40 miles to the gallon, 20 year old technology

[Hodag'stiva]

Been lurking here for the last few months, finally decided to make myself an honest member.

Running a 1991 Festiva, I'm the sole owner, looking to get 50mpg out of her, am perfectly happy if I keep getting 43-46mpg.

Would love to hear from other Festiva/Econobox drivers out there.

B

[101mpg]

Welcome! You should start using the gaslog feature of the garage, it will help you see how you use your fuel and your mileage should improve as a result of watching what you use closely.

Let us know things you do that help!

[theholycow]

I remember, as a child, going to a Ford dealear with my dad to look at work trucks. While we were waiting for a salesman, we couldn't resist but look at a Festiva, and look under the hood. At the time it was so incredibly funny to us, under that tiny hood there was still lots of space because the engine was miniscule.

It's still not a car either one of us would drive, but we sure aren't laughing anymore!

[Hodag'stiva]

Originally Posted by 101mpg

Welcome! You should start using the gaslog feature of the garage, it will help you see how you use your fuel and your mileage should improve as a result of watching what you use closely.

Let us know things you do that help!

I've got about two years of mileage log so far - is there a way to upload all of it at once? Not looking forward to retyping almost 50 entries.

B

[quadancer@bellsouth.net]

A neighbor had a festiva back in Missouri, where we had a lot of rocky unpaved roads. It fell apart weekly, so that offset the savings. I guess they'd be all right on pavement tho..

[nlife]

Nice to see another Festiva owner on here. I've been running my 91 festiva now for almost a year and a half. I bought it from my g/f for $1500 then quickly paid it off with the money I made from travel pay which took about a month or so. You can check out my gas log and see the things I've done to it, which isn't much, but I have recently hit 53.5 mpg on highway. I had to do some of the Hypermiling tech. but not that much. The biggest one was the EOC.

Other than that, I've hit 43 on combined tanks and am pretty happy with it. Seems as though I'm about average when compared to other festiva's out there. As for the gas log, I'm not sure you can get around typing in all 50 of those entries , although I hope for your sake, I'm wrong.

BTW, welcome to the forum. Let's show these geo owners that they aren't the only ones with cheap FE cars!


N

[Hodag'stiva]

Originally Posted by nlife

Let's show these geo owners that they aren't the only ones with cheap FE cars!


N

I test drove a Geo Metro the same day I test drove my Festiva. I distinctly remember getting up onto VA-44 (Now I-264), and dropping the hammer while merging with traffic and the engine saying, "What?"

The Festy came off the line nicely, cornered well (for a cereal box) and there was even a little rubber in second gear. The salesman turned to me in the passenger's seat and said, "Hell of a difference one more cylinder makes, huh?"

B

[thisisntjared]

welcome! my buddy has a festiva that he races and its probably one of the fastest cars of the day whenever he goes. there are lots of other reasons for that like driver ability and tires, but still the weapon of choice is an impressive one when you see it in action.

as far as your 50mpg goal goes, it is totally attainable you just will have to work for it! best of luck!

[nlife]

Originally Posted by Hodag'stiva

I test drove a Geo Metro the same day I test drove my Festiva. I distinctly remember getting up onto VA-44 (Now I-264), and dropping the hammer while merging with traffic and the engine saying, "What?"

The Festy came off the line nicely, cornered well (for a cereal box) and there was even a little rubber in second gear. The salesman turned to me in the passenger's seat and said, "Hell of a difference one more cylinder makes, huh?"

B

Yea, I know what you are talking about. I had an 89 chev sprint (same as a geo) for a little over 5 years. I drove the hell out of it and enjoyed it, but I certainly wasn't as peppy as my little festiva is. I'm still pretty surprised at the amount of pep in the Festiva and I have a 3.7l Liberty as a secondary vehicle.

Now that I'm putting a little bit of love into the ol' festiva, she's really starting to respond. When my g/f had it, she never flushed or changed the anti-freeze. It was the same color as a glass of coke. The vehicle wouldn't generate any heat during the winter and would nearly overheat under load in the summer. After I flushed it with two bottles of cleaner, replaced the fluids and changed the thermostat, everything was back to normal. It actually puts out heat, runs smoother and seems to get better mpg's. Nice $30 fix after listening to her complain about it for nearly 2 years!

N