London, UK

[AlVal]

Hi Guys, dropping in from London, UK.

just recently decided to have a go at "bangernomics" (the art of running a car on the lowest possible budget)

bought a 1996 Honda Civic EK3 1.5 LSi Hatchback (1.5 litre D15Z6 Engine, which I don't think was ever sold in the US market - it has 2 stage vtec, with the first stage being some sort of "economical" 12-valve mode or something!

Picked it up with 3 months road tax and 3 months Ministry of Transport test remaining on it for UK£480 (US$783), four good tyres, 98,000 miles, cambelt oil&filters recently changed, clutch feels good, drives lovely although bodywork looks tatty externally due to what looks like a home attempt at painting bonnet and passenger door. Still , for the price, I'm not complaining.

running on 175/65/14s cheapo tyres that came with it, which I'm currently keeping at 40psi

standard unleaded petrol here is currently UK£1.34 per litre at the cheapest station (US$8.27 per US gallon)

I started to read some of the hypermiling tips, and realised that I've been doing a lot of the things naturally already out of what seemed common sense to me, although I was very glad of the tips I hadn't thought of.

I'm sure I can improve my own driving style even more, and am thinking soon I might strip the car out totally, replace the glass with lexan except for the windscreen, and go on a diet myself haha.

Filled it up when i picked it up and reset the trip counter to zero. got near empty today so did my first fill-up. So I'm happy enough with the >400 miles to a tank I've done in it first time out, and looking forward to hanging about here and improving more!

49.1 UK MPG (40.9 US MPG)

[blade]

welcome to em