RWD cars with good MPG? (Looking for a highway commuter)

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by carolina guy

I have had several, and if you do your own work, they are about the same $$$ as most other older cars...IMO.

Looking out for interchangeable components that can be sourced at lower costs, simply because some shops would charge more for the same part if it's meant to be used in a Merc than in a Chevette or some Volkswagen from the '80s, is also a good way to decrease the maintenance cost. OTOH at least in my country, most Mercedes owners are not so inclined to DIY.

[Grinder74]

Order99
Funny you mention there Colt, my dad bought a Plymouth Arrow new in '77. Mitsubishi engine, 4 speed RWD. Hard to find these days. Dad put close to 170k before he parked it. Too rusty to drive anymore. Lots of memories in it.

[MetroMPG]

Chris - any news on your search?


I realize you haven't logged in since the summer - hoping you'll get an e-mail notification and come back with an update.


Because this was one of the more popular threads of 2018.


Related topic:





94 Caprice Wagon 5.7L project--46 MPG so far

[Grinder74]

Life changes and the house we passed on, halted moving. House we wanted turned out to have bowed in foundation walls. After that my day shift operator quit, leaving me working a lot of OT. Until they hire someone I'm not moving. Moving back to the country adds 30 minutes one way, at the minimum.

[hotshoetom]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Subarus are cool until you have to replace its timing belt, then you'd start hating it.

Actually the timing belt service is not that hard to do if you are a fairly good DIY person. I suspect most of us here on this site are that way just because of the nature of the site and the mods that have to be done arent commercially available. I have done several of them both for myself and others and not found them to be too bad. Time consuming to be sure, working carefully and not getting in a hurry I can knock one out in a couple of days. The hardest part is getting the new belt timed correctly but after you have done it a couple of times you learn the tricks and it gets easier. I will have to do my WRX sometime this year and I just did my 07 wagon about 3 months ago. The biggest issue is the expense of the parts and getting high quality parts so when the job is done the repair lasts the full service interval. For the WRX if you use OEM spec parts you are looking at nearly $500 in parts alone because its recommended to do water pump and thermostat at the same time as well as all idler pulleys in addition to the timing belt itself. If you gamble and change only the belt there is a good chance something else will fail and you'll have to go back in it and since its an interference engine, that means you would be going much further into it than you would really want to. So better to spend the money up front on disaster prevention then later on disaster recovery.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Sure being more used to either inline engines or gear-driven ones might be one of the reasons why I dislike Subaru engines now.

[hotshoetom]

Originally Posted by Grinder74

I may be moving back to the country. I would have 80-100 mile round trip. Last car I had for this was a 1996 SC1 Saturn the averaged 40MPGs and I got 100k miles out of it before I moved closer to work. I now have an NB Miata that is mint and won't be driving it but would love to get another RWD car to mod to get the MPGs.
Thanks,
Grinder/Chris

This depends on the budget of course but really old and no doubt cheap would be an old Chevette...I can hear everyone laughing at that one but they were durable, not much fun, abuse tolerant, parts were/are available...likely easily upgraded with a more modern powerplant from the gm family. Using an old car like that has many advantages including zero depreciation cost, no personal property tax to amount to anything, and a car you can walk away from when it dies with little regrets.

A more upscale choice and a lot more fun would be a Honda S2000. That screaming 2 liter engine is such a sweet piece and in commuter duty it would probably live forever. Dont know how fuel efficient it would be with a careful driver but its worth looking at.

The 4 cyl fieros were good for better than 30 mpg right out of the box and I am sure with some mods could do quite a bit better. Plus they were adequately fun to drive. I had one with the 2.8 6 cyl engine and it was a very fun and quick car to drive. there are still a few of these running around and not terribly pricey to buy.

I'll be interested to see what you come up with.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by hotshoetom

This depends on the budget of course but really old and no doubt cheap would be an old Chevette...I can hear everyone laughing at that one but they were durable, not much fun, abuse tolerant, parts were/are available...likely easily upgraded with a more modern powerplant from the gm family.

Not sure if it's that easy to find a Chevette there in the USA as it is in my homeland Brazil, but when it comes to upgrades it accepts nearly everything in the GM range. Its engine bay is surprisingly big...

[Grinder74]

I just posted that I have postponed moving...so not buying until something changes at work. May just get an Insight MT when the time comes, if I can find one then.
Chevettes have been ravaged by dirt track racers for Chevette classes in my neck of the woods.

[Stubby79]

Bit late, but...C5 corvette, with displacement on demand, can get ya 30+ mpg on the highway if driven right...