I return with a car!

[KITT222]

(Sorry, not sure where to put this, so I hope here is okay...)

Hello Ecomodder folks! I registered here as a lurker, and without a car, and just a permit a year or so ago. But now I return with a car and a license! The car is an '04 Pontiac Vibe with an auto transmission (I know, I know, but it's hard to find a Vibe that cheap, and even a manual Vibe in general!), sunroof, and alloy wheels and 78200 miles. A year and a half of research led me to this car, and I am happy! But my original intentions have held true: I want to squeeze every mile I can out of it. Especially considering I'm a teenager who'll have to pay for his own gas.

As a bit of a perk/get me up, I am doing some ecomodding as a school science project. I have 5 test subjects (me included) that will drive the car twice stock, get the average MPG, and then twice with the additions: upper and lower grill blocks, at least front wheel covers, wheel skirts, partial kammback, and wheel air deflectors. I have plenty of coroplast (thanks all to my dads friend) in the beautiful color of white.

I have mocked up most of it, but I need help with the rear wheel skirt. The rear bumper and rocker panels are curved way under, leaving the wheel mostly exposed. Currently I am thinking of something like those plastic mudflaps on both sides of the wheel well, with the skirt propped up by those things. Yet an issue is that we (my dad and I) don't want to drill holes into the car, so that makes mounting this a bit of an issue. So, yeah. I'll post pictures of my car later, and any help with the rear wheel skirts is appreciated!

-Thanks!

[SVOboy]

Do you have any pictures of the rear wheel well area so we can get a better idea of what you're talking about?

[MetroMPG]

Welcome back, Kitt.

Sounds fun to be making it the subject of a school project. I like the 5 sets of drivers idea.

Are you planning to make it a "blind" test? You could theoretically lead the driver to the car literally blindfolded, so they're not able to see whether they're about to drive the modded or un-modded version. (You'd have to mask the top of the rear window to hide the presense of the partial Kammback). It'd improve the validity of the experiment. Just a thought.

As for drilling into the car, I hear you. I also did not want to drill into my car's wheel arches to attach the skirts.

So I made these little brackets:







from: DIY: plastic rear wheel skirts (Geo Metro)

I used the mud flap as an attachment point for the aft end of the skirt.

Keep us posted! I hope you'll share your project report with us.

[Tango Charlie]

Yay, another Vibe!
Here's what my rear wheel wells look like;





Yeah, not real easy to skirt. Not impossible by any means, though. I look forward to see what you come up with.

[KITT222]

Geez Tango, my rear tires are bald compared to yours. They were like that when we bought it (last Sunday). Really need to press my dad for a new set. Metro, I think I'll progress with something like that, thanks! The pictures I have are WAY big. My camera takes HUGE pictures. On my 1024x850 (I think...) screen they are enormous, so I'll grab some with my humble phone and use those. I think I'll move to a build thread type of thing. Soon I am going off on my first real run with it to see what kind of MPG I can get. I'm not expecting anything too huge, since it's currently about 20 here, but I hope for something good.

As for blind testing, well, maybe. I am the only test subject who WANTS to see an increase, but I wouldn't taint my own data. My step-mom has a Corolla, and got it because it was cheap, and she rarely drives anywhere, so it wouldn't apply to her much. My sister, maybe, but she has a Celica with a sport bodykit. Cousin, Camaro V6 (looking for better car, IE Civic), and dad, big, loud full-size Chevy truck. I really saw this car as practical, stylish, and efficient, so I went for it. I'm really the only one who went for FE in buying their car, so I don't think they would taint the data either. Plus the car will probably be more 'slippery' with the mods, so they could figure it out.

And just as a general question: my dad rented a Mazda 3 auto from Iowa and drove 250 miles to home, and used 10 gallons of gas, so that means 25MPG. Is that right for the cold, or was there something up?

[Tango Charlie]

Those are my new three-month-old Nokian EnTyres. So far, I haven't been too terribly impressed with their wet weather traction. Waiting to see what they're gonna do in the snow and ice this winter.

25mpg in a Mazda 3? I dunno, what's the EPA rating for it?

[KITT222]

Almost the same as the Vibe: 33MPG hwy, and it was all highway on the way back (he flew down, and drove up).

All my pictures are too high quality and too big, (even the ones from my phone) to upload. I'll figure a way around it though. I'll find a way...

I also returned with 23.9MPG average on my little juant around town, but mostly because I let it sit for a few minutes warming up. The instant MPG was consistently reading mid-lower 30s (in between jumps to 114 and 76), which I would expect, at 50MPH. I'll get a solid number as time goes on though.

By the way Tango, just wanted you to know, your build thread with Olivia originally got me interested in the Vibe as a car. I did my research and it turns out to be a brilliant little car. So thanks for turning me on to it!

[cfg83]

KITT222 -

Welcome to EM! If you create an album, the pictures you upload to the album will be "autosized" for you. You can do that as follows :

1 - Click on "User CP" in upper-right corner of webpage
2 - Click on "Picture & Albums" along left column of webpage
3 - Click on "Add Album"
4 - Go Crazy!!!!

What is really nice is that if you click on the picture you have uploaded, you are given a URL that you can copy-paste into your reply :



PS - Love them Vibes!

CarloSW2

[KITT222]

Aha! Thank you. Well here is a pair of picture of my Vibe from two nights ago in our garage before I sized up a few mods for it.

[MetroMPG]

You haven't removed the roof racks yet?? :-O