temperature, lower noise, and better throttle response when using these performance ECU systems.

How to Tell If Engine Modifications Pay Off

It is all well and good to spend several hundred or thousand dollars on increasing your fuel economy, but will you ever get your money back, and if so, when will that payoff arrive? It is all a matter of simple math.

Say you drive 20,000 miles per year and your truck averages 14mpg overall. That means you’ll burn about 1,428 gallons of fuel in a one year period. As this is written, the national average for diesel fuel is $3.07 a gallon. That means that you’ll spend $4,384 a year on fuel at current prices. If your modifications net you a 15% fuel economy increase, your mileage will go from 14mpg to 16.1mpg. Your annual fuel usage will drop to 1,242 gallons, costing you $3,813, and saving $571 per year. How much did your modifications cost?

If you spent $1,000 on an ECU programmer, a performance exhaust, and a free flow intake, you’ll be earning money on your modifications in only 21 months If you are going to keep your truck for longer than that, it makes sense to go ahead and install those modifications, because they will pay for themselves fairly soon, and then save you almost $600 per year. In most cases these mods not only give you better fuel economy, but added power too. It’s kind of like getting something for nothing or buy one, get one free.

To find the best deals on exhaust systems, intakes and ECU programmers for your truck click here now.

Back in the day when this bad Boss 429 was roaming the streets, some of the gas saving tips held true, but not anymore.

Your EGR is an integral part of your emission control system. EGR stands for Exhaust Gas Recirculation and it does exactly as the name suggests; recirculates some of your exhaust gas back into the intake manifold, where it mixes with incoming air. This helps lower combustion temperatures and as a result, decreases oxides of nitrogen (NOX) emissions.

Many people believe that plugging the EGR or bypassing it will in some way increase their gas mileage and give them a few more precious horsepower. Can simply bypassing the EGR give you better gas mileage? Can it be that simple?

No, it can’t. In modern engines, you will actually stand a better chance of losing a few percent in the MPG department, rather than making any gains. You really gain nothing by bypassing it. Your car actually does it for you under acceleration, when an EGR block swings into action to prevent it from functioning. So if you have a modern gasoline engine, forget the notion of saving a little bit of precious unleaded by just bypassing your EGR. It doesn’t work.

What about some other easy ways to get better gas mileage you may have heard about? You can always drive slower,but how much fun is that? No, I’m talking about tricks, like the 100mpg carburetor or the magnetic fuel molecule aligner. More to the point I’m talking about things that have been long reported to save gas, but actually don’t.

The first thing on the list is a having a clean air filter. That mileage myth has some basis in fact, but it no longer holds true. In the past, back in the glorious days of Holley double pumpers or Rochester Q-jets, a dirty air filter could cut back on your power and gas mileage. Now however a dirty air filter will still cost you power, but it won’t really hurt your mileage. Why not? Because now days cars are so much smarter. They use electronic engine management systems connected to a host of sensors to meter the fuel, rather than a bunch of venturis, tubes, and holes in some brass. As the air filter gets dirtier and the airflow decreases, the electronics compensate by also decreasing the fuel flow so the air/fuel mixture is always correct. The problem is that you’ll lose plenty of power, so don’t let that filter get too dirty.

Here’s another one; leaving the tailgate down in a pickup will save gas. Actually according to recent tests it doesn’t. The same goes for removing the tailgate entirely and putting a net across the opening. Why dfo you actually get better fuel mileage with the gate up, instead of following conventional wisdom and dropping it? The gate contains a bubble of air called a vortex that actually helps smooth airflow over the bed, reducingdrag and increasing gas mileage.

Still more old timers myths that are supposed to increase your gas mileage, but in most cases, do little or actually have a detrimental effect on it include the “put it in neutral when going down hills” piece of advice. Although this actually works in older cars, it doesn’t in newer vehicles. That’s because in newer vehicles the electronic engine management systems actually shut off the fuel flow entirely when you are moving forward with the throttle plate in the closed position. That is only true when your rig is in gear. When you put it neutral the fuel cut off is not in effect, so you’re burning gas. Keep it in gear, just take your foot off the gas, and your cars ECU will stop feeding your engine for you.

