Well I got it for under $500.00 but did need a fuel pump,(used) and the A/C need a total rebuild, which I did for the cost of parts...and I am fixing her up.
And unlike a little toy car that you will die in if hit by anything even a kid on a bicycle, my car has a very good survival rate.
The idea of a car only weighing as much as its cargo seems insane, you would be riding in a powered cardboard box. Now IF everyone was in the same cars OK but with so many driving big Trucks and BIG RIGs such a car would hardly cause them to feel a bump as they run over you.
Rich
Quote:
Originally Posted by racprops
Here is my 2 cents worth.
I live and drive in Phoenix AZ. I want good MPG but I do not have the funds to own an electric car.
So I drive a 03 Ford Crown Vic, it is a replacement for the car I drove for ten years. Both of these carswere low cast to buy and to maintain.
I really like this 03 Crown Vic P71 excop car, of all the cars I have owned this is the best yet so I feel I am starting with a very solid reliable basic car.
Why do I much prefer an older car…These cars have a rep for LONG Life, often 100K as a police car, then up to 200/300K MORE as Taxi’s and the stories is what goes bad is the valves and a new set of heads and timing chains and another 200K on the rest of the engine. So 500K+ is not unheard of. The car is easy to repair and fix up, parts are very reasonable and junk yards have a fair number of them so used parts are easy to find.
And I have found other cars less reliable as in:
My wife’s 2000 Toyota Camry, ( seems to get 30/35MPG Highway) and her early 1996 Toyota Wagon (on one trip she made to CA she seemed to get almost 40MPG) and 85 Musa 626 ALL have what I feel is a hidden failure: short life plastics and rubber, I have seen these parts go bad way before the American versions do. And on the 2000 Toyota had some odd electrical problems and a constant fuel vapor problem (some hose has failed0) with a check engine light showing up often.
Our 2002 Ford Explorer is also having odd problems and the PCM is tied into more things like keeping the radio on after you turn of the engine for about 5 minutes or until you open any door. All the door locks lock once you start moving…The antitheft system is freaky..and the rest of the truck is untrustworthy.
This silly truck (Explorer) with a V6 and a 5 speed auto gets worst MPG or as bad as my 93 Chevy full sized G20 350 Van, (14MPG) and Uhual will not rent me ANY trailer even though it came with a factory towing package, as they have ruled it unsafe at any speed with any trailer. I plan on selling it once I get the Van up and running.
Thanks to my 50 year friend Don, who built a junk yard up and fixed cars on the side I was able to follow his problems with so many cars, so I learned about so many nasty unknown hidden problems like Caddy Northstar motors with the started under the intake manifold and how the engine is scrap if it ever over heats…and so MANY others with so many bad designs and nasty failures and problems.
SO I also plan on keeping both the 93 Van and the 03 Crown Vic until I die…which I plan on not doing until 100+. Both just use the PCM to only run the drive train and not control everything.
Now here is what I was able to do: The 2000 Mercury Grand Marques was bought so I could test a few MPG devices, in other posts I have listed the amount of test gear I installed on it so I would NOT be fooled…and I was a careful as I could with all tests. I tested four HHO systems, a Cold vapor system, a throttle body modification…and running her lean.
The 2000 got 27/30MPG at 65MPH, STOCK, this was proven by a drive from Phoenix AZ to Blithe CA. and back on one tank of gas.
It was somewhat retested by a run to Riverside CA from Phx AZ where at 85MPH To the state line she got 25MPG and the from the state line to Riverside at 80MPH she got 26.5MPG. This was with two people aboard, an overnight suit case for two, spare and tools in trunk etc. These run were from gas station to gas station.
When I was able to set her to run lean I tested from 14.7 to 18.0 and found the peek was at 16.4, which gave a reading of pure 65MPH of 35MPG. This was NOT a setting I could use in daily driving, I need a way to fade into the lean setting and back out as need much as did the PCMs in the 85 to 90 Camaro with their TPI systems which was able to get 30/35MPG Highway and could and did in Australia as covered in the 3rd gen Camaro .org site back in the mid 90s.
I am building a special 383 with this system for the van with a planned second overdrive as well. I hope to get into the 20s MPG with this set up in a full sized G20 Chevy Van. I will report what I get when it is broken in and doing road trips.
I also plan on doing what I can to improve my 03’s MPG, I want the best of all worlds, the hot performance the car already has AND great MPG when cruising.
I totally believe I can get both. Again when and IF I have any good news I will report it here.
Granted, it is nowhere near what even near what your chart shows. But as some have said some of these MPG reports are not really everyday car or are costly newer special cars like hybrid’s or full electric cars.
My cars ARE everyday cars and are (for me) LOW cost..the Van cost $3200.00 15/20 years ago, the 2000 was $4000.00 10 years ago with 70K and the Crown Vic $450.00 last year with 185K when bought. It is the best driving car I have ever owned and I am 71 and thus have owned a lot of cars.
Rich
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