2009 Family Car Fuel Efficiency

Buying a family car requires a bit of compromise for the eco-conscious family. If we were just buying any car our options for finding a fuel efficient vehicle would be easier.

If you’ve been following this blog, you know that we need a car that can accommodate three car seats. This either means we need a wider car that can fit the car seats or a larger car like an SUV or minivan that has a third row of seating.

When we consider fuel efficiency, the choice becomes pretty obvious. Here’s a chart I pulled together with the city and highway miles per gallon for some of the models in consideration and others mentioned to us as we’ve begun our research.

2009 Model Year Fuel Efficiency

Make	Model	City	Highway
Chrysler	Town & Country LX	17	24
Ford	Explorer	14	20
Honda	Odyssey EX-L	17	25
Toyota	Highlander Hybrid	27	25
Toyota	Sienna	17	23
Volkswagen	Passat Wagon Turbo	23	32
Volkswagen	Routan SEL	17	25
Volvo	XC90 3.2L	14	20

The VW Passat Wagon is quite efficient with 23 mpg in the city and 32 mpg on the highway. We’re going to be doing more city driving thought which may make the Toyota Highlander Hybrid the best choice with 27 mpg in the city and a respectable 25 mpg on the highway.

When we get out for our test drives, we’ll see how we’re swayed. That should happen towards the end of October 2008.