Was your 1st car good w mpg's???

[user removed]

When you worked 40 hours for $.625 per hour, even 30 cents a gallon gas meant something.

My first car was a $52 57 Chevy that was purchased at the Newport News Va abandoned car auction, serious piece of junk. The second car was a 59 Austin Healey Sprite (bug eye for you old folks). It got 32 MPG and I drove it like a nut. You could smell the rubber going around turns, but the tire was only 3 feet from your nose!

regards
Mech

[d0sitmatr]

first car was an AMC gremlin with a 302 (or 305, cant remember) 4 spd manual trans, didnt even bother caring about mpg with that car, all I cared about was smoking the tires and other drivers.
2nd car was a 1985 mercury lynx 5 spd manual that got excellent mpg, but I didnt have it long as I tried teaching a g/f how to drive stick and she ran into a tree...
next car was a 1985 sunbird, 4cyl 5 spd and got pretty darn good mpg, I dont actually know what it got, but it had a super small tank (maybe 12g) and i could drive from Naples, FL to melbourne, FL and back without having to stop for gas with 3 people in the car and 4 surfboards on the roof with board racks that attached to the rain gutters.
after that, I own a toyo AE86 hatchback, got really good mpg, but I didnt own it long as I lost my license (not for DUI, for other misc things that happened all at once).
then I rode a bike for almost 15 yrs.
a mazda mx6 LS that I avgd 27mpg hwy
a ranger that netted me 24mpg hwy most of the time, that I could push up to 27 occasionally.
a toyo 4runner, horrible, simply horrible mpg
subi outback, not much better than my ranger, and cost WAY too much to fix.
eagle talon good mpg (avgd 35 hwy) but got an offer on it I couldnt refuse (paid $900 and someone gave me $2100 for it 7 mos later)
94 protege, gas miser, that isnt running at the moment
traded the ranger for the Xterra, unbelievably horrible mpg... 15/17 EPA and I probably got that, no matter what I tried....
now I have the protege5, the 94 protege and another mx6 LS.
yes, I am a Mazda Man

[gone-kl]

87 pontiac sunfire was my first. no idea what mileage I got. I drove for 10 years before discovering the joy of better than average FE.

[cleanspeed1]

Originally Posted by d0sitmatr

first car was an AMC gremlin with a 302 (or 305, cant remember) 4 spd manual trans, didnt even bother caring about mpg with that car, all I cared about was smoking the tires and other drivers.
2nd car was a 1985 mercury lynx 5 spd manual that got excellent mpg, but I didnt have it long as I tried teaching a g/f how to drive stick and she ran into a tree...
next car was a 1985 sunbird, 4cyl 5 spd and got pretty darn good mpg, I dont actually know what it got, but it had a super small tank (maybe 12g) and i could drive from Naples, FL to melbourne, FL and back without having to stop for gas with 3 people in the car and 4 surfboards on the roof with board racks that attached to the rain gutters.
after that, I own a toyo AE86 hatchback, got really good mpg, but I didnt own it long as I lost my license (not for DUI, for other misc things that happened all at once).
then I rode a bike for almost 15 yrs.
a mazda mx6 LS that I avgd 27mpg hwy
a ranger that netted me 24mpg hwy most of the time, that I could push up to 27 occasionally.
a toyo 4runner, horrible, simply horrible mpg
subi outback, not much better than my ranger, and cost WAY too much to fix.
eagle talon good mpg (avgd 35 hwy) but got an offer on it I couldnt refuse (paid $900 and someone gave me $2100 for it 7 mos later)
94 protege, gas miser, that isnt running at the moment
traded the ranger for the Xterra, unbelievably horrible mpg... 15/17 EPA and I probably got that, no matter what I tried....
now I have the protege5, the 94 protege and another mx6 LS.
yes, I am a Mazda Man

304ci V8 for the Gremmy.

[kir_kenix]

My first economy vehicle was a 1984 Nissan 720 pickup truck. 2.0L, 5 speed 88hp truck. It didn't look nice or go fast, but it got great mpg's on the highway below 55mph. I drove that truck through some minimum maintence roads and into some fields that my friends wouldn't touch with their 4wd pickups.

I actually kept that truck around the farm until last year when I tore the engine completely down and rebuilt it. Got it running like a top in no time! Unfortionately I got rearended by a loaded semi with only about 60 miles on the motor...

I've actually always kept an economy box around to suplement my low mpg toys, but that was my first.

[ecomodded]

My first car was a 1972 toyota corolla 2-door 1200cc {1.2L) 3-cyl.
3 cyl. because it had a burnt valve on the #4 cylinder effectively canceling it out. bought that car for 150 bucks when i was 15, insured it 6 months later and did my first hypermiling trip out to the lake with $ 2.50 in the tank! that's well before it was cool to be hypermiler

Poverty~ the fire beneath the hypermilers butt
at least that"s how it started for me!

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...when gasoline was 24.9¢ a gallon, NOBODY worried about economy; you got four gallons for a buck!

But back then I was making maybe $2-$3 per hour (or even less when I was in the military). Now gas costs $4/gal, but I make closer to $50-$100/hr.

The first car I actually owned - '66 Pontiac GTO with the 389 & triple carbs - wasn't all that good on gas. Second and third - an Austin-Healey Sprite and a Toyota Stout pickup - were real good. And there were some motorcycles - Honda 305 & 350 IIRC - that were good, and the old Volvo...

[UFO]

I had a '72 VW squareback that got 40mpg, and a '76 Honda Civic that also got 40mpg. But then I got a '70 International Scout II with a 304 V8 (gutless), that only got 17 on the highway, but it was better than any of the other Scouts with a 345 V8. Sure wish I'd picked up a diesel....

I did replace the Civic with a '78 Datsun 280Z (still have it); that car returns 30mpg, and it can run a 12.8 second quarter mile...

[slowmover]

Every car was driven for economy. Some just got better numbers than others.

First one was a 1966 FORD LTD Country Squire with every available option. Including the 4V-428 engine. 10-mpg city, 12-mpg highway.

.

[larrybuck]

When I was 21, I hitchhiked around the country for about 1 1/2 months..... in between jobs, wondering what I wanted to be in life.

Got tired of it and wanted my own ride to go home. My cousin who lived in Rockville, Maryland, loaned me $400. for gas, expenses, AND buying a '65 Ford LTD 4dr HT. w 390! It had been his recently deseased father's car. He had recently downsized to a '72 Dodge Colt. We tuned it, and changed the oil. At a 40mph cruising speed (low rearend gears), I averaged 24 mpg on slightly bumped bald tires.

This was in '75. I don't remember one time that anybody ever honked, or had any issue w my 40mph on interstates drive! Wish it was still that way!