[mcshawnboy]

I'm a cheap ******* from way back! I'm not afraid to drive cars that folks don't find acceptable to get better fuel mileage than most folks concerned about their status. The first vehicle my folks let me drive was a 1969 Datsun 510 with a 4 speed & a slipping clutch. That made learning to drive a stick difficult. I had a big 1966 Dodge Coronet 440 with the old style 318 C.I.D., but fuel was less than $1.00 then! I got a 225 C.I.D. 1970 Dodge Dart that would've run forever, except I let a friend borrow it & he ran into a tree while drunk! A 1963 Corvair followed until the engine died. A girl at our local doughnut shop sold me a 1974 Chevy Vega (I put 5 used motors in that car!) in Red, White & Blue as a tribute to the upcoming Bicentennial, but I didn't like anything about it except 25 MPG 4 CYL & 4 SP so I blocked out the front fenders in flat black to resemble the Space Shuttle & put a plastic model of one on top wired to the center of the roof! I had a friend reach out to save the model while driving one night when one of the wires broke! Then an employer sold me their Renault sedan, but it took me a month to find the horn on the turn signal stalk by pushing it in! A counselor sold me a Accord W/O A/C 4 CYL & 5 SP that got 35 MPG. A neighbor gave me a 1981 Honda Civic CVCC that got close to 40 MPG. My best friend gave me a 1970 VW Auto-Stick that got close to 30 MPG. My sister's best friend sold me a Chevy Chevette w/ an Auto that barely got 25 MPG. I got another of these after being struck by a passing police car as I was making a left turn & he came over a dip in the road W/O lights or siren doing 120 MPH with a glancing blow cut off my fender, ripped off my bumper & bent the unibody! While in college a friend's husband gave me a 1971 Plymouth station wagon (About 25 feet long sides roller painted Dr. Pepper red with a baby blue hood with a white stripe & roof!) 360 C.I.D. Auto that barely got 15 MPG! My Dad gave me his Ford Tempo 4 CYL & 4 SP that got close to 40 MPG until smoke started coming out of the ignition switch. A friend from church gave me a 1989 Dodge Dynasty that barely got 20 MPG until it wouldn't start one day. My Dad didn't want me to miss work as a longhaul trucker gave me a 2000 Ford Windstar 3.6 Auto W/O cruise control that got 25 MPH & was absolute torture to drive!!! When the engine died it would cost more to install it than to buy a motor & I was car-less for two years looking for the perfect ride, but "Cash For Clunkers" stripped all the affordable vehicles until a former employer saw the type of car I was looking for (1983 300SD Mercedes Benz that many were converting to SVO) while avoiding a miles long backup on I-81 in Virginia which was closed when a load of straw & horse poop that'd gotten wet and spontaneously combusted. We picked it up on Halloween of 2011 & I got it on the road on Pearl Harbor Day & it just came back from a month at the mechanic costing $1,500.00 for a lift pump, new lines & hoses, motor mounts, fuel linkages were worn out, valves were too tight, the turbo clogged with oil & another local garage put exhaust hangers on wrong causing the whole exhaust to hang wrong. I'd like to put a Greasecar.com Co-Pilot & secondary tank on it in the near future to run SVO, but may look into making bio-diesel in an apple-seed processor from an old water heater.