Any Reformed SUV/Muscle Car/Truck Drivers?

[MorningGaser]

I'll start first. I recently sold my 2006 Mustang, and replaced it with a 2007 Yaris Lift Back, and I am so darned pleased! Not only does the Yaris get twice the actual MPG, but it is reliable, durable, and it scores very high in ConsumerReports. The Ford was the opposite in all accounts. Having owned the Mustang, there is no wonder why Ford is in big financial trouble. It lacked the most basic expectations for quality, sucked up the gas, and was very unrefined.

But the Mustang does not deserve all the blame...I too am to blame, as I should never have bought it. I wanted power. I wanted looks. I ignored the big cost of gas, insurance, and the hassle of returning the car to service 6+ times! I fell for it's looks, but ignored more important aspects of a car.

But that was then, and this is now...I am a reformed wasteful driver, and I no longer am impressed by 0-60 times, engine size, body looks, and acceleration. That is so, so wasteful, expensive and frankly, very stupid in regard to one's financial future, and of course the environment.

These days I am so impressed by driving slow, striving for the highest MPG, keeping maintenence cheap, and I no longer do the 18-24 month trade-in/car buy which wastes tens of thousands of $$'s in one's life time....at 47 I am more mindful of saving $$. Talk about mortgaging one's financial future!

What are your thoughts on this? Am I alone on this? Do you see a growing trend as gas prices go up?

[hawkgt647]

I'm a reformed horsepower junkie - and it goes way back.

Before I bought the Honda Insight 2 years ago, I was driving a Dakota pickup with the V6 -it would top out at 19-20 MPG. It was a slug.

Before that I had a '90 Chevy 454SS pickup, and it had been modified. Bored to a 468, turbo 400 with no overdrive, and 3.73 gears. 60 MPH was 3000 RPM. 9-10 mpg and it didn't matter how you drove it.

Before that it was an '80 El Camino. The original 305 was replaced with a 355, but it would still get 21 MPG on the interstate. I liked it for towing the boat and commuting.

[MorningGaser]

Originally Posted by hawkgt647

I'm a reformed horsepower junkie - and it goes way back.

Before I bought the Honda Insight 2 years ago, I was driving a Dakota pickup with the V6 -it would top out at 19-20 MPG. It was a slug.

Before that I had a '90 Chevy 454SS pickup, and it had been modified. Bored to a 468, turbo 400 with no overdrive, and 3.73 gears. 60 MPH was 3000 RPM. 9-10 mpg and it didn't matter how you drove it.

Before that it was an '80 El Camino. The original 305 was replaced with a 355, but it would still get 21 MPG on the interstate. I liked it for towing the boat and commuting.

Wow, you were hard core!

Glad you too have seen the light!

[Peakster]

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I sold my 1991 Ford Thunderbird for a mere $1,800 August, and then bought my current car. The T-Bird was very nice. For one it was free (given to me by my grandma), was in very good shape, had the glorious 5.0L HO engine, fully loaded (the only thing it didn't have was a sunroof), and honestly didn't get that bad FE for it being a V-8. There's a video of me driving it here. You can hear the full-throttle acceleration @ 9:23 in the video.

The Geo is pretty boring, but at least it's front-wheel-drive and I'm currently more than doubling the FE the Ford got.

[CoyoteX]

Since I got my metro I have made my camaro get much worse mileage than it used to so I can't say I am reformed I went from 25mpg normal driving to 9mpg normal driving in it. But then again it can now do 11.7 in the 1/4

I guess an advantage to living in the middle of nowhere is I can have lots of cars sitting around waiting for me to do something with them and not have to pay a fortune for insurance and licensing while they sit.

[LxMike]

I'm a recently reformed muscle car driver. Beofre the zx i had a 5.0 mustang lx that was making closew to 300 rwhp. on highway wasn't too bad as long as i stuck to the limit it would get 21-23. around town is where it wasn't so hot. 13-15 range.

[kwtorbe]

I'm not really reformed either. I am more with Coyote X on this subject. My muscle is a '68 Charger with a 383 and 4.10 gears. I love horsepower and I love FE. For me, it's either power or FE. I just like tinkering I guess.....

[BumblingB]

I'm reformed during the week and sometimes back for my old high on the weekend. Today I did just that, took in a SMALL car show at the local high school where the procedes went to the kid's Key Club there. I broke out the heavy guns (the '30 Chevy) for them today but opted not to do burnouts in the parking lot, and even refrained from spinning the tires leaving. We took a LONG drive on the way back and went a good 30 miles out of our way.

Back in my old high school days I had a '67 Mustang that I discovered I could get 23MPG out of if I drove easy. Still, the mileage thing didn't catch on. Even when I lived in Europe it still didn't hit me. Once some of my tree hugger ways starting emerging I started looking at hybrids back in early 2000 but couldn't afford one. In 2003 I got a Civic Hybrid and the mileage thing became a game. Soon I discovered I could get stellar mileage in any car using the techniques I learned driving my Civic. After that, it's history - in the last 20 years I've owned over 100 cars, I'm a junky - they have been collectors cars, muscle cars, sports cars, luxury cars etc.

Like I said though, I normally break out the guzzlers on the weekend and "sometimes, not ALWAYS" drive them like I built them to be driven. A pure rush of adreniline.

[DRW]

Hello fellow junkies!
I guess I'm semi-reformed. My daily driver is a 1990 Laser that puts out around 275HP and I'm driving it well enough to get FE in the low 40mpg range. I haven't commited to selling it and getting a true FE vehicle yet, tho I wonder just how good I could drive a metro or VX if I really tried.

I also like to have fun once in a while, so my second car is a 1992 Eagle Talon that recently did the 1/4 mile at 11.3 @ 130 mph! Yeah, that was a rush! I only drive the Talon once in a while. I drive it so infrequently that when I buy gas for it I just get 4 or 5 gallons at a time. I don't want to dump a ton of money into the tank just to let it sit for months.

[Snax]

Necessity has reformed me. Not because I can't afford the gas though! With a family of five, a short driveway, no street parking, and only a two car garage, we had to go down to two vehicles. The pickup of course has room for all of us, but the Isuzu Impulse AWD Turbo, and later the STi had to go. I hadn't done much to the STi, even though it was something I was fond of calling my slow car (with good reason).

So while I have kissed off cars capable of getting 6-7 mpg at the track, it's not for lack of desire, only space. Regardless, I like to engineer, and finding higher efficiency in a vehicle is still an enhancement to performance that I can get into. It's just less visceral.