Old-School Fuel-Sippers Making A Comeback

If you find yourself with a time machine that can only transport you back to the early '90s, make sure you buy a Geo Metro. That may sound like a stupid idea, but fuel-efficient disposable cars from the first George Bush era are making a comeback as gas prices skyrocket, These cars are commanding top prices on the used-car market.

Cars like the Metro, Ford Festiva and Hyundai Excel are suddenly hot commodities, rising 30% in value over the past few months, according to a story in USA Today. Where some of these babies would have fetched barely $1,000 last year, some are now selling for as much as $6,000 because of their fuel economy. A '93 Metro, for example, is EPA-rated at 46 mpg, which is the same as a Prius, which sells for 20 grand.

We took a look at Cars.com's Used Car Index and indeed found an Excel going for just under $3,000, several Metros with asking prices of $5,000, and a 1991 GM jalopy with 180,000 miles on it indeed selling for six grand. We tell you this not to try to sell you these cars, but simply because it surprises the hell out of us, too.

Keep in mind, however, that the reason these cars get such great mileage is because they lack a lot of safety features, allowing them to weigh less (including airbags, which are kind of important). The Excel is notorious for its unassailable record as a lousy car. The bottom line: Is saving a few bucks when you fill up worth driving an unsafe vehicle?

Nerdy, Fuel-Stingy Cars are Hot Wheels (USA Today)

Comments

[smokin88lx]

Unsafe vehicles? Give me a break. People have been drving cars for over a 100 years and listening to safety nazis you have to wonder how the human race survived without anti lock brakes, airbags, traction control, skid protection, etc. I mean how did people drive in the snow before front wheel drive came popular? Certainly you had a death wish driving a car before 1968 when seatbelts were not required to be installed in cars.

As long as you don't drive like a jack ass and pay attention you will survive your trip to work.

[DonB]

How much do airbags and their associated parts actually weigh? It can't be very much. I don't mean the 6, 8 or 15 airbag setups that are over-the-top, I mean a normal 2 airbag setup. Thanks.

[J]

And don't get me started on the reliability issue with those 3 specific vehicles.

[Sam]

Boy haven't we made great advances in auto tech? 20 to 30 year old cars get BETTER mileage than just about anything today.

I had a "75 Rabbit that got just about 40MPG on the highway - same as a Prius. Today's Rabbit weighs 1000 lbs more and get 29 hwy.

The performance has also gone DOWN. That 75 Rabbit had a whopping 72 HP and was REALLY quick. Today you buy something like a Yaris or Fit with about 110 HP and the performance is nowhere near what that Rabbit did. Heck; before the Rabbit I had a Ford Maverick with 120 HP. It was a rocket ship and got superb mileage.

Wouldn't you think that, with all the millions and millions that have been spent on auto engineering that they makers could at least make cars that got something like what they got 20, 30, even 40 years ago.

and before cars there were horses...

Sam,
don't forget that all cars you mentioned polluted air like lawn mowers. New cars are zero or partial zero emission vehicles. also the type of fuel you pump today is safer but stores less energy. And when they put ethanol into it, it worsens fuel economy.

[LM]

Horses aren't extinct...yet.

[Lil'Tom]

Wow... just wow,

$6k would buy a 10 year old Corolla which would require maybe an extra $400 in gas per year. That's definitely false economy.

I doubt that a '75 VW Rabbit was really that much faster than a new Fit or Yaris. The numbers I found on a '76 Rabbit say 11.0 second 0-60 and 17.9 quarter mile. Edmunds lists the 2007 Yaris times as 10.5 second 0-60, 17.8 second quarter mile.

Some of these people are converting these cars to electric power. There is a company in San Fransisco that does just that.

I miss my old 82' Omni 024 Miser, it got 45mpg with a VW engine and a wide ratio 4 speed. No power steering or air conditioning. It didn't like hills on the highway much though, it was like rowing a boat going between third and fouth. But it never went below 40mpg on the highway no matter how many hills there were.

I bought it new and paid $6000 for it and the car loan was at 18.9%. Gas was a high at $1.80 a gallon then too.

[LM]

I'm glad I'm too young to remember 18.9% auto loans...that's outrageous.

[KJ]

18.9% auto loans are still out there, you're just too young to qualify...ha ha.

[ziggy]

Oh it just takes me back to the Carter years ... those were the days... high inflation, high interest rates and high gas prices. The only difference now is that the interest rates are lower.

[sam]

Lil Tom: Yeah the car lost power between 75 and 76. 75 still had a carb and 76 introduced fuel injection. They didn't have it really figured out yet. The car also had a good transmission. You'll have to trust me here. It WAS fast.

If you look at the anonymous post about the 84 Horizon, I can sort of second it. I replaced the Rabbit with a 80 Horizon TC3. Even though the engine was the same VW engine, with carb, the transmission really slowed it down. It was far slower than the Rabbit I had.

Ziggy: Re the Carter years. One of the great joys was the hyper inflation accompanied by tax bracket creep. You'd get a raise that barely kept up with inflation, but you'd bump up a few brackets in income tax. Virtually the entire raise would just go in income taxes, especially if you were single with no deductions. Everybody was just sinking under Carter.

[Infosaur]

ziggy: What makes you think intrest rates are lower? After that Sub-prime mortgage mess I think intrest rates will go way up. The only thing