High mileage vehicles

There is an automotive X-Prize going on to get a 100mpg production car

The Automotive X-Prize is designed to get engineers thinking outside the box in terms of fuel economy. The goal is to develop a "commercially viable" vehicle that will get at least 100 mpg. How it's done is up to the individual teams, but they have to keep production in mind to be eligible. They even have to show a business plan proving that they can sell at least 10,000 units a year. The competition starts with peer reviews next year, and then the actual vehicle competitions in 2009.

But you may not need it if you get a clean diesel

PM has previously reported on the 2008 clean-diesel Jetta (click here for video), so I won’t linger on it except to say that it’s a wonderful car—quick and quiet and really fun, even as it gets Prius-baiting fuel mileage in the 45-mpg range.

It’s also not the car that most impressed me. Nope, that honor goes to the Euro-only Polo, a Rabbit-like hatchback—only smaller—with plenty of room for four adults, a modest hatch that could swallow a weekend’s worth of gear, and a 1.4-liter, turbocharged diesel under the hood. Oh yeah, and a five-speed manual transmission.

Here’s the kicker: The Polo gets 60 to 70-plus mpg. And it’s really fun to drive. It’s got a good bit of turbo lag, so you need to keep the revs up for serious power, but once the turbo kicks in, acceleration is frisky. And the lag makes the car feel faster than it actually is. I didn’t wring it out, but over the course of a short cruise through the suburbs, it felt like a car I could gladly live with day in, day out. Fun to drive, just enough room for a family, and frugal as all get out. In Europe, the Polo sells for less than $20,000

That's some good mileage.