It’s that time again. That unpredictable but seemingly inevitable period when gas prices shoot through the roof, throwing personal (and potentially national) finances a curve.

While there’s not much you can do about the rising price of oil, there are things you can do to minimize its effects. And that’s where we come in.

Consumer Guide's auto editors drive more than 100,000 miles a year in a wide variety of vehicles. We drive to work, to daycare, to the grocery store, and on vacation. We drive through record heat, blinding snow, and confounding road construction--keeping track of every drop of fuel we used along the way.

The EPA admits its fuel economy numbers are estimates; our numbers are real. A typical Consumer Guide test car is evaluated by at least four editors, all of whom account for their individual fuel usage. Here are the vehicles in each class that used the least amount of fuel while in our care.

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A few notes about this list: Although Consumer Guide takes pains to drive a wide variety of vehicles, we may not have the opportunity to test every combination of engines, transmissions, and body styles. This list represents the best of the vehicles we have evaluated. In the event that our testing was inconclusive--typically because time limitations precluded achieving a balanced mix of urban and highway driving--that vehicle was excluded from our list.

Also, we avoid listing multiple versions of a specific car. If the sedan version of a car made the list, the wagon will not be listed, even though its mileage might be similar. Hybrids and diesels are the exception to this rule.

A note on transmissions. While manual transmissions (“stick shifts”) are all about the same, there are now three different types of “automatic” transmissions in use: conventional automatic, CVT, and automated manual. All are mechanically different but behave much like a conventional automatic transmission. Unlike a decade ago, advancements in technology for all three types mean that today’s cars with an automatic transmission usually get about the same or in some cases even better fuel economy than their manual-transmission counterparts.

An * indicates that the manufacturer either recommends or requires costlier mid-grade or premium-grade fuel for that vehicle. Consumer Guide always follows the manufacturers' fuel recommendations.