my wifes 97 mercury tracer ls. what can i do for it?
 

she's got an automatic mercury tracer ls, basicly a ford escort.

what should i do to squeaze more mpg out of it? i think it gets about 26mpg typically when i ve checked it.

Well, just start off with doing the things you can do to any car to get better mileage. Driving habits are a major thing for fuel economy. Slower accelerations, don't drive as fast, etc. Increase the tire pressure to decrease rolling resistance. Those are some simple things to start with.

ok, with the tire pressure thing, which im going to change before i go to work in a few hours, what is the deal with the change in the ride? the braking and safety first. is it going to slide during hard braking or something?

a stiffer ride isnt much of a problem for me. but id like to know what safety issues to be aware of mainly.

Should i push it up strait to 50psi instead of starting at 40psi? we both ride around near 30psi currently.

Take a look at the tire pressure link in my sig. You can safely experiment with higher pressures and decide for yourself what affects ride and handling badly, and just stay below that point. You will get lots of benefits from increasing the pressure.

In general, just keep reading the forum and learning what others are doing. There's certainly a lot of Escort success stories.

You could change to a lightweight oil. If you pump up the tires, you should either do it a little at the time or let her know, so the difference in handling doesn't surprise her while braking and turning.
Telling her how to drive may help, but I wouldn't have the guts. You married guys are probably braver than I.

she is actually a more conservative driver than i, or at least a slower one. a lot of times when she drives she forgets where we are going and starts going way out of the way. wont mention why, lol.

I tell my wife my MPG when I add it to my gaslog. She's been asking about it and trying to do some P&G as a result.

It's far better that way than telling her how to drive. Now if she'd only quit driving that godawful Isuzu Trooper...doesn't matter anyway, she doesn't drive much anymore.

you can get 30 mpg easily with some techniques. my friend used to have a 94 tracer wagon auto, and i can squeeze at least 30 mpg out of it

Driving technique alone should yield you 30-35 mpg. I own a 2002 Ford Escort with a 2.0L with 4 speed automatic transmission that my 17 year old son drives mostly on trips of 10 miles or less and he usually gets 30-33 mpg and has gotten as high as 35. I use 10W40 petroleum base oil in it and it hasn't had any mods done to it. I have stressed to him slow take-offs, key on coasting when possible, 50-55 mph, 35 psi in tires, (recommended max pressure on my tires) go higher if the sidewall has a higher max pressure listed on it, and before reaching a red light trying to slow down enough to keep the car rolling until the light turns green and the cars in front of him get started. I have heard that it takes 20% more fuel to get a car going from a dead stop than if you can keep it slightly rolling. If the car hasn't had a tune up in several years it would probably be a good idea to at least replace the plugs with platinum plugs. I usually get about 100,000 miles out of a set of platinum plugs. Give these things a try and I think you will see a considerable difference. After you are able to establish what the car will get on good driving technique then you can start trying different mods and you will be able to see what is working and what is not. It would also be a good idea to register your car in the garage section of this site then you can watch your fuel mileage by the tank as well as average. Hope these tips will help you.

My girlfriends 1998 escort averages 42 mpg hwy and its an automatic. We use 5w20 oil with one quart of rislone (It stopped the valve train ticking) We also have a k&n air filter on it and I took a Dremel tool and cut a 4"X5" hole in the air box. It seems to have improved fuel economy. I don't know why it gets such good mpg. It has 180,000 miles on it too.