Best MPG SUV

If you are looking for the best MPG SUV on the market today you’ve come to the right place. Did you know that the average price of gas right now is already higher than the previous record price set last year?!

Oh yeah, right, that’s why you’re looking for the best MPG SUV you can find isn’t it?

The United States has started off this year with an average nationwide gas price of $3.319 per gallon so you can just imagine what the figures on the gas pump will be when you fill up your tank around Memorial Day and throughout the summer.

The good news is that even if it seems like you have to pay more for gas every time you fill up there are some vehicles out there that squeeze more out of every gallon of fuel than you would expect.

And you don’t always have to settle for a tiny economy car to get some pretty good gas mileage figures either. There are a number of SUVs that will get you good fuel mileage and still let you enjoy everything that makes owning a sport utility type vehicle so nice.

For example check out the SUV model in the video below…Would you guess it was capable of getting 30-36 MPG if you get the TDI model?! And yes, he understates what it is capable of in the video.

Impressed? Ready to find out what some of the best MPG SUV models on the market today are? Good! Let’s get started…

Today’s Best MPG SUV Models

One thing you might have to keep in mind while you are looking for an SUV that gets good gas mileage is that not every auto maker offers a model that fits the description.

You will also probably be doing a lot of apples to oranges comparisons since the approach some companies take to efficiency is through small engines or hybrid drive systems while for others it’s high efficiency diesel power plants.

There seems to be this idea out there that SUVs are always inefficient, polluting vehicles that no responsible person would drive whether they care about their wallet or the environment. I’d argue that it depends entirely on the model of SUV in question.

Some models are VERY inefficient and will cost you a lot when you have to fill up the tank after every other trip out but there are some that you would actually be better off driving than if you bought a sedan. These are the high fuel mileage SUVs we’ll be looking at below.

Less Impressive Gas Mileage

Better Gas Mileage

Some of these models will be more car like and some will lean towards the off road capable end of the spectrum but what they all share is the ability to get you more mileage out of your fuel money than you thought you could get in such a nice package.

While what constitutes good gas mileage is subject to individual judgement for now we will stick to SUVs that deliver at least a 25 MPG EPA rating for the highway. Some will be able to surpass that and hit in the 30 MPG range but 25 MPG seems like a good place to start. If you don’t see your favorite model there is a good chance that it didn’t make the cut.

We’ll list off the top fuel efficient SUV models in alphabetically order (boring, I know…) and then dig into various models in more detail in the blog section of the website.

Best MPG SUV List:

Audi

Audi Q5 2.0T quattro – Rated at 20 MPG city and 27 MPG highway

Audi Q7 3.0 TDI quattro – Rated at 17 MPG city and 25 MPG highway

BMW

BMW X3 xDrive28i – Rated at 19 MPG city and 25 MPG highway

BMW X3 xDrive35i – Rated at 19 MPG city and 26 MPG highway

BMW X5 xDrive35d – Rated at 19 MPG city and 26 MPG highway

Dodge

Dodge Journey 2.4L I4 – Rated at 19 MPG city and 26 MPG highway

Dodge Journey 3.6L V6 – Rated at 17 MPG city and 25 MPG highway

Ford

Ford Edge FWD – Rated at 19 MPG city and 27 MPG highway

Ford Edge AWD – Rated at 18 MPG city and 25 MPG highway

Ford Escape FWD & AWD – Rated at 20-23 MPG city and 27-28 MPG highway (mileage varies based on transmission)

Ford Escape Hybrid – Rated at 30-34 MPG city and 27-31 MPG highway (varies based on 4WD or FWD)

Honda

Honda CR-V – Rated at 21 MPG city and 27-28 MPG highway

Honda Element 2WD – Rated at 20 MPG city and 25 MPG highway

Honda Pilot 2WD – Rated at 18 MPG city and 25 MPG highway

Hyundai

Hyundai Sante Fe (2.4L & 3.5L) – Rated at 20-21 MPG city and 25-28 MPG highway

Hyundai Tuscon (2.0L & 2.4L) – Rated at 20-23 MPG city and 27-32 MPG highway

Jeep

Jeep Compass (all except CVT 4×4) – Rated at 22-23 MPG city and 27-29 MPG highway

Jeep Patriot (all except CVT 4×4) – Rated at 22-23 MPG city and 28-29 MPG highway

Kia

Kia Sorento (I4 & V6) – Rated at 20-21 MPG city and 26-29 MPG highway

Kia Sportage (2.4L & 2.0L) – Rated at 21-22 MPG city and 26-32 MPG highway (varies based on drive system)

Lexus

Lexus RX 350 4×2 – Rated at 18 MPG city and 25 MPG highway

Lexus RX 450h (Hybrid) – Rated at 30-32 MPG city and 28 MPG highway

Lincoln

Lincoln MKX FWD – Rated at 19 MPG city and 26 MPG highway

MINI

MINI Countryman – Rated at 25-27 MPG city and 31-35 MPG highway

Mazda

Mazda CX-7 (2.5L I4) – Rated at 20 MPG city and 28 MPG highway

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes ML350 BlueTec – Rated at 20 MPG city and 25 MPG highway

Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi Outlander (2.4L & 3.0L) – Rated at 19-23 MPG city and 26-28 MPG highway

Nissan

Nissan Juke (FWD & AWD) – Rated at 25-27 MPG city and 30-32 MPG highway

Nissan Rogue – (FWD & AWD) – Rated at 22 MPG city and 26-28 MPG highway

Subaru

Subaru Forester – Rated at 21 MPG city and 27 MPG highway

Suzuki

Suzuki Grand Vitara (2WD) – Rated at 19 MPG city and 25-26 MPG highway

Toyota

Toyota Highlander (2WD) – Rated at 20 MPG city and 25 MPG highway

Toyota Highlander Hybrid – Rated at 28 MPG city and 28 MPG highway

Toyota RAV4 (2WD & 4WD) – Rated at 19 MPG city and 28 MPG highway

Volkswagen

VW Tiguan – Rated at 18-22 MPG city and 26-27 MPG highway

VW Touraeg TDI – Rated at 19 MPG city and 28 MPG highway

It’s actually surprising how many SUVs you can find with pretty decent fuel mileage numbers. As you can see there is a fair amount of variation even within a particular model.

A few important things to consider when you are trying to compare models and find the best MPG SUV are:

Which transmission option is most efficient?
Do I need 4WD or will a more efficient 2WD model work?
Do I plan to do a lot of city driving or will the SUV be on the highway most of the time?
Is space, power, handling or fuel economy more important to me?
Do I care whether the SUV is a gas, diesel or hybrid model?

Best MPG SUV Transmission Options

Typically when you are choosing any vehicle -SUV or otherwise- the most fuel efficient transmission will be a traditional manual, stick shift model. There are some SUVs that feature these but you are usually going to be looking at automatic models since most drivers seem to prefer those. If you are an automotive enthusiast you probably prefer a stick shift but you are the minority.

When it comes to automatics there are basically two different types you will see in SUVs:

Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVTs)

Multi-Speed Automatics (5, 6, 7 or even 8 speeds are common)

CVTs are theoretically supposed to be more efficient but that may not always be the case and for many drivers they are the least desirable option due to their tendency to make otherwise decently peppy vehicles seem slow and sluggish. You’ll have to drive one to decide.

Most of your automatics are the multi-speed style and many automakers are moving towards more gears with as many as 8 on some models. The idea is to keep the engine in the most fuel efficient range possible while giving you a good driving experience.

In short if you want the best MPG SUV transmission then go for a manual in most cases followed by multi-speed automatic and only get a CVT model if you like all other aspects of the vehicle.

Do You Need 4WD or 2WD?

One of the reasons to get an SUV is for it’s rough road or even off road abilities. Granted most of the vehicles we feature here will have limited off road capabilities since we are more interested in getting the best fuel mileage model possible.

Even if you want to get the best MPG SUV possible you still might be driving in snow, ice or other slippery conditions. In that case you would be better off going with an AWD or 4WD SUV even though there might be a bit of a gas mileage penalty because of doing so.

On the other hand if you live in Florida or Arizona (or anywhere else) and don’t see any snow or excessive amounts of rain on a regular basis then there really isn’t much of a reason to get a 4WD or AWD model since -assuming you drive on pavement all the time- a 2WD will do just fine.

You can get another 2-4 MPG out of a two wheel drive in many cases at least according to the EPA fuel economy numbers.

Is Your SUV for City or Highway Driving?

The type of driving you will be doing has a big impact on the fuel mileage you will get with your SUV and you should keep that in mind when you are shopping.

If you do a lot of stop and go city style driving there are definitely models that will be more suited to that type of driving and get better MPG numbers.

For city driving hybrid models usually out perform traditionally powered SUVs since they can run on battery power up to certain speeds. This is reflected in their fuel mileage numbers since you will notice that models like the Toyota Highlander Hybrid or the Ford Escape Hybrid actually get better fuel mileage in the city (or in some cases identical city and highway numbers) than they do on the freeway.

If you will be doing highway cruising all the time it will be hard to beat the fuel economy of some of the diesel models since they excel at that time of driving environment. With models like the BMW X5 xDrive35d or the VW Touraeg you can expect to achieve in the range of 29-33 MPG during highway cruising whereas you would get perhaps 28 MPG with a hybrid model like the Toyota Highlander Hybrid.

Space vs. Power vs. Handling vs. Fuel Economy

This is a highly personal aspect of selecting the best MPG SUV for your needs. You’ll have to balance your space requirements -whether that means seating or cargo space- with the power and handling performance you want to achieve while still getting excellent gas mileage.

You can go with a more specialized model or one of these factors is most important to you or you could go with a good generalist.

Is the Best MPG SUV a Gas, Diesel or Hybrid SUV?

Some folks have strong feelings about what type of power plant is in their vehicle. If you want the best MPG SUV you can get I would advice being a bit agnostic here although I’m biased against hybrids myself.

The thing is that if you don’t care -or at least pretend not to care- you can compare all the models based on their merits for your particular situation and decide what will save you the most when you go to the gas pump.

Best MPG SUV Info

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