Best cars with great gas mileage
CNNMoney and Edmunds.com select the top cars to buy that are smart buys and easy on fuel.
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - You find plenty of lists out there of cars that get the best fuel economy. Those lists are easy to produce, but they aren't really of much use.

For example, the most fuel-efficient car on the market today is the Honda Insight, but do you really want to buy a rough-riding two-seater with no storage space? After all, you probably need your car to do more than just get you from one place to another. You might like to carry a few other people or some luggage. You might even want a little driving enjoyment from all those miles you're driving with each fill-up.

We worked with Edmunds.com, the people who provide automotive data and content for CNN's automotive Web sites, to select vehicles in five categories that get very good fuel mileage but that are also otherwise outstanding automotive values. There's no point to buying a fuel-efficient car that doesn't pay off in other ways.

We've selected five -- a luxury car, family sedan, sports car, crossover SUV and a subcompact -- that are smart buys and easy on fuel. For each category, we've also mentioned two alternatives.

None of the top cars are hybrids. That's because, with their added cost, hybrids aren't really a good value from a purely economic standpoint. But we've provided a hybrid choice in some categories for those who are willing to pay more to burn less fuel.

One thing you'll notice is that Toyota is well represented on this list. That's because Toyota does two things particularly well. They build high-quality cars by every measure and cars that are very fuel-efficient. On a list like this, Toyota is bound to come out on top.

Gallery: Best high-mileage cars

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.