These are just a few things that people just know are true about ways to get better gas mileage; except they really aren’t.

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As diesel fuel hovers between $4.50 and $4.95 a gallon, knowing how to improve diesel fuel economy is likely right at the top of your list, weather you drive a new Diesel Jetta TDI or a Chevy 2500 with a Duramax. If you are averaging over 40mpg in your new Jetta TDI, you may not have the same yearning for that knowledge as if you just finished pumping about $150 worth of Chevron’s finest into the saddle tanks of your 3/4 ton tow rig, but you get the point nonetheless.

With that in mind, here are some tricks you can use to get better fuel economy out of your diesel, weather you use it for towing, long freeway cruises, or just drive to work everyday like the rest of us poor slobs.

Diesel engines are internal combustion engines like gasoline engines but there are some important differences, the main one being they have no spark ignition system and burn a more oil-like fuel. The lack of an ignition system minimizes maintenance, such as the requirement to change spark plugs, spark plug wires, distributor cap and rotor, because there aren’t any! Most modern cars have eliminated all these parts except for the plugs themselves anyway by going to a coil-on-plug ignition system. If you’ve ever had to replace your coils on one of the new cars, you’ll probably long for the good old days of a traditional distributor that you could pick up at any auto parts store for $20.

Diesel engines use direct fuel injection systems. These inject the fuel directly (Hey, imagine that!) into the combustion chamber where it’s ignited by the heat produced by the diesel engine’s extremely high compression ratio. Some new gasoline engines, such as the new Cadillac 3.6 liter V-6, 2009 Porsche flat 6 engines, and the newer Audi engines are also using the direct fuel injection technique, combined with the gasoline engine’s spark ignition systems, to gain efficiency and maximize fuel economy.

So if you are driving an oil burner, how can you stretch every last mile out of a thankful?

For diesel powered vehicles many of the same fuel saving techniques apply as are used for gas powered vehicles; drive slower, clean out excess weight, don’t have a loaded roof rack if you don’t need to, keeping tires properly inflated, etc. There are some diesel specific fuel economy tricks, however that can be used to really make your gas powered brethren a bit jealous as you bypass the gas station.

How to Maximize Diesel Fuel Economy –

Learning how to correctly drive a diesel engine for the best fuel economy is very important, especially if you’ve spent your life behind the wheel of gas powered vehicles. Diesels just work a bit differently, and have about half the rpm range of a comparably sized gas engine. You’ll usually be turning much lower rpms on the freeway when driving a diesel powered vehicle, and that’s just the way these engines like it.

Use the cruise control –
One of the reasons that diesel engines are often chosen for duty in heavy commercial applications such as generators and pumps is that they like to be operated at a constant speed, and are most efficient when run that way. Remember that in your daily driving. Find the rpm that your engine is the most efficient for a given load and stay there. Use your trip computer to find the best instant mpg speed at the load ranges that you normally use and chart them. When traveling on the freeway set your cruise control for these speeds.

Short shift the engine –
Short shifting is a driving technique for manual transmission vehicles where the engine is shifted into the next gear well before its power peak and red line. For drivers that are accustomed to driving gas powered vehicles this may seem counter intuitive, but diesels typically don’t like to spend their time in the upper reaches of the tachometer. Shift at maximum torque point, which on diesel engines tend to be fairly low in the RPM range.

Choose a lower final drive –
If you’re buying a new pickup or SUV with a diesel engine option, you’ll often have a choice of different rear end (final drive) gear ratios when perusing the option sheet. Unless you’ll be spending most of your time towing very heavy loads (6,000+ lbs.), choose the lowest numerical ratio that’s available. If you’re searching for the best fuel economy, the lower (numerical) gear will really help you get it.

Don’t buy bargain basement diesel fuel –
Diesels are very sensitive to the quality of their fuel. One of the worst things you can do is feed them contaminated fuel, especially if it contains water. Steer clear of the low budget stations. The few cents a gallon you save could come back to bite you.

