[speedmpgchaser]

SEE MY SUMMARY POST BELOW

Been looking for a while on here, plenty more reading still to do. Previous list of great cars for ecomodding have been a big help. The thread I found the most helpful was in 2013.

Reviewing that list in 2023/24 based on price, availability, average condition & known flaws. Living in the rust belt also makes things harder.

This started because I've gotten progressively more agitated not having a manual the last few months. Not easy to find what I'm driving (2nd gen focus) in that config. With a 2l engine, I assume the ceiling is lower than I would like. I'm sure the right habits would more than compensate for this, just looking forna higher floor. There's a certain amount of slowness I expect a car in this category to have- far be this from a sports car, but it's definitely got more than I need, a majority of the time.

Goal: Vehicle getting 45-50 on highway, 38-40 in the city, when employing basic eco driving techniques.

Going off a 3k budget. Options open up a lot more at 5k, but I'm driving under 20k miles/yr. Outside of a G1 insight regularly pushing 75+mpg (100+ w/extreme hypermilling), adding so much more upfront cost brings a long breakeven period, which I don't want to wait out (by paying upfront).

Also, with a lot of these vehicles, spending more gets you a nicer example of the same vehicle, but you can get an uglier one in need of maintenance for a far lower cost (which is still much lower, after the repairs have been made).

Caveat- I do a lot of deliveries with my personal vehicle, so at times, hypermilling within the deadlines and 80mph I have to do on the freeway is next to impossible. Other days, I go 55 and am constantly employing coasting, optimize city speeds based on my scanguage, timing traffic lights, etc. Plenty of room to improve habits and skills, still.