MPG for older vehicles

[mgr52]

[VetteOwner]

this post got sidetracked hard...

but yea anyting 4 banger and manual got pretty good, chevette deisel advertised 60 mpg, VW rabbit diesel got pretty close too

even some of the manual straight 6's got pretty decent if driven right. especially in pickups.

[22over7]

When I was young and single, I drove a 1973 Datsun 240Z with a 3 speed auto, 2.4L straight 6, twin Hitachi (SU) carbs.
It returned about 25 USmpg (30 imperial) general driving and about 29 USmpg (35 imperial) on a trip.
Naturally, the 5 speed manual was even better with the overdrive gear.

[occupant]

Actually you can get EPA ratings from their site back to 1978:

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/download.shtml

I emailed at the "Feedback" link at the bottom of any page on the site, and asked about my own Torino and some lady replied about 2 days later with a PDF file of the page containing my car. Very nice. I am not certain if they would provide older data in bulk, but it's worth a shot to ask, right?

Not many fuel economy stars before 1981 or so, but they are out there.