General Motors actually issued a technical service bulletin (TSB) relating to fuel economy in its diesel powered trucks. This would apply to most other brands of diesel trucks, in addition to SUVs and cars. Here are the factors listed in the GM TSB that can affect diesel powered fuel economy:
• Accessories that increase wind drag. Keep the bike rack, or ski carrier off your rig when you’re not heading out to the mountain. This is especially harmful to the mileage you’ll get in a diesel car with a smaller engine, as it causes it to work much harder than the same wind resistance increase on a big-engined diesel powered rig like a Duramax or Cummins pickup.
• Driving 65mph will lower fuel mileage up to 15% as compared to driving 55. This is especially true when towing a heavy load that has poor aerodynamics and a large frontal area, like your big wakeboarding boat with a tower.
• Frequent stops, changing speeds or otherwise poor driving habits. Diesels love steady state operating conditions and prove it by returning their best fuel economy when operated that way. Find the best fuel economy speed for a given load and just set the cruise control for that speed.
• Transmission problems such as OD automatics not shifting into OD, or the lockup torque convertor not locking up.
• Fuel system problems such as contaminated fuel filters. The fuel filter on a diesel is even more important than on a gasoline engined vehicle. Make sure the water separator is functioning properly.
• Final gear ratio. As noted above, when purchasing a new truck check the option box for the lowest numerical ratio possible unless you’ll be spending a significant portion of your time towing heavy loads, in which case you’ll want to go to a lower (higher numerical) gear ratio in the rear end.
• GVW (Gross Vehicle Weight).
• Wheel alignment and tire pressure – check your alignment and tire pressure. If either of these are out of adjustment or spec, it increases rolling resistance and reduces fuel economy.
• Misadjusted or dragging brakes – the same as above. In addition, make sure you don’t ride the brakes when driving. This behavior is fairly common, as evidenced by the dodos cruising down the freeway with their brake lights on.

Using diesel fuel additives –
Diesel engines burn a very different fuel than gas engines. One of the most important ratings that describes diesel is its’ cetane rating. Cetane is a measurement of its propensity to burn and support combustion; to a point, the higher the better.

Most commercially available diesel fuel runs around a 40 cetane rating. Not bad, except that most diesel engines found in pickups, such as the Duramax, Cummins, or Powerstroke like about 5 – 10 points higher than that. One way to raise the cetane rating of what you put in your tank is through the use of fuel additives. Diesel additives will also increase the lubricity of the fuel to help protect engine components and decrease internal friction. Both of these effects will increase your diesel’s fuel economy.

Take a look at the post I did last on the 3 best car modifications to increase gas mileage. The same 3 mods apply for diesel vehicles, and for many of the same reasons. In fact, one of them, reprogramming your diesel’s ECU, is one of the favored mods to radically increase your diesel’s power and torque too. The sophistication of the new controllers is pretty phenomenal. They can allow you to select different settings depending on your current use. If you’re towing for example, you can just dial up more grunt, but keep more conservative programming for daily driving to save fuel. They can even tell if your transmission is slipping and reduce the fuel to save your tranny.

This is a beginning primer on how to maximize fuel economy for your diesel powered car or truck. Since better fuel economy is one of the main reasons people buy diesel vehicles, there is a bit of gold in here.

Until next time.

It’s pretty easy to find the cars with the best gas mileage. You only need look at the U.S. government EPA numbers. It’s there in black and white for all to see. What’s not so easy to find are the cars that get good gas mileage that are actually fun to drive. If you’re one of those that view your car as something more than a simple transportation appliance, the act of getting you to work in the morning isn’t the only thing you expect out of your car.

It may not take rocket science to find a car that gets good gas mileage, but it definitely takes a bit more digging to root out those that can do that and keep you entertained while you’re behind the wheel. For those that actually like to drive, especially in a car that goes where you point it, pulls respectable Gs in the corners, stops like you tied it to a tree, and at least tries to pin you back in your seat when you put your foot in it, here is the

1^st Annual Super-Gas-Saver.com Top 12 Best Gas Mileage Cars That are Fun to Drive – 2008 Edition.

