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Old 01-17-2008, 01:36 PM   #4 (permalink)
Whoops
EcoModding Apprentice
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Ventura, Ca
Posts: 112

Whoop's Wheels - '89 Honda Civic Wagovan
90 day: 39.09 mpg (US)
Thanks: 1
Thanked 9 Times in 7 Posts
I totally understand the dillema. I'd get a glass jar and put a quarter in it everytime you have to drive the PIG. When you get $1000, go buy a used Honda Civic, stick, plain jane. Install a new timing belt and water pump and start saving some money.


The problem is that somehow FORD figured out a way to make an engine, drive train that gets horrific mileage, no matter what you do. I gave away a 1967 Ford pickup, with a brand new engine, because it got 11 mpg, cold, hot, loaded, empty, it did not matter. It just got 11 mpg, no matter what I did. I have an 89 Civic Wagon, which I have about $1000 tied up in. If I drive it reasonably, I get 35+ out of it. If I drive it hard, I get 30+ out of it. It costs $35 to fill it, now, but I can still drive 325 miles or so, before I go to the gas station.

With the car you have, you can't improve the mileage enough to recover the cost of anything spent to improve it's mileage. You need to lay out a plan to dispose of it, or you need to accept its lousy mileage as a price for owning it. One or the other?

The quarter deal works a lot faster than you'd think, seems hokey, give it a try.
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