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

[larrybuck]

This is probably an easier question for young people? How far down your automotive path, did you change, and want to save gas?

My first car was a '67 Chevelle Malibu w 283/4-spd. that even w 60 series tires would get 22mph. at 70 mph.

2nd car was '65 Corvair 4 door bought so Chevelle wouldn't get messed up in freezing rain/ice storms.

3rd car was '55 Chevy 2dr post w 283/3 on column getting 21/22mpg. around town.

Had 3 different cars that got 7-9 mpg., but they were specialized in that I always had like 2 other normal cars for everyday use!


The very 1st car, that I bumped up the tire pressure for a mileage run was a '62 VW bug. I put 50psi all around, did a mostly flat freeway round trip run of 70 miles or so at 45mph. and got about 45mpg.

Later came 2 other bugs, a Datsun 510, b210, orig. Fiesta, Honda 600 Coupe, and finally 1st gen. CRX; but these were mainly all mixed w other vehicles not so mpg worthy all at the same time.

That 1st bug experiment I did in the mid- 1970's. and that car was probably about my 7th or 8th car. I was about 20 yrs old then!

[War_Wagon]

1970 Nova SS. Speedo didnt work so no idea on the mpg's. But at 16 I really didn't care. I have had cars that were good on gas for winter cars for a long time, but I didn't really start to pay attention to it seriously until about 3 years ago. So 15 or so years of not caring. Bleh that's dreadful!

[Ryland]

My first car was a 1984 Civic DX hatchback, got 42.2mpg, I was happy with it at the time but of course I didn't realize what else was out there.

[Frank Lee]

Spitfire with a Toyota engine in it was 1st; then came several VWs, a Nova with a 283, Corvair, etc. with most able to get about 30. And back then I did just about everything on a CB450- you wouldn't believe the stuff I hauled on that rack!

[SentraSE-R]

I've always owned a good stick shift fuel economy car. First was a '63 Rambler American 220. Second a '70 Datsun PL521, both capable of 25 mpg. Third was a '76 Datsun B210 capable of 36 mpg. Fourth an '82 Nissan Sentra that got up to 45 mpg.

I've also owned several AT FSPs concurrently with the fuel misers. The FSPs included a 12 mpg '59 Buick Electra, a 5 mpg (winter - 11 mpg summer) '77 IHC Scout II, and a 15 mpg '87 Chevy Astro van. Once I started hypermiling, the Astro got 20-22 mpg, but was still a FSP.

[capnbass91]

2000 Oldsmobile Silhouette-minivan- 3.4L V6. My parents had me drive it my senior year cuz it was the safest car. Didn't pay much attention to mpg then, but it got like 16-17 mpg.
Then I got the car I'm driving now, 1996 Chrysler Sebring Convertible. 2.5L V6. The power and acceleration difference is incredible haha, man could that minivan accelerate!
The Sebring gets about 17, but with mpg in mind I can get almost 20 and that's mostly city driving.

[cleanspeed1]

1984 or 85 Audi 5000 diesel. Got about 30-35 mpg, but was offset by the horrendous oil consumption ( the rering job by the PO was not the best ).

First VAG diesel, but not the last.

[cfg83]

larrybuck -

Thrifty 4-bangers, one and all. My current SW2 is probably the heaviest of the bunch at 2400+ lbs. First car was my (Dad's) 1972 VW Karmann Ghia.

CarloSW2

[gone-ot]

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

...my car at that time was a very 'well-used' 1953 'flathead' Ford Crown Victoria with 3-speed manual transmission with overdrive.

[Frank Lee]

Some people must have worried about it otherwise the Beetle and the little Asian cars wouldn't have found success here.