Guess who's a teenager now: Happy 13th birthday to EcoModder! (Win a ScanGauge!)

[MetroMPG]

The sum total of my ecomods this year:

1) I transferred over last year's existing mods from Mirage #1 ("Fancy Metro" ... since sold) to Mirage #2 ("Even Fancier Metro").

2) The MPGiata got some attention: I lowered the suspension about an inch, revised the driver-adjustable grille block, added rocker/side skirts, and an LED voltmeter that plugs into the cigarette lighter. It was the car's best summer for MPG so far. Coinkydink?

3) I've been driving my parents around quite a lot in their 2005 Toyota Camry I4 automatic this year owing to health issues on their part, so I stuck a ScanGauge in it recently. I'm embarassed to report I'm seeing ~20 MPG US / 11.8 L/100 km in the cold weather, short trip, sub/urban driving it typically sees. EPA says the city rating is 21 MPG US, so ... I suck!!!

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by Stubby79

My kid is a couple of months older than Ecomodder? Weird...I must have started lurking soon after this place first came in to existence.

My firstborn too! And he was premature so it could/should have been closer still.

I wasn't into ecomodding until well after my daughter was born (we sometimes call them 'kid 1' and 'kid 2' for fun, especially in the company of strangers. The looks )
Her birth was car related though, as the very first trip we took in the Hyundai I10 we won in a lottery was to the hospital to get her born. We did not focus much on our new car's features during that trip...
Only when my wife quit her job in 2012 and I went to work fulltime again and therefore had to drive more did I buy the Insight and really focus on saving money by driving economically.

FF to this year; working from home I use less gas than ever before. No more modding necessary other than putting the foam pipes back in to block the lower grille.

I did some other things though like helping to save a wounded common buzzard i found on a walk 2 days ago:

I'll check with Animal Rescue in a week or so whether the bugger made it.

I saw another buzzard up in a tree right above me today. It waited patiently while I was fiddling with my phone to start the camera app and only took off a second before i was ready to take the picture.
It was huge!

Oh, and happy 13th birthday Ecomodder!

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by M_a_t_t

I did also make it to #10 on the % over epa category with 42.77%.

Congrats!


I didn't even know I had nabbed the top spot. Merry Christmas to me!

[Frank]

Thanks for doing this. I'm pretty sure ecomodder was known by another name way-back-when, can someone confirm the history for me? Wow - where does the time go?!

[smallie]

The only mod I really did was install the SG-II. I did briefly try the rear window delete mod for weight reduction, but found it impractical and returned it to stock

[Bruce]

I bought a '01 Miata. It's a blast to drive, but only gets 24 mpg.

So one week I pumped the tires to 29 psi, kept the top up, revs below 3k, and obeyed the speed limit for a tankful. 35.86 mpg. But driving it that way sucked!

[elborak]

Happy 13th!

Given that my driving was way down this year with WFH, not much motivation to do any modding. Mainly just trying to keep it on the road.

[electric_ride]

Sorry to hear posts are at a all time low. But I have always liked your forum.

[GrnFajita]

In January my son totaled our 2007 Focus ZX5 which had a new set of tires, so I was able to keep the tires & rims when they hauled it off for scrap.
The next car in the fleet behind was a 1999 Escort that benefited with an upgrade from 185/65-15 to 205/60-16 larger diameter wheel package; more frontal area, but RPM ranges stayed closer to peak torque.
Coincidentally, bolt-circle adapters required helped provide a much smoother side surface at the wheel-wells (plus smoother wheels).
Also, coincidentally, new lower ball-joints were due, so I was able to adjust the installation to keep the ride height lower.
Ignoring the odometer and calculating point-to-point of my commute showed a 10.5% improvement, netting one more day between fill-ups, which was easily noticeable.
An air-dam and belly-pans are on the list for Spring.

[93Cobra#2771]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Did you even do any ecomods to your vehicle(s) this year? Or were you preoccupied by other activities / situations? I'm guilty of the latter, especially this year. Judging by the number of active project threads, I'm not alone! So what the heck have you been up to?

Nothing new on my 96 geo metro other than putting the winter grill block back in place. Still working on the driver mod. Pretty happy with the 52.5mpg lifetime average. Just over 200k miles so I’m happy with that.