Which of These 16 Cars Wins the Fuel-Efficiency Smackdown?

So you think you know cars? Play our gas guzzler bracket.

So your March Madness bracket didn’t win Warren Buffett’s billion-dollar challenge and you’re really, really lucky if you picked the correct Final Four, but if you’ve still got bracket fever and mad appreciation for the environment, the bracket below is just for you.

Just click a vehicle name from each matchup, based on which you think gets better average miles per gallon. We’ll show you which ones and how many you got right, and in the end, you’ll find out which model tested with the best mileage of 2014. The data is from fueleconomy.gov. Note: We didn’t include electric vehicles, just gas and hybrids. Good luck, and see below for more on this data.

Mobile users: Please check this content out when you’re at a desktop. Sorry!

Note: MPG data from fueleconomy.gov varies for some vehicles based on specific engine type, other factors.

In case you’re wondering how this data is compiled, here’s some background. Since 1978, vehicle makers have been required under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to maintain minimum fuel efficiency standards. Violators are subject to fines called a Gas Guzzler Tax (similar to how greenhouse emitters would be under a carbon tax, but that’s a different story). The fuel-efficiency testing is actually conducted by the manufacturers under legally specified procedures. The EPA spot-checks 10 to 15 percent of the vehicles, and sends the data to the Fuel Economy Information Project, managed by Bo Saulsbury at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Saulsbury told Mother Jones that “in the old days it came in as one basic data dump…now it comes in every two weeks.” In fact, you can already find data there for many 2015 models.

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

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