Antique & Classic Cars Blog

Dave G says:

July 14th, 2008 at 2:42 pm

Honda fans prize those cars. They were indeed quite efficient. Equipped with early generation of the VTec engine, they can be turned into quite the little pocket rocket. They were also VERY small compared to current models. You have to remember that we were coming out of the shock of the late seventies and early eighties fuel price spikes when these cars were made. That’s been one of the problems. After that period, gas prices began to moderate and cars started to grow. If you put one of these cars next to a modern Civic, it would amaze you how much they’ve porked out over the years. Throw in all sort of accessories, a bigger more powerful engine, and all the passive restraint systems (Air bags and such.) and you’re talking about quite a bit more weight. And therein lies the problem. People’s memories are short, and they don’t remember what kind of mileage these things were capable of. And to tell you the truth, I don’t think the current generation of car buyers would have bought one of these tiny little cars………up ’til now.

I will tell you one thing. I know I’ve been seeing a few more of these things on the street lately. I think people who’ve owned them, but parked them for more spacious cars have parked the porkers and gotten these things out of retirement, which leads me to an interesting story:

At the height of the SUV craze, approx 2-1/2 years ago, a neighbor who happened to own something like one of these Hondas bought himself a Ford F-250 “To tow the boat and haul things.” Didn’t take him long to start driving it all the time instead of the Honda because “It’s more comfortable, and I can see better in traffic!” The Honda soon got parked, and eventually sold. When I asked him why he did that, he said “Aw, I never drove that little tin can anymore, and it was taking up space in the garage.” I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. “That wasn’t such a smart move, was it?” He rued. He looked into buying another Honda like it, and found that they’re now going for twice as much as he “unloaded” his for. He really wished he had that car back. He even called the guy he sold it to and offered to buy it back. The answer? “Are you nuts? NO WAY!” *click*

Cameron says:

July 18th, 2008 at 9:35 am

Any thoughts on the hyper-miling syndrome? I have mixed feelings about some of it. Some is good common sense, keep tires inflated and such. Some of the others like turning the car off all the time strike me as having some safety issues.

Frank Lee says:

July 20th, 2008 at 9:40 pm

Done right, hypermiling can dramatically improve your vehicle’s fuel economy. However it is true that some of the techniques can be viewed as extreme and should be considered with caution. For example, drafting is a well-known economy enhancer but I don’t do it… it seems to annoy the draftees greatly, they never seem to be going the speed I want to go, and of course there are all the rock chips. And there is the engine-off coasting you mentioned. It is particularly effective because done well, you are covering all the miles in your trip with the engine off maybe half the time, which can have the effect of nearly doubling your economy. There are many situations when EOC may not be appropriate though, and unless you are really embracing the hypermiling bug, it can be a rather annoying technique to employ. I can do it all I want in lightly travelled rural areas and around town, but I can’t see doing it in fast city traffic. It requires much more attention than “normal” driving. Also it does not work nearly as well with automatic trans vehicles, which is just about everything anymore. A person just has to use their best judgement on that.

I regularly exceed EPA economy estimates by 30% or more without using the “extreme” techniques. I suggest keeping the vehicle in tune, “over” inflating the tires somewhat, and most of all, getting away from the common mindset of always driving like you’re late for something- that causes many bad habits, like weaving through traffic and constantly, if subconsciously, always pressing down on the accelerator a *little* harder. Seriously, do the math; for most people all that speeding and weaving MIGHT result in a “savings” of mere minutes. So leave a few minutes earlier and don’t speed. I rarely exceed 55 mph even when it’s legal to do so as aerodynamic drag increases greatly at about that speed. Accelerate briskly, not too fast or too slow; the idea being to get in top gear ASAP. Anticipate stops and lift off the gas well in advance; using the brakes turns the fuel you just burned getting up to speed into waste heat! I have 150,000 miles on the factory brake pads and shoes and they are still thick! And I can’t stress this enough, IDLING IS YOUR FUEL ECONOMY ENEMY! Don’t warm it up; don’t sit there idling in drive-thrus, don’t idle while you’re yakking away with your buddy; just don’t do it, period.

Kris Palmer says:

July 21st, 2008 at 6:14 am

Thanks Frank. There you have it, Cameron–insights from a person with real hypermiling miles at the wheel.

I live in the city limits, where hypermiling’s techniques would be unavailable much of the time because of all the stop and go traffic on surface roads and interminable construction on 35W.

Kris Palmer says:

July 24th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

A girlfriend and another friend in high school had diesel Rabbits, which acquitted themselves pretty well on mpgs–north of 40 for sure; I think my friend Ken said he could get close to 50.

Your Sentra sounds like a rare car. I looked at Sentras in the distant past for a commuter and I don’t recall running across any diesel examples.