[sheepdog 44]

I do consistent low 70's all summer, best tank was 72.3mpg, right now i'm at 69.3mpg for 430 miles. I can cruise along at 70mpg on the flats if i keep it under 60mph. 65mpg tank with little effort would be typical, 62mpg tank not trying. So yeah, not exactly far less fuel economy. But ideally you want a manual with lean burn on the flats. Since your in Florida you could lean burn all the live long day.

Of course AC will take the biggest hit in mpg. But even if you're doing 50mpg at 75mph with the AC on full blast, it's not much to cry over.

I've never read of an anyone doing an ecu swap for a cvt, though it's it's been contemplated many times!

If you look on craigslist, many CVT Insights in the 210-220,000 mile range will most likely say "cvt transmission replaced recently." So, yeah budget that out in the future. But it's not like MT's don't have a long list of issues with grinding gears.

The CVT is smooth as butter. So smooth i can space out 20 miles of driving! Hypermiling is easy because you only focus on driving with load. I can drive at 60mpg load up and down a hill from 50mph to 15mph and back to 50mph again completely smoothly.

I would not invest in mima or anything for flat land. In florida you don't have inspections right? If the battery dies pull it out and run on gas. If you can do 70mpg even, there's not much return on investment spending money beyond aero mods. 70mpg to 90mpg (if you could pull it off) will save you maybe $100 a year. Why even buy a replacement battery if you don't need to.

I would check it out at least, see if you can get it for less, and if you don't want it walk away. The body looks really good, which i wish i had when i got mine. Driver side sash is from "wet seatbelt." he took it off to try to fix it.