Cheap High MPG Cars: 1984

17 thoughts on “Cheap High MPG Cars: 1984”

1. What is the source for your mileage figures? Are these the actual EPA published figures for each year?

   I would like to refer to your site in an article I am writing. Can you help me by confirming the source of the figures?

   Thanks,
   kwc

2. Pingback: Mind Body Spirit Journal ? Blog Archive » If we could just get the kind of mileage we got in 1984

3. Yes indeed … it’s the EPA numbers … 🙂

4. Let me start off by saying that this is one damned cool website, thanks!

   Next can you give me some more details on the 1984 Mercedes 190e? The EPA website, so far as I can see, only goes back to 1985 so I can’t find anything else on the 1984 model.

   Also is the diesel 2.2l the one with the whopping great highway mileage or does that also include the gas 2.3l?

   I only ask because I’m considering older high gas mileage vehicles and I’d prefer gas and not diesel fuel.

   I found a 1984 190e with a “2.3L L4 FI” 4 cylinder gasoline engine, is that one of the great mpg versions?

   Lastly I can’t find where M-B made a 2.2 gas engine for the 190e, they all appear to be 2.3l models.

   Thanks!

5. How much fuel millage did the 1984 Isuzu pickup P!up Diesel get 2.2 engine

6. Those figures look more like they are in kilometers. If you multiply any of them by .6, then you come up with more realistic figure. NO car in 1984 could get 40-50 MPG. They all had carburetors, which are much less efficient than today’s modern fuel injection systems.

7. Diesel Engines got 40 to 50 MPG

8. Thanks for the posting. I owned the 84 Stanza and regularly got 44 MPG loaded down with family!

9. J.Owen, you are incorrect in stating – “NO car in 1984 could get 40-50 MPG. They all had carburetors, which are much less efficient than today’s modern fuel injection systems”. – I Still have my 1984 Audi 4000s, which IS factory fuel injected (1.8l 5sp) for that year, and easily can get over 40mpg hwy. Do your research before you state what did and did not have fuel injection.

10. I had a 1984 Mazda B2200 PU with a 2.2L Perkins diesel in it and I often made 40-45 miles per Gallon on the interstate at 65 miles per hour. Sure it took more than 10 seconds to get from zero to sixty but I would love to trade what I drive now for that old truck.

11. I drove a 1983 Datsun/Nissan Sentra Diesel until 1999.
    It averaged 50mpg (which of course, was injected because it was a diesel).
    Engine was strong, but the unibody rusted out from under it.
    Amazing how modern engineering and hybrids somehow cannot achieve 100mpg (however mpg tuners do)

12. Yes indeed, your figures are wayyyyyyy off, guy… at least, per fueleconomy.gov, that is. Not that I am any great fan of trusting government, but on the Internet, you just never know. A few city/hwy 1984 figures from that site:

    1984 Ford EXP 4 cyl, 1.6 L, Manual 5-spd 21/31, not your claimed 27/41.
    1984 Honda Civic CRX 4 cyl, 1.3 L, Manual 5-spd, 38/47, not your claimed 51/67.
    1984 Mitsubishi Precis 4 cyl, 1.4 L, Manual 4-spd, 31/37, not your claimed 41/53.

    Not sure what you tried to prove by lying. Your figures are not the EPA figures. Just blew all of your credibility, dude. Have a nice day.

13. @JN – Many thanks for the harsh words and accusation, but you’ve jumped the gun.

    I’m looking at an original 1984 Honda Civic sales brochure right now … it clearly shows the 51 city / 67 highway figures.

    The numbers that you see on the current EPA site DO NOT match the original window stickers. They were dialed down to match the revised test calculations implemented in 2008.

    MPGomatic maintains the original figures in our database and avoids posting the revisionist numbers.

14. My dad had a 1984 Datsun Nissan Sentra Diesel with a manual tranny. Dad was diligent about his mileage and it got 56MPG city 62MPG Hwy. She finally died (as it was his daily driver) in 2002. Engine was still running great, but the rest of the car fell apart around it.

15. It doesn’t matter how you try to justify it, these figures are off alot. People aren’t stupid, when they have owned many of these vehicles and only get about 60% of what you are saying they get, it is just wrong. For example Escort was the number 1 selling car of this era and most of us owned one or up to 10 and we know that even driving soft footed with a stick they only got 28

16. @Karl – These are the numbers as published at the time of manufacture. Check the advertisements and window stickers. Were the numbers optimistic in some cases? I believe so. In other cases, they were not.

    If I can find a clean Ford Escort of this vintage, I’ll buy it, just to test. Rust buckets need not apply.

    The Escort diesels scored the highest MPGs, but they’re extremely rare.

17. hello guys just to let you know that in 2007 bought the new dodge hemi which the dealer sale sticker was saying it would do 30 mpg ,never,nerver accomplished these kind of numbers , boostead fuel economy to boost sales like most of automakers out their….