What petrol and diesel cars have the best mpg?
Most motorists assume that conventional petrol and diesel engines with small cylinder capacity are more fuel-efficient, with better ‘mpg’. However, for each engine size fuel economy can vary widely, and is dependent on how well the engine is designed, built and ‘tuned’. It is more accurate to think in terms of vehicle mass (or weight) – generally speaking, the smaller the mass, the better the fuel economy. In other words, the correlation between vehicle mass and fuel-efficiency is stronger than that between engine capacity and fuel-efficiency. In recent years, fuel economy in European vehicles has gradually improved, first due to an agreement between the European Commission and the ACEA (the association of European car manufacturers) to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and more recently, the improvement has accelerated following the fuel price peaks in 2008 and the ‘credit crunch’ – these have creating a renewed interest in smaller ‘city’ cars and superminis with better ‘mpg’. Usi
