Fuel costs are a hot topic right now. The average price of petrol in the UK only dipped back below £1.80 per litre in August 2022. That almost looks reasonable in these austere times, but it’s still a massive increase year-on-year. Back in August 2021, the same litre of petrol only cost £1.10.
Thankfully, there are lots of reasonably priced, economical petrol cars on the market that can save you lots of money if you drive them carefully. All the cars in this list can manage upwards of 50mpg – and if you have a particularly light foot, you might be able to extract more from them.
Most modern petrol cars are also allowed free passage into low emissions zones. That’s because they emit fewer particulates than an equivalent diesel car. So, if you’re trapped in an emissions-controlled area with an old diesel car, it might be worth selling it and switching to a petrol to save yourself the daily charge. You can check how money you can get for your current runabout using the Parkers car valuation tool.
Just to be clear, this list won’t include any petrol-based plug-in hybrids. Yes, they have impressive official fuel economy figures – Vauxhall, for example, says its Astra PHEV can achieve well over 200mpg – but, unless you charge the battery up regularly, you’ll struggle to achieve those figures in the real world. Allow the battery to run flat and your economy gauge will drop with all the speed and grace of a pallet of bricks thrown from a tower block.
Scroll down for a list of the most economical petrol cars on sale today. Once you’ve done that, check the car’s emissions and head over to this government webpage to find its tax bracket and see how much money you could save by downsizing and switching to petrol power. All the fuel economy numbers here are lifted from official WLTP tests.
Ford Focus
The Ford Focus is a great car. It’s practical, brilliant to drive and a lot more attractive with Ford’s facelift from earlier this year bringing sharper styling and a bigger, better infotainment system. It’s also powered by a choice of two efficient 1.0-litre three-cylinder mild-hybrid petrol engines. One has 125hp and one has 155hp and they can return up to 52.3mpg and 54.3mpg respectively.
Suzuki Swift
The Suzuki Swift is a fun, practical hatchback that just happens to be able to return 57.2mpg. This is partly thanks to its featherweight construction (it only weighs a little more than a tonne) and partly down to its frugal 1.2-litre mild-hybrid petrol engine. It’s reasonably priced, too, costing around £15,500 and, because it’s so light, you won’t chew through tyres and suspension components as quickly, which means it’ll save you more money come service time.
Kia Picanto
The Picanto subscribes to the same school of thought as the Swift. It’s small, it’s light and it’s powered by a tiny petrol engine. However, while the Swift uses mild-hybrid technology to achieve its economy figures, the Picanto relies on good-old-fashioned diminutive displacement. The engine is a tiny 1.0-litre unit, returning a claimed 58.mpg. As an added benefit, it comes with a good range of standard equipment and a very competitive seven-year warranty.
Toyota Yaris Cross
We’ll admit that we’re stretching the boundaries of a “petrol car” with the Yaris Cross, because it’s propelled by a 1.5-litre three-cylinder full hybrid powertrain. It works along the same principles as the system found in the Prius, with the engine charging up a battery pack that feeds an electric motor large enough to drive the car at low speeds. So, because the petrol engine doesn’t need to push the car around as often, it’s very efficient. Toyota says it can return up to 64.1mpg.
Renault Clio
We could have put the stalwart Ford Fiesta in this list, but we’ve already had a Ford – so we picked something different. The Renault Clio doesn’t drive as well as the Fiesta, but it has a lot of other stuff going for it. To start, its tiny 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine can return 54.3mpg on the WLTP cycle, while the E-Tech hybrid model (which is a full hybrid, not a plug-in hybrid) can muster more than 60mpg. The Clio also has an excellent interior and a good amount of standard equipment.