First post...
 

I've been a lurker for a long time now and thought it was time to start posting a bit. Reading things like the FOrkenSwift buid among others are a huge inspiration for me (and not a bad way to kill time).

My car is a 2004 Ford Focus SVT ZX5. That model get the 2.0L Zetec, 6-Speed Manual Getrag, different air dams front and rear etc. Its stock on the outside but I do have an alternator killing stereo.

I've been using the Android app aCar to track my expenses for a bit over a month (just put all that data into the garage here), but have always used my trip odometer divided by filling station pump gallons to figure mileage. Some day I'll get something like the ScanGauge for real time monitoring, as I think that will be the real key to figuring out where I'm being wasteful and where I'm doing the best I can.

I'm pretty happy with my current 30mpg, but I think 35mpg is an attainable goal. Finances are tight so mods that require more than minor up front investment come slowly.




Finally a big Thank You to everyone that posts their real world experiences and a huge Thanks to anyone/everyone who takes the time/effort to not only experiment with things but to go the extra mile and take pictures and post about those experiments so the rest of us can learn from their success/failure.

..."Welcome aboard." Our daughter has a 2003 ZX5 2.0L Zetec engine with 4-speed automatic; she gets about 30 mpg too.