Polishing a Turd: aerodynamic improvements for a Subaru Wagon

[thornburg]

Originally Posted by oneinchsidehop

My mechanic agrees with you. I'd love to get a different vehicle.

Requirements: 20 days of the month, commuting on rolling hills. 10 days a month commuting on the same hills with 3 kids (one is a teen) and their stuff... back of the wagon is 1/2-3/4 full on those days.

I tried a Civic EX, but the trunks was too small.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

What about a Toyota Matrix or Mazda 5?

Or, if you're on the cheap, get an Escort Wagon. Depending on the year and miles, they can be had for $1-3k, and they get 30+mpg w/o any hypermiling.

[sonyhome]

fueleconomy says:

1996 subaru legacy wagon AWD 2.2L 19mpg city 26mpg highway, 22 combined, old EPA is 22/29!, and new EPA matches what users report.

So don't expect to save by switching car... Stick with it and change when you can afford a decent car instead. Good luck with that because Subies are solid cars, especially a 2.2L engine won't die unlike 2.5L which have headgasket issues.
Priuses get 47mpg driving like a pig in mountains and do have a lot of space. If you want ultra small with similar MPG, get a 3 cylinders geo metro beater or a toyota echo as a 2nd car.

For FE, did you start by an engine tune-up... new filter, new spark plugs, plug wires, air filter, synthetic oil with low 1st number like 5W30 or 0W30 instead of 10W30?

If you switched from 20mpg to 26mpg by driving habits alone, maybe you're already stuck with a car yielding poor MPG, and the tune up would help, esepcially if you find what is making it inneficient.

[theholycow]

Every time I see the title of this thread, it makes me smile.

[COMP]

Originally Posted by theholycow

Every time I see the title of this thread, it makes me smile.

i agree

[Kohote]

Originally Posted by oneinchsidehop

Requirements: 20 days of the month, commuting on rolling hills. 10 days a month commuting on the same hills with 3 kids (one is a teen) and their stuff... back of the wagon is 1/2-3/4 full on those days.

I tried a Civic EX, but the trunks was too small.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

How about a saturn sl series? It looks like they are in the same price range as a civic or cheaper. The five speed manuals in the garage are getting around 40 mpg.

[itjstagame]

Yeah, it sounds like a second car wouldn't be very worth it unless you got one of the really tiny commuters (like VX, CRX, etc). In the size you want you'd probably get 30-35 and if you can get yours up to 30 that'd be good enough.

My suggestion would be to get a used 250R Ninja and get 70MPG when it's nice out and use your car for family/winter.