[Big Dave]

What killed me is the very configuration that helps me out-MPG most trucks: 4x2 and stick shift.

The adapter kits for 4x4 automatics are pounded out in quantity (probably in China) but they have to make up 4x2 kits individually. To add insult to injurt the 4x2 manual setup does not bolt the tranny but is "divorced" - the overdrive hangs off an additional ctossmember on the frame. It is nicely engineered but saltier than something from Gale Banks.

It shows the degree to which 4x4 and automatics (two MPG-killers) have become the standard in the industry.

Maybe I should quit fighting the mechanical battle and go at it from a bodywork angle. Do like Red and get a fugitve-from-the-junkyard Insight, and take it to a custom body maker and have the roof raised five inches.