I'm sorry, you said my wagon weighs more than your car?

Of course back in the day it was much like period lever action rifles. Safety? The safety is between your ears Son.

mike

 

Dad had a 1980 Honda Civic CVCC 2-door coupe that got an honest 50 mpg all day long -- this was in 1982. He drove the dogpi$$ out of that little car, until he started yearning for another VW Beetle. Sold the Honda, bought a '73 Bug, and got half the mileage. That Honda might have weighed 1,800#, dripping wet. A new 2014 Civic weighs DOUBLE that!!! It's 60% larger all around. And gets a whopping 37 mpg that they brag on incessantly!

I'll pass.

 

The only "Economy" car I've ever liked was that 1986 Subaru GL my father bought in 2k7 for $200 'cause he didn't have the tools to replace the head gaskets on our ole' wagon at the time. Neutral saftey switch went on it, we couldn't figure out what it was until long after the car was gone. Real shame, that car ran like a champ, handled great too. Plus it had push button AWD, was strange, 1985 only had front wheel drive, 1986 had push button AWD, and 1987+ has all time AWD. Never the less, that little car was amazing. I want to get me a little 86-90 Subaru GL wagon as a runabout. There is one up the block from here I may try to pry from it's owner, I know it's in that year range 'cause it's got AWD plastered on the doors in the typical stripey grey 80's font. Would make a great runabout while I fix Ole' Yeller. My Custom Cruiser has so many names, if it where a person, you'd be talking to a different one each day.

Oh, guess you could count that 1973 Fiat 124 Sport Spider my father had as an economy car, 124CI four banger, fun little car. Four speed stick, rear wheel drive, sold before I had my license . We got it running one summer to sell it, cleaned the points, plugs, hadn't ran in 5 years, fired right up with the exhaust rotted in half. Sounded like Satan's Chainsaw, like it could eat a Honda alive and spit out some Italian beer can you couldn't pronounce. That car was very interesting, the engine was designed by a retired Ferrari engineer, though, it had the Fiat reliability. I'll have to dig up photo's of those cars when I've had sleep. Oh best part? My father bought it for $700 in about 1997, sold it 2006 for $900 with rusted rockers, a patched pass side floor pan, a snake skin hung under the drivers seat where one made it's home in there for a little while, and virtually no exhaust. Oh and it beeped the horn if you turned right.

 

The CFI Escorts really didn't improve much over the carbureted ones. My "Escort" was a 1986 Lynx I picked up from an impound auction for $60 when I was still 16. Taught myself to drive stick with the 4-speed in it. EPA ratings were 30/39 on that too, and that's what I could get out of it.

I had a 5-speed 4-door hatchback '89 Escort awhile later. EPA ratings on that one were only 27/36. That had the CFI 1.9 engine. I can't say I got as good of mileage from it as the '86 Lynx, though. Did a lot of pizza delivery in the '89 and I remember low 30s, but I don't think I got anywhere near 39 on the road.

Reason being the final drive ratio of the 5-speed Escorts was 3.62:1 and they had a 0.75:1 fifth gear. The 4-speed Escorts had a 3.27:1 final drive and a 0.78:1 fourth gear. Overall, the 4-speed models would run at lower rpms and that's why they got better mileage.

The reason progress hasn't had benefits to fuel economy is because we're so hung up on safety and emissions. Add airbags, crumple zones, side impact bars, vapor recovery lines, and a bunch of electronic computerized nonsense to the 80's Escort and it'll weigh as much as the '06 Focus. The mileage will suffer. So in order to get better performance, they mess around with the gearing. Shorter final drives, more gears, shallower overdrives. The cars drive faster, are heavier, and the only improvements in efficiency over the years can't even keep up with the difference.