Have searched and searched and cannot find definitive answers

Looking for a top 5 most fuel efficient cars that are PETROL not diesel and have to be a 1.3 or over.

Ideally under 2k so age not an issue. Anyone got any ideas? And some figures to go with the ideas?

Polo bluemotion?

Quick search on ebay shows out of budget

We have a 2000 Yaris 1.3 SR which gives 40mpg around town, more when you're out of the city. A mighty 85bhp to boot, which makes it "nippy".

Other options off the top of my head:

Corsa 1.0 / 1.2

Punto 1.2

Fiesta 1.?

Micra 1.?

You get the picture. Generally speaking if you want a fuel efficient petrol you need a small car with a relatively small engine.

Prius? click

Surely a strong option if you don't mind your car looking like a slug.

Why a minimum of 1.3?

With a light body, a decent 1.2 can be just as quick

Both of my kids have had Punto 1.2s and they are perfectly acceptable, even on the motorway. The higher-spec Mk2s and the later Mk2.5 has a fuel computer - when I borowed them, I couldn't get the average below 40mpg, despite trying rather hard

Great little cars, with a half-decent image too.

£2k will get you a very good one

Reason being local authority fuel allowance It drops after 1.3.

Get yourself a rover 200 with a 1400 k series engine. The older the better as the newer ones have a funny cat set up which seams to strangle them.

Probably get 10 for your budget

I'm not sure what fuel consumption will be like but I used to easily get 40 plus mpg from my bigger, heavier 1.6 rover 45.

I'm sure you can get a Fiesta with a 1.4 ZETEC engine. They were supposed to be quite nippy too, and straightforward to work on.

Just looked on Autotrader. Lots of Fiestas for sale in your budget, 2002 to 2004, 80bhp and combined mpg over 40. 330 owner reviews give a rating of 4.5/5, bloody good for Auto trader reviews.

Yaris 1.3 VVTi - 02 reg, 81K on the clock and does a combined of 50.4mpg

Micra 1.3 - 99V reg, 47K on the clock and a combined of 46.3mpg

What a choice

Honda Jazz. 1.3, 50 mpg, couple of dozen under 2K on autotrader, and hateful.

I have a K11 Micra 1.3, and get 40+ MPG out of it.

Extremely reliable cars too if a little dull

My god what a lot of horrible cars we have> Diesel looking more and more likely

Yaris topping the list so far though cheers Bez

Followed by fiesta zetec...ta tim

Ok braniacs! My idea was to find a 1.3 or above car as fuel efficient as possible as an alternative to a diesel. My next question is given the difference in price at the pump does that balance out the slightly better fuel economy or does a diesel still make it more cost effective regardless of diesel price!? DOes that make sense...very tired

Diesel only makes sense when you start doing higher mileages. Short hops and commutes of less than 30/40 miles and the price difference negates any savings at the current prices for fuel.

For a while the coupé was *almost* becoming the equivalent fuel cost per mile as my diesel Octavia (low mile trips/large local difference in petrol/diesel prices). Differences were in road tax, insurance, servicing etc.

You'd really need to sit and do the sums. Thankfully our cars are so old we no longer have to worry about depreciation.

I actually enjoy thrashing my mother's little K11 1.3 Micra, it is quite a revelation through the twisties for a shopping trolley!

The Yaris is ok to drive, the SR that we have is nippy enough and is pretty good in the corners as it has slightly lowered springs compared to the standard models. We've had ours for 4.5 years and so far have changed the brakes, the battery and drop links (twice). Other than that' it's had regular servicing. They are very reliable and have a camchain so no worries there.

In the same amount of time I've changed many, many multiples of those parts on my Coupe.

If you want to forget the petrol bit then I would have to say an Audi A4 1.9tdi. I had one years ago then chipped it. I would only put fuel in after 600 miles.Without chip you will struggle to get less than 50mpg. With chip always close to 60mpg. Low fuel light very rarely on. she was not slow either, and also a good family sized saloon.

I was looking at the tdi's not too badly priced either
What chip recommendations are there?

Love my diesel Alfa 156 1.9 16v jtd, (with tuning box) very nippy just faster than an Audi A4 1.8t 165bhp although without the tuning box was nippier than a friends ibiza 130 tdi
with a cheap tuning box it revs freely and holds power to 4k revs. and is so much of a hoot to drive masses of torque very good handling and still a solid 50 plus mpg. I admit it is nice to get in a sports 16v revvy petrol for sheer thrashing ability every now and then but for an everyday car that is without annoyance and is easy to drive yet still involving with all round appeal its got to be a good diesel, in contrast my girlfriend has a 2.0 hdi 8v 307 and is soooooooo dull its untrue.

I got a plugin. Can't remember which one as was about10 years ago. Was my first Coupes replacement. Did a google search. Cost me about £300. If I needed a cheap runaround and economical then that would be my choice. Never let me down either. Only sold her to get A6 2.5 v6 tdi