Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
Belated welcome to EcoModder, TDFbound!
Glad the VX acquisition and retrieval adventure went smoothly.
Here's one thought I had, maybe a bit too late for your purposes: the MPG magic in the VX lies mainly its ability to go into lean burn mode, which it really only does under lighter engine loads.
So, if you're mostly driving on hilly/mountainous roads, you're not going to be seeing the benefit of lean burn. It's more useful to a flatlander. The car's unusually tall gearing might be counterproductive, too. A vanilla DX or CX (though they're geared pretty high too) might have been easier to find, and do practically as well under your particular circumstances.
PS: mountain driving can be more fuel efficient than flat land driving. The key is not using any fuel at all on the descents! Same reason as "pulse and glide".
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For sure, the mountains are not it's strong suit. I don't usually go up or down the big hills- thankfully my commute follows a river all the way into town, so elevation change is pretty subtle, though still several hundred feet of gain/loss in a round trip, but a fairly windy road where 40-45 is about as fast as I go, so mainly fourth gear easy cruising with third gear going into tight curves or up steeper sections.
To be honest, part of the reason I bought it was simply because it is an odd car. There are probably less than 10k of these left on the road, which is a shame considering how well it's held up over the years. I will probably get the same year CX model later to do a motor swap into it and make it a fun car for spirited mountain driving- I think about 250 hp to the wheels should be super easy and super reliable, and pretty dang fun in a car that weights 2000 lbs. But, this VX is going to remain a VX through and through for the rest of it's life, and that's probably a good thing.