1/31/2024 0 Comments 1990 mazda protege fuel economy![]() You get to develop and fabricate all that stuff yourself. Those only run about $20,000, if you have the Miata already. You can buy a newish Prius and disguise it with custom body panels for what a running engine swap in a Miata typically costs.ĭoing a unique engine swap, costs may skyrocket, as all the parts for the common Ford and LSx swaps are developed and in stock on shelves. And the car is unliveable for all but track rats or boy racers. People with under 2000 lb Miatas didn't get there free. How many replaceable 'panels' do you think there are on a Miata? Ever picked up a stock Miata front fender? Or hood? Carbon panels don't take damage any better than cheap window glass does, so typical GF parking lot rash replacements end up more than total fuel bill. 2 grand if you do carbon fiber, and the weight is barely less than stock. Which buys a LOT of gas/miles on a Miata. Bet dollars to donuts, the car comes out heavier, and you are down a grand or more. Which it never will.Ī bit too new to car mods for this project, if you think any weight is to be lost with 'fiberglass body panels' on a Miata. CONS: All the work of a V8 Miata, all the expense of a new Miata, all for fuel economy somewhere worse than a new Miata. He's going to start with a car that has 1-1/2 times the aero drag of a Prius, he's going to keep it RWD with its extra 90-degree gearset in the differential, and he's going to power it with an engine chosen at random from the cheapest crap-wagons he can find on eBay. (Efficient engine and FWD drivetrain, low drag, supplementary electric motor powered by electricity generated by charging during braking.) However, her boyfriend is going to have a go at building one himself, using none of those ideas. Hardest: Toyota and Honda and GM tried their hardest to build a car that got 50 mpg back in the pop-up headlight days but they couldn't do it, not even with all those engineers refining all those really good ideas. I don't care that it gets 15 mpg around town because I am the coolest chick EVER" (C5 Corvette.) If I set the cruise control on the highway. Slightly harder: She buys a car that has flippy headlights, and convinces herself that "29 mpg is still pretty good" (early Miata) or "it can get 30 mpg theoretically. For normal people, there's really not a downside. CON: It's not unique, I guess, but it's a good answer, which is why it's not unique. Or, 70% the fun and 90% the fuel economy, and 100% the price, like a Kia Niro or something. Which could be a PRO rather than a CON.)Īlmost as easy: She buys something else modern and sporty that gets really good fuel economy, like a Mazda 3 (or a current-gen Miata.) PRO: 80% of the fun of flippy headlights and 80% the fuel economy of a Prius, for 90% the money. Her boyfriend refuses to have one in his driveway so she'd have to park in the street. Previous-gen Prius is cheaper but gets less MPG. Here are her options, as I see them, in order of "easiest" to "hardest."Įasiest: She buys a Prius. ![]() The motor is part of it, but nowhere near the biggest part. The fuel economy in a current Prius is a combination of a LOT of things, none of which you find on an NA Miata and only a couple of which you find on an EcoTec car. The first Prius also didn't get what you think of today as "Prius-like" fuel economy, those also got low-40's mpg. (**)Not even economy cars from the 1990s with thin carpeting, wind-up windows, and no a/c were getting "prius-like" fuel economy. The retractable headlights were the answer to two otherwise contradictory questions, "how do we make a pointy nose so we can get decent aero?" and "how do we meet DOT headlight regulations requiring these stupid standard-size (large) headlamps at standard headlight height?" By the end of the 1990s, the US DOT finally revised its headlamp regulations to allow the better, lower-profile headlights allowed in the rest of the world, so there's no reason to make that complicated mess ever again. Those both ended production in 2004 but started earlier (1997 for Corvette, 1976 for the Lotus.) The Corvette actually gets pretty good mpg on the highway, still not "prius-like" but you could make a case for it. (*)The exceptions were the C5 Corvette and the Lotus Esprit. Cars from the 1990s didn't get that kind of fuel economy(**) and cars from the 2000s didn't have retractable headlights. Flippy headlights are 1990s-and-earlier tech.(*) "Prius-like mpg" is 2000s-and-later tech. ![]()
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