View Models: Suzuki, Alto
That's because the Suzuki Alto recently took part in an Outback MPG marathon, completing the journey at an average consumption of 72mpg overall.
That's an 18.5 per cent improvement over the official Australian combined figure (+13 per cent over European figure).
But it represents an impressive 141mpg (2.0 litres per 100km) attained in City traffic - the lowest recorded of any entered vehicle.
The Global Green Challenge ran North-South from Darwin to Adelaide and placed conventional and alternative fuel cars against each other in a 1,900 mile real world test.
The winner of the challenge was the vehicle judged to have recorded the biggest improvement over its official fuel consumption figure.
Alto won the 'Light' and 'Small' car categories; 'best urban cycle' category and an overall CO2 emission of 89.9g/km, using just 123 litres of fuel for the seven day trip.
There were some extremely trying conditions for drivers and cars alike, with most teams opting to turn off the air conditioning to save fuel even in temperatures soaring to 43 degrees centigrade.
But the 1.0-litre petrol engined Alto held its own, and managed to outrank similar size diesel cars including the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic Turbo Diesel and MINI Cooper D.
