Pickuptruck.com's top ten fuel efficient pickup trucks
Here is an auto-related "Top Ten" list that I can really get into, the "Top 10 Classic Fuel Sipping Haulers." One of the reasons that I like it so much is because I was introduced to some vehicles which I had never seen before, which is kind of rare - I grew up in a very car-friendly home and we always had a muscle or classic car in the garage. Of the ten vehicles here, I only knew about numbers 1, 2, 4, 5 and 10. That's half, if you're keeping count. How about you? How many of these fuel efficient haulers did you know about?
1. 1961-1971 International Harvester Scout Pickup
2. 1964-1966 Chevrolet El Camino
3. 1960 Crofton Bug
4. 1960-1966 Ford Ranchero
5. 1961 Volkswagen Pickup
6. 1954-1956 Powell Sport Wagon
7. 1950 Austin A40
8. 1940-1962 Crosley
9. 1937-1947 American Bantam
10. 1928-1931 Model A Ford
There are probably a few more you could add to this list, like the VW Rabbit pickup and the Dodge Rampage. Any more?
[Source: PickupTruck.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hank 3:36PM (7/04/2007)
The '61 Chevrolet Corvair pickup should absolutely have made this list.
http://www.oldcarandtruckpictures.com/Corvair/1961CorvairRampsidePickup.jpg
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Jeremy Korzeniewski 3:41PM (7/04/2007)
Hank, good call on the Corvair, you're right. I would replace the El Camino with the Corvair without blinking an eye.
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Brian Hague 5:50PM (7/04/2007)
I vote for the rabbit pickup. they had a diesel that got about 50 MPG on the highway.
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Domenick 6:22PM (7/04/2007)
Duh? A Phoenix. No gas. #1
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haqitman 7:13PM (7/04/2007)
I had a 79 El Camino 305 V8, 4 speed floor shift that routinely got 21 mpg on the highway. But back then the speed limit was 55 and freeway driving was usually around 60 mph. I dreamed of putting a T5 5 speed in it with a .68 OD gear and bumping the mileage to something like 25, but the cost of one was out of my budget at the time. Plus with modern fuel injection and a few other enhancements like direct injection and cylinder deactivation, I could see a "truck" like that getting over 30 on the highway and still maintaining V8 power. The car-like frontal area and weight would allow car-like mileage. The car was good for light duty hauling like a small pickup, but with V8 performance.
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Tony Belding 8:00PM (7/04/2007)
We had an International Scout pickup and beat the hell out of it for many years on the cattle ranch, slogging through muddy fields, bouncing over rocky and dusty roads, feeding the cows and fixing fences. It held up better than most of our farm trucks, and I don't recall that it ever needed any major repair.
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Simone 1:54PM (7/05/2007)
Amazing. Not a single modern truck on the list. Yet, how much would these old trucks cost in today's dollars? Big 3 talk about adding $5k to each vehicle to make it more fuel efficient. Bull. Just another excuse to drag their feet and eventually jack the prices. They also once said adding seatbelts and airbags would be cost prohibitive.
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Robin Rhyne 9:15AM (7/05/2007)
I have a '94 Nissan Hardbody truck that gets 24 MPG in town and goes over that on the freeway. I just never get to drive it for a full tank on the freeway so have never gotten to test that part out fully.
Great little trucks, there are still a lot of them on the road.
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Mattias 10:34AM (7/05/2007)
The Dodge Dakota is missing. Yes, really:
http://www.vmmotori.it/en/01/02/00/dettaglio.jsp?id=17
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Tim 12:15PM (7/05/2007)
I'm with Brian on the Rabbit Diesel Pickup, but convert mine to straight VegOil.
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JN 4:45PM (7/05/2007)
I'd say perhaps the '61-64 Studebaker Champ half-ton with the Skybolt (170 cid) six and overdrive should be on the list; can't recall what kind of MPG it got, but it was somewhere in the 20s ... and then you can't forget the early Ford Econoline pickups and the Dodge A100. Those were pretty economical too.
More recently, I had a '92 Ford Ranger that would regularly top 30 MPG on the open road, but that old 2300 engine and Mazda 5-speed could just do that sort of thing. And yes, I do wish I still had it.
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www.AUTITO.tk 1:21AM (7/08/2007)
You should chack Latin American subcompact-based pickups: Chevrolet Tornado/Montana (http://www.chevrolet.com.mx/content_data/LAAM/MX/es/GMMGM/showroom/chevrolet/modelos/tornado/diseno.html), Volkswagen Saveiro/Pickup (http://www.volkswagen.com/vwcms_publish/vwcms/master_public/virtualmaster/es_mx/vehiculos_comerciales/pick_up.html), Fiat Strada (http://www.fiat.com.ar/modelos_strada_home.htm)...
These models feature four-cylinder 1.4-1.8 liter gasoline engines or 1.6-1.9-litre diesel engines and can carry up to 700 kg.
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