Notable eco-cars (old & new) spotted in the wild: post your pics!

[War_Wagon]

Originally Posted by sheepdog 44

Quick question, whats that white splotch just ahead of the drivers side door?

Lol, it's a Honda "H" logo. Don't blame me, it had one on both sides when I got it, and I am too chicken to try and remove it in case it pulls a bunch of paint off with it. At least they are on straight. The last colour in the world you want to try and touch up is silver, you never ever get the metallic mix/tint right! The kid we just hired to help out at the office saw the car and said "That thing looks weird." Hmmm, someone doesn't want to make it past their first paycheque it seems lol.

[War_Wagon]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Yeah, and not interesting, either. I can see one of those by looking out my front window :-)

You are a lucky man! I guess they aren't that rare down south, but up here they only sold 369 of them from 2000-2006, so you'll have to forgive me if I like to show off my lil spaceship lol. I will try and find something really interesting for the next pic I post. So far I have found a low mile Leaf, a 4 speed Mercedes diesel 240, a turbo 1.0L Suzuki clone, and some other weird eco rides. Guess I need to dig deep and find something really rare to keep things interesting!

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

I saw a Brazilian-made Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion yesterday. Pics to come...

[radioranger]

Sorry no pics , not that smart, yet , but doing some research today found out Dodge made an eco car back in 75 called the Dodge Dart lite, it was lightened with an aluminum tranny case ,intake, special exhaust and higher gearing and epa rated at 36 mpg, I wiki searched it today the Plymouth equivalent was called the Feather duster LOL , but true.

[brucepick]

This one also doesn't count due to no pic:

I saw an EV-1 back around 2006 while driving from Mass to Rhode Island. If I recall it was red. Driving along with it was another car with placards on it saying it ran on biodiesel.

I got on the web and looked it up only to learn that supposedly all the EV-1's had been destroyed. Except for the two noted in this thread. Or maybe they were the same car.

[War_Wagon]

Originally Posted by radioranger

Sorry no pics , not that smart, yet , but doing some research today found out Dodge made an eco car back in 75 called the Dodge Dart lite, it was lightened with an aluminum tranny case ,intake, special exhaust and higher gearing and epa rated at 36 mpg, I wiki searched it today the Plymouth equivalent was called the Feather duster LOL , but true.

Yup there was a Dart Lite, and the Feather Duster. There was also a Hang 10 Duster, which I believe had some of the Feather Duster bits, but also had a hand cranked sunroof and a back seat that folded flat. I think one of Al Bundy's Dusters from the TV show "Married with Children" was a Feather Duster. I know one was a Gold Duster for sure, but I think I remember seeing a lite weight one in the garage at some point. Here's some more old Chrysler F.E. reading for you if you are up for it: The Chrysler Lean Burn engine control system

[radioranger]

You know that rings a bell, man didnt know my memory could have held that trinket , but do remember the words, wow! kind of scary really , Chrysler lean burn, guess it worked . Chrysler had some good ideas, even though i was a ford guy,

[mechman600]

The Lean Burn system was an early spark advance control system (introduced in 1976 and continuing to the 1980s) that was troublesome due to the nature of the contemporary electronic components...

I'll say. My first car was a hand-me-down from my dad's cousin - a 2-dr '79 Volare with a 318 2-bbl and lean burn. He had to replace the $1K "computer" (word used loosely) on a yearly basis, and I took delivery of it with it pre-fried. All I did was steal a normal distributor & ignition module from a van at a wrecker and install it. The lean burn carb worked great without its proper computer. I drove it for years that way and it got 21 mpg (before I was even trying for mileage).

[radioranger]

I wonder what the slant sixes used, I thought it was pretty cool they used bigger exhaoust , and other lightweight engine parts, they were really tryng to make the best of their situation . If Ford had pt as much work into their 250 six ,which was a strong engine could have bv been great , the intake on the slant six always impressed me it was so long they had to tip the whole engine on its side , thus the name slant six. If I had the money, and teh skill, it would be interesting to port fuel inject one of these, probably buy another 5 mpg .

[HyperMileQC]

Spotted the first electric car in my neighborhood today ! Its a Mitsubishi i-MiEV (don't know the year tho).



Personally, I don't like it that much, but its fun to see that some people are turning to electric cars near where I live.