Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

xs650,
(Can't help but remember the old 650 cc twin Triumph "Bonneville.")

I suspect that you're right...

And as to being a "muscle car," the cars of the late '70's were but a
faint reflection of the OEM cubic inches, HP, and straight line performance
of the cars of the mid to late '60s.

What a difference an "oil shortage" or two caused in the intervening
decade.

But still, no faster than a GenIII Prius?

"Say it aint so, Babe!" :Cry:

 

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

Even in the late 1950s, a car that did an honest instrumented 0-60 in under 10 seconds was respectable. Some cars were faster, but the average V8 sedan was more in the 10 second range than faster. Things picked up in the 1960s, then died for awhile in the 1970s.

1958 Chevrolet Road Test

http://www.55-57chevys.com/coccc/index2.html under the nostalgia/memory lane has bucnh of era Chevy road tests. Except for the special high performance versions, most of them were slower than a Gen 3

http://www.55-57chevys.com/coccc/articles/613/61asty1.html

http://www.55-57chevys.com/coccc/articles/580/59sty1.html

 

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

My friend just bought a "used" dump truck (Diamond T, made in Chicago in 1940s), and is in the process of renovating it... I will find out the MPG data tomorrow.

BTW, my 5 gallon plastic gas tank is the main tank, makes it easier to calculate mpg

 

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

That would have to have been a '68 Camaro SS that I bought from a friend when I was young and dumb. It had a 396 V8 with a 4 barrel double pumper Holly carb on it, headers, and dual exhaust. Actually, the exhaust was a couple of resonators hanging off of the headers. It was very loud. 4 speed manual tranny with a Hurst shifter on it. I believe it had a 4:11 rear end in it too.

You could literally watch the gas gauge drop if you held it to the floor when taking off from a dead stop. When I raced it I would power shift thru the gears. It usually turned low 12's on the quarter mile.

Gas mileage was probably about 3 or 4, but back then gas was real cheap. You could fill it for under $10 easy.

The car was raced a lot at the speedway down near Galveston. The only problem I ever had was spinning rod bearings on it. The #7 upper bearing would spin if you revved the engine over 3500. Back then those big V8's just would not hold together. Finally blew the rear end up in it, and then it set under a tree for a couple of years.

It was a lot of fun to drive. Could pull the front tires off the ground easily from a dead stop, and would pull them again if you slammed the clutch and power shifted from first to second. Needless to say, that car was a beast.

Here is a pic of a similar car I found online.

 

I had a 1974 Coupe deVille that weighed 5000lbs, had a 472ci V8 and was a single digit MPG car. It was actually longer than a '90s Suburban.

 

Some of those gas guzzlers are awesome fast. I really like going fast! I need to get a Tesla!

 

Back around 1991, I had a 76 T-Bird with a 460 that was getting about 12MPG.
Picked up a 1980 Malibu 4-door with a V-6 for $75 to fix up because I "assumed" it would get better mileage.
Malibu needed a lot more to get going than I thought, but that tiny V6 sounded good. Though gutless.
Gas tank, fuel lines, brake lines, rear wheel backing plates and wheel cylinders, 2 doors because the handles fell through the rusty doors, and plenty more.
Once I got it running and drove it a few weeks, I noticed it was really going through gas like crazy. Checked mileage.........8 mpg! It was like the fuel pump was using the gas to make the car go hydraulically.
Piece of junk went for sale shortly therafter.

I also own a 1966 Dodge Coronet, 383 4-speed.
Owned it since 1973.
A little modified, but I get 8-10 mpg out of it, mostly because everytime I drive it my foot is into it.

 

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

I have a 1977 Lincoln Continental Mark V.
About 5000 lbs, 19 ft long, power everything and the last year of the 460 V8. And every option on it, including moonroof, Quadraphonic 8-track, and power everything!
Actually gets around 15mpg........not too bad considering.
(but it does have an edelbrock performer carb on it, way better than the factory carb)

But rides like a dream........I'd like to drive it everyday, cruising to Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd on the 8-track.

