Apart from a couple of "play" cars (classics mainly) my every day cars have usually been ones with economy in mind. I described my first (Austin Metro 1.0) in the "Rose Colored Goggles" thread, but it was cheap - group 1 insurance (the lowest group), 45 MPG daily which when you're 17 and make the valves bounce in every gear isn't bad.
On the couple of occasions where I had larger (for me) cars such as a Honda Accord or a Ford Mondeo for every day use I felt limited in how much I could use them by a fear of the cost.
They were company cars, not my choice, and they stayed unused on the drive in my spare time. This was more a mental fear than a real one, the alternative car (in this case the GFs Escort) was not much more economical. My first time filling the Mondeo cost me £35 which was a good £10-15 more than my previous Peugeot 205 ever took. And that £35 took me fewer miles.
When I did swap the Accord for a Diesel Rover 220 (~50MPG imp, 0-60 10.5 secs in 1997) I was finally able to use the car more or less as much as I liked....
...just in time to get married, move to Scotland and have to hand it back
