I think I speak for us all when I say I’m feeling the pinch of petrol prices at the moment, and not only when it comes to filling up.

Food prices are off the charts, and a trip to the store is even more depressing if you work out how much the fuel cost to get you there and back. Add that to the skyrocketing price of bread and you might be tempted to start growing your own veggies and churning your own butter.

Or you could just do your homework and buy a more fuel-efficient car.

In fact, WesBank and FNB did your homework for you with the Fuel Economy Tour.

The purpose of the event, according to MyBroadband, was to provide consumers with accurate fuel consumption figures for 40 popular cars in the country.

Participants drove along a 2 500-kilometre route from Johannesburg to Cape Town to test the fuel efficiencies of the cars (they clearly didn’t take the most effective route), and here’s what they found:

Most Fuel-Efficient Cars In South Africa

MyBroadband

The Renault Captur 1.5-litre diesel-turbo was the car with the lowest average consumption securing the top spot overall.

Not everyone can drive a Renault, though, especially not if you’re navigating a farm, which is why the event also looked into bakkie efficiency:

The turbo diesel double cab class for engines with less than 2,500cc was headed up by the Ford Ranger 2.0l.

The Mitsubishi Triton took the runner-up spot, while the Nissan Navara grabbed third place.

• Ford Ranger 2.0L – 6.19 l/100km
• Mitsubishi Triton – 6.85 l/100km
• Nissan Navara – 6.97 l/100km

You can check out the results for all 40 vehicles here.

For those who don’t mind zipping around on two wheels, you can ditch the car altogether and get a Vespa. It’s more fuel-efficient than any car you’ll find on the market, and there’s even an electric Vespa now that eliminates fuel entirely.

It’s hard to compete with that.

[source:mybroadband]