Another lurker-turned-member
 

Hi all.

A little about myself. I've been a bit of a lurker on this forum for quite a while - probably a good couple of years - and I originally found the site when doing some research into eco cars which brought up Basjoos's incredible Civic mods, and have subsequently discovered many other great cars including another boat-tailed Civic that I remember seeing, an interesting Scion Xa and plans for a teardrop Prius, and many others besides.

So what do I drive? As you can see from my profile, I live in the UK and for the past six years I've been driving a 1998 1.3 Ford Fiesta - my first and so far only car. It has electric... nothing. No power steering, no air-con, no nothing. Makes for a light, nippy and economical car. It's good fun to drive.

http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q...19270_3214.jpg

In comparison to others on this forum I haven't seen staggering figures out of it. My recent fuel economy has been around the 42(UK)/35(US) mpg mark, though for a while last year when my journeys were almost exclusively on the motorway I was regularly achieving between 47(UK)/39(US) mpg and 52(UK)/43(US) mpg, which I was quite pleased by. I don't use any hypermiling techniques as such - I just drive economically whilst still maintaining progress no differently from those around me. I do enjoy driving quickly on occasion too (though obviously keeping within traffic laws) so my fuel figures are rarely completely economy-orientated.

I've joined this forum late in my time with the Fiesta though and I'm currently on a hunt for a replacement. It's been a great car but after six years it does start getting a little boring driving the same thing, especially when I have friends lucky enough to own some very nice cars. On my car-buying shortlist and small budget I'm looking at Honda Civics, BMW Compacts, Mazda MX-3 and MX-5s, Hyundai Coupes (Tiburons) and a couple of different Alfa Romeos. As you can see, the replacement for my car won't necessarily be more economical than the Ford, but I shall no doubt be driving it more economically than the previous owner so I see that as an improvement!

Anyway, I'm sure I'll enjoy posting around here, and hello to all :thumbup:

Welcome to EM!

Nice Fiesta. Looks almost as good as the new ones. :)

AJI -

Welcome to EM! Sounds like your fiesty Fiesta has served you well. I'm pro-electric nothing (cheaper on repairs), so your Fiesta sounds like music to my ears.

CarloSW2

Cheers all :) Thanks for the welcome.

I do enjoy the "spartan" nature of my car - it's nice not having to worry about electrical gremlins. Every bit of equipment I don't have is something else not to go wrong :D

SVOboy - I'd say it looks better than the new ones :p Not keen on them to be honest, I'm much more a fan of the Mazda 2 they're based on. If I was in the market for a brand-new supermini, it'd be a 5dr Mazda 2 1.5 Sport in dark grey.

http://www.redbookasiapacific.com/nz...D/MAZD0201.jpg

Looks great, handles great, goes great and average fuel consumption of 49/41 UK/US mpg. That said, the diesel would be tempting at 67/56 mpg average...