Mechanical newbie hurr.

[QuantumBunnii]

Heii,
I'm new to the Ecomodder forums, and albeit I'm practically dumb when it comes to cars, I yield a particular inclination towards mechanical endeavors-- especially when it saves MPG. As of now, I have a 2001 Automatic Kia Rio (huge mistake) and am trying to sell it for a 1995 or 1997 Honda Civic (according to fueleconomy.gov, they get the best MPG). I've heard many people advocate a manual car, boasting how they "go faster and get better MPG." I'm not exactly sure why this would be so, but I'm consequently attempting to get a manual car. Are there any threads accentuating the basics of cars, particularly manual? As previously stated, I've limited knowledge of cars or anything having to do with cars. I'd like to know what, exactly, I need to look for in a car when I test drive it, or when I'm considering a purchase (is Vtech a bad thing? I see lots of those). But I guess this is a while away in any case, since I don't even know how to drive manual.
In any case, I hope that I can learn what needs to be learned so I may become an active practitioner in the forums.
Thanks for listening. :3 (They should add a cat-face in the smiley section-->)

[cfg83]

QuantumBunnii

Welcome to EM! If you look in the Garage on this forum you can search for high MPG cars. The manual transmission cars give you more control over MPG because you can pick the higher gears. Automatic trannys on new cars are better than they were, and paddle-shifters also get you closer to manual tranny performance.

Here is a and a for you to use. You can find them here :

Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - cfg83's Album: Animated Gifs

CarloSW2

[Weather Spotter]

Welcome!

You have come to the right place to find out about cars in general and high MPG ones in particular.

[Ryland]

Your question on V-tec Honda's has a two sided answer because there are two versions of the V-tec engine in Honda's, the most common is found in the Civic SI, it is their performance engine and gives lousy mileage because it's tuned to rev higher, it is also a common engine for people to swap in to other civics, looking at ads you will see people say that it has a B16 or D16 or D18 engine, this is part of the engine model number and when someone is bragging about the "great stuff" they did to a car, it often time will rune the mileage and make the car harsh to drive, also alot of people think that 25mpg is great, so even if their car gets lousy mileage they will say it gets great mileage just as a selling point, but if they don't give you a solid number then they most likely don't know what it gets and just know they spend less on gas then they do driving a full size pickup truck.
The civics that do return good mileage are the Civic VX ('92-95) and the Civic HX ('96-2005 I think), if you don't know how to drive a manual transmission I suggest learning before you go look at cars that have them, otherwise there were some Civic HX's that had automatics but they wear out quicker then manuals, the Civic VX and HX also have a V-tec engine, but it is the V-tec-E and is tuned to run at lower revs (where it is for normal driving) and is tuned for better economy.

[QuantumBunnii]

Originally Posted by Ryland

Your question on V-tec Honda's has a two sided answer because there are two versions of the V-tec engine in Honda's,

What about a B20 swap? I don't really know what that is but there's a 1997 Honda Civic HX for $3,500 that I might consider. However, he says he's done a B20 Swap on it.
That a bad thing? What does it do?
Lol

[user removed]

Originally Posted by QuantumBunnii

What about a B20 swap? I don't really know what that is but there's a 1997 Honda Civic HX for $3,500 that I might consider. However, he says he's done a B20 Swap on it.
That a bad thing? What does it do?
Lol

The B20 is a 2 liter engine from a different version of Honda, which will not have the lean running capability of the original HX, which I think was 1.6 instead of 2.0 liters displacement.

It might still get better mileage if it had the original HX transmission and gear ratios, but I would probably try to find an unmodified car.

Welcome to the forum.

regards
Mech

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by QuantumBunnii

What about a B20 swap? I don't really know what that is but there's a 1997 Honda Civic HX for $3,500 that I might consider. However, he says he's done a B20 Swap on it.
That a bad thing? What does it do?
Lol

first letter is the engine family, not sure how they choose it, and 2nd two numbers at least for Honda's relate to the engine size in liters, so the B20 is a 2.0 liter engine, basically if someone is saying that they did an engine swap on a car that you are looking at, stay away from it! because it will not get good mileage and they have hacked things apart and put them together in a way that no mechanic in their right mind will work on it without charging you extra.

The civic VX and HX are popular among people who think they are going to get in to racing because the body on those cars doesn't have alot of extra junk, so they are a lighter weight car (improves gas mileage) but having an engine that is tuned for good gas mileage is the other half of what makes the car as a whole unit get good mileage.

[Canary5_0]

Welcome!