Last week, we asked readers what’s the worst gas mileage they’ve ever seen. From towing with SUVs both old and new, to sport compacts off-road toys, all of these are a stark reminder of just how bad vehicles can be for the environment and our wallets. These were the thirstiest of our reader’s responses.
My 2015 Ford Focus ST. Averages 18.5 MPG. On the freeway I could get it up to about 25. When it was new, it would average 35. But with an E30 tune and all the bolt times MPG is miserable for a Focus.
Submitted by: Pooper Scooper
Once upon a time, when I was young and dumb, I owned a 2012 Jeep Liberty with the 3.7L V6. That thing was an absolute gas guzzler - the most inefficient engine I’ve ever experienced. It barely managed low teens for the city MPG and with just about 200 HP, it was shockingly underpowered for its displacement. Definitely the worst in terms of efficiency compared to both its size and horsepower output. Lesson learned!
Submitted by MJ Sunjic via Facebook
The worst mileage I’ve had was 8.7 mpg towing a 6000lb camper with my 2002 F150 with a 5.4 Triton. This truck does 15-17mpg on the highway without a trailer.
Submitted by: Slow Joe Crow
Ford E-350 Centurion Vantruck with 460 - somewhere in the 5s, but usually it was good for 7 around town and sometimes nearly 11 on the highway if you kept speeds down.
Submitted by John McAleavey via Facebook
Leaving the Army in late 2008, moving back to Oklahoma from Fort Drum, NY. ‘95 Yukon, all my crap, a car trailer and an ‘82 Datsun 280zx parked backwards because that’s the only way I could get it on the trailer at the time and on the bump stops the whole way. Averaged 7 mpg the whole way when price of gas was at historic highs (at the time) of over $4/gal.
Submitted by: C. Weeks
Second gen Ford F-150 Raptor. 11 mpg with a 36-gallon tank. It cost over $100 a fill up back then. Awful.
Suggested by Luke Barker via Facebook
My RX8 race car was fantastic at turning fuel into heat, noise, and not much else.
I got 3-4mpg on a race weekend. I went through an enormous amount of fuel and oil.
Submitted by: Sissyfoot
I got 153 miles on my TRX one time. 33.2 gallons to fill back up. Little under 5 mpg?
Submitted by Jeff Mueller via Facebook
I got to borrow a 2024 Escalade V for a weekend. Most of the driving was spirited driving around town (keeping the vehicle in V mode the entire time), with a few late night drags thrown in. I got around 8 mpg that weekend.
Submitted by: Cam
2007 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. After doing a day of off-roading in North Idaho, a lot of it using 4WD both high4 and low4. Will never again check it after a day of off-roading. it was 4.5 mpg! But the smiles per mile were really high.
Submitted by Paul Yelk via Facebook
I’ve had a few spectacularly thirsty rigs that returned single digit fuel economy, but the one vehicle that blew my mind was my 2003 Taurus sedan with the 3.0. It had to just be something off with the machining on the engine, as it was worse on fuel than my Ranger pickup with the same engine.
It was a very clean car with only 30,000 miles on it, but even with everything in tip top shape, fresh plugs/wires, new fluids and filters, nothing I did ever made this car get the fuel mileage that it should have.
I don’t think I ever got over 18 miles to a gallon with that car, which was just pitiful for the paltry amount of power it had.
Submitted by: H4llelujah
I sold Hummers in the 00s.
We had a few guys coming from Vettes and Vipers to get them because they had kids, or upgraded the sports car to a track car and needed to tow.
I distinctly remember one such customer who had recently had a kid and wanted something with a back seat and something that could uphold his fragile macho image. He traded in a C5 ZO6 to get into an H2 SUT, so the one with the tiny bed in the back. External tire mount, MC2 24" forged wheels, Stealth in color.
He bitched so hard about the mileage he was getting. And then we watched him drive off our lot, dude thought he was in an F1 car or something. Full throttle or no throttle.
The gas mileage on his dash for the average mpg was in the 7s.
I sold 10-15 of those goofy monsters a month during those years and I still remember that clown. Loudest whiner I ever had to deal with coming from a guy who had literally 0 cares in the world. When we saw his truck coming, we hoped it was headed to the service bay and not the sales lot.
Suggested by: Potbelly Joe and 42 others