 

In high school 1959 I had a 1948 Packard straight 8. It got about 25 miles per gallon on oil. 8 MPG on gas. It put out a blue smoke screen at th bottom of many hills.

 

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

This was the truck after I finished modding it. A 454 c.i.d. engine and only 3 gears made for horrible fuel economy, especially with the 3:73 rear gears. Ugg

 

I have an Evo IX that I get 23mpg on in the city.....and like 5mpg on the track

 

Worse mileage was 1949 roadmaster Buick (4 holer) Used it to pull 45 ft. mobile home cross country whether pulling or not it was 9mpg.

 

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

I guess you really were. Camaro's didn't come out till '67. I keed.

My mom's '69 Caddy Fleetwood: 472 cubic inches/4 barrel carb. When she drove it, 9mpg. When I drove it, 6mpg. It would light up both rear tires in smoke if you floored it on a slick street at 30mph. Good times......

 

I drove a 1973 Chevy Suburban during my senior year in HS.
I don't recall many of the specs, (I was trying to keep gas in the &^%#! thing!) but I remember that it had a 454cid motor with a towing package. Top speed was probably not much over 90, but you could pull stumps with it! It was heavy, it turned like a toad, and it certainly got waaaaay less than 10MPG.

I think I put 50K on that truck, and earned almost enough money cutting grass to keep gas in it...

 

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

How about a 1969 442 Olds. It had a top speed of 150 MPH. At ~ 5 MPG, it passed everything but a gas station. In 1969, at ~ 35-cents per gallon, for premium, it was costing me over $40. per month just to commute to work.

I kept it for about 9-months, and traded it on a 1969 Buick Skylark Deluxe that got ~ 20 MPG on regular. I really liked that 350-2 engine.

 

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

I had a 1974 Buick Riveria, 455 cubic inch V8 and a smog choked 150 hp. At 55 mph on a level road I could eek out 11 mpg, normal driving about 9 mpg, but it was a lot more comfortable than my 11 Prius..........

 

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

I owned a SMALL car that achieved truly awful mileage. It was a 1974 Mazda RX-4 (automatic). Here in Minnesota, it would often do no better than 7.5 - 8 mpg on short trips in the winter. The BEST mpg I ever got was 18 mpg on the highway.

In addition, it was the WORST car I ever owned from a reliability standpoint. It would randomly throw fan belts for no reason. The electric fuel pump would blow fuses every few months, leaving me stranded by the side of the road.(until I learned to carry a box of spares) Ultimately, at 56,000 miles the rotary engine burned so much oil that a permanent cloud followed me everywhere I went.

So much for Japanese superiority.

 

just for reference, gas was .15 per gal in 1915, .24.9 per gal in 1959, i had a 29 ford roadster w/59 hemi ,isky full race cam, 10 1/2 to 5/8 " ratio chromed crank, 2 326 afb's 550 hp. got 14mpg. wasn't bad at all. worst car was a 1973 ford maverick 2dr w/small 6cyl. total stock rebuild ( rebuilt because it got bad mileage) after rebuild, still got only 6 1/2 mpg, i was burning 8 gals of gas (round trip) to work. about 50 miles.

 

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

That's a number I vaguely remember, from my childhood in the '50's, in Canada:

a quarter a gallon

Was thinking that might have been delusional on my part: seems rediculously low. Thanks for the confirmation.

Of course this was also the era when you were doing good if you earned $500 a month.

 

Re: Worst Fuel Economy of Any Car.... What's yours?

The worst mileage cars for me would be a toss-up between a 1966 Olds Toronado with a 425, a 1969 Vette with a 427 and a 1973 Caddy ElDorado with a 500 engine. They all got in the very low teens when they were doing good and when 4 of us took the ElDorado on a trip to Florida, we did get it up to a whopping 18mpg.