Hi all.
A little about myself. I've been a bit of a lurker on this forum for quite a while - probably a good couple of years - and I originally found the site when doing some research into eco cars which brought up Basjoos's incredible Civic mods, and have subsequently discovered many other great cars including another boat-tailed Civic that I remember seeing, an interesting Scion Xa and plans for a teardrop Prius, and many others besides.
So what do I drive? As you can see from my profile, I live in the UK and for the past six years I've been driving a 1998 1.3 Ford Fiesta - my first and so far only car. It has electric... nothing. No power steering, no air-con, no nothing. Makes for a light, nippy and economical car. It's good fun to drive.
In comparison to others on this forum I haven't seen staggering figures out of it. My recent fuel economy has been around the 42(UK)/35(US) mpg mark, though for a while last year when my journeys were almost exclusively on the motorway I was regularly achieving between 47(UK)/39(US) mpg and 52(UK)/43(US) mpg, which I was quite pleased by. I don't use any hypermiling techniques as such - I just drive economically whilst still maintaining progress no differently from those around me. I do enjoy driving quickly on occasion too (though obviously keeping within traffic laws) so my fuel figures are rarely completely economy-orientated.
I've joined this forum late in my time with the Fiesta though and I'm currently on a hunt for a replacement. It's been a great car but after six years it does start getting a little boring driving the same thing, especially when I have friends lucky enough to own some very nice cars. On my car-buying shortlist and small budget I'm looking at Honda Civics, BMW Compacts, Mazda MX-3 and MX-5s, Hyundai Coupes (Tiburons) and a couple of different Alfa Romeos. As you can see, the replacement for my car won't necessarily be more economical than the Ford, but I shall no doubt be driving it more economically than the previous owner so I see that as an improvement!
Anyway, I'm sure I'll enjoy posting around here, and hello to all