What’s important here is gas mileage and fun. The number of seats, cargo capacity, and other niceties of these cars are purely secondary considerations, and are used as tiebreakers only. Why 12, not 10? Well, 11 is better than 10, right? That means 12 must be even better still. In the interest of fun and economy these cars have manual or automated manual transmissions. The only other qualification is that the base MSRP must be less than $50,000. Rankings are independent of price, but factor in the elusive “fun to drive” factor and EPA gas mileage posted by these cars.

Best Gas Mileage Car That’s Fun to Drive 11 -

Mazda 3S – MSRP $18,405 – EPA combined 25, EPA Highway 29 – 156 HP, regular gas

If you have to drive a basic sedan, but want one that won’t set off your insomnia, Mazda can get you behind the wheel of the newly revised Mazda 3. It carves a mean corner for a economy car, has best-in-class binders to keep you out of the ditch, and almost touches 7 seconds flat in a 0-60 sprint. Even better, it’s almost downright cheap and has good resale value to go along with it’s fuel frugality.

Best Gas Mileage Car That’s Fun to Drive 10 -

Infiniti G37 Coupe Sport 6MT – MSRP $36,200 – EPA combined 20, EPA Highway 26 – HP 330, premium gas

Couldn’t afford that 240Z in high school? Want one now, but think the 350Z looks like a soft, warm pile on a hot day? Infinity has wrapped the 3.7 liter V6 from the new 370Z in much sexier bodywork to create the G37 coupe. Get the 6MT model, which is backed by, as the name might suggest, a 6-speed manual transmission. It sits on sports suspension, and has some rather hefty Brembo brakes, although recent brake tests in Car and Driver Magazine suggest they might take a vacation after a few hard, panic stops. In any case, the Infiniti is super fun, has a stout motor, and looks great. It manages to do all this and still return 26 miles to each gallon of premium, if you can stay on the freeway. It would have finished higher, but the gas mileage is nothing to write home about in this crowd.

Best Gas Mileage Car That’s Fun to Drive 9 -

Honda S-2000 – MSRP $34,300 - EPA combined 21, EPA Highway 25 – 237 HP, premium gas

Just hearing one of these things rip to the 8,000rpm (used to be 9,000 rpm) redline is worth the price of admission alone. Slap a performance exhaust on it and it will really sing. Handling is superb, if just a touch understeer oriented, and boy is it fast for a normally aspirated 4 cylinder.

Best Gas Mileage Car That’s Fun to Drive 8 -

Chevy Corvette – MSRP $46,950 – EPA combined 19, EPA Highway 26 – 430 HP, premium gas

The Corvette, icon of American performance, would have finished higher, Lord knows the ‘Vette’s performance warranted it, but it was held back by it’s low (for this crowd) 19mpg combined rating. On the performance front, the Vette cleans everything else’s clock. Fun to drive? The Corvette has it in spades, especially if your qualifications include AA-like acceleration numbers. Of course, you won’t see high gas mileage figures while using the Corvette’s 430hp V8 to rocket you from 0-60, but if you keep your foot out of it on the cruise (actually use the cruise, that’ll help) to work, you’ll actually get pretty respectable gas mileage.

Best Gas Mileage Car That’s Fun to Drive 7 -

Honda Fit Sport – MSRP $15,270 – EPA combined 28, EPA Highway 34 – 115 HP, regular gas

Just as the Corvette was restrained by it’s 19mpg rating, the Fit was held back by it’s 115 HP rating. Although this thing returns fantastic fuel economy figures, and is a blast to drive, the lack of acceleration can only let it climb so high in the list. If your definition of fun to drive includes zippy, go cart like handling, but you really need great gas mileage, this could be your car, especially as the price of entry is so low. As an added bonus, it seats 4 comfortably, and has a door for each. No more folding your seat forward.

Best Gas Mileage Car That’s Fun to Drive 6 -

BMW 335i – MSRP $39,300 – EPA combined 20, EPA Highway 26 – 300 HP, premium gas

The gold standard of sports sedans. If you need a car that holds more than 2, but still want to have a rip roarin’ good time, the 335i is the car for you. It will tickle your funny bone, and if doesn’t, you probably don’t have one. Remember when 300hp was pure sports car territory? Yeah, me too. Now you can get the jewel like response of the 6 cylinder and handling that other manufacturers strive to emulate, in a car that lets you take along the Biffy, Buffy and your wife/husband for the ride to grandma’s.

Best Gas Mileage Car That’s Fun to Drive 5 -

Chevy Cobalt SS – MSRP $22,995 – EPA combined 25, EPA Highway 30 – 260 HP, premium gas

Handles far better than any Chevy save the Corvette and can more than get out of it’s own way, thanks to the force-fed 4 cylinder. It won’t set you back a fortune either. The Cobalt SS is a hot rod for the one who wants to turn and stop too. With an EPA 30mpg on the freeway and 25 in town, you can probably even make it to work more than a couple of times on a tank full of premium. Car and Driver Magazine, typically loathe to say nice things about American cars that aren’t bodied in fiberglass, even called the 260hp version of the Cobalt SS “shockingly good”.

Best Gas Mileage Car That’s Fun to Drive 4 -

Pontiac Solstice GXP – MSRP $28,775 – EPA combined 22, EPA Highway 28 – 260 HP, premium gas

It looks pretty darn good, has a direct injected, turbo motivator that put 260hp at your command, and gets better gas mileage than it’s non-turbo cousin that has 86hp less. How’s that for technology in action? The brakes work great as well, and as Pontiac is proud to point out, will haul the Solstice down in less distance than the Audi TT. In addition, the Poncho gets better mileage than the TT. The upcoming coupe version looks great, even better than you remember the original convertible Solstice looking when it was makin’ the Donald look good on The Aprentice.

Best Gas Mileage Car That’s Fun to Drive 3 -

Mazda MX-5 Miata – MSRP $21,305 – EPA combined 24, EPA Highway 27 – 166 HP, premium gas

The Miata is one of the original “real car” sports cars. You know, a car that starts every morning, illuminates the night with it’s headlights, not flames, and doesn’t leave puddles adorning your driveway. The new version is even better, with a healthy increase in power from the original version’s 116 hp. (There have been several power increases since way back then) It has really tossable handling, uses hardly any gas, and you can get a sunburned dome on a nice Sunday. What could be better? Well, actually…….

Best Gas Mileage Car That’s Fun to Drive 2 -

Porsche Cayman – MSRP $49,400 – EPA combined 23, EPA Highway 29 – 245 HP, premium gas

If you can’t make this car handle well, you have no business driving. One of the best handling cars Porsche has ever built, and it will get even better next year with the introduction of direct injection for the flat 6 power plant.

Unfortunately there’s a good chance the combination of the falling dollar and increased content will push the ’09 Cayman above the $50,000 ceiling for this list, so next year it may be #2 no longer. It reaches number 2 on the fun to drive gas mileage list this year by the virtue of it’s incredible handling and pretty brisk acceleration, even though it isn’t the fastest car on the list (Corvette, of course), combined with the almost 30mpg highway mileage figure.

Best Gas Mileage Car That’s Fun to Drive 1 -

Mini Cooper S – MSRP $22,600 – EPA combined 29, EPA Highway 34 – 172 HP, premium gas

You want a car that screams “Fun to Drive” so loud Beethoven would be dancing to the beat, and sips gas like a Canary tasting Kentucky Bourbon for the first time? Well you darn well should, if you have half a pulse. Here is your car. It handles like the proverbial go cart, stops from 60 mph in about the length of the Starbucks drive through, and is even pretty darn quick, especially since Mini traded the previous S version’s supercharged engine for a new, direct injection, turbo mill.

As an added bonus it can even seat 4 real adults in relative comfort, it just depends on how big your relatives are. If you can either overlook or embrace the funky dash and instrument design, you can love the Cooper S. I know I sure do!

See, you can have a great time behind the wheel and still save gas. Until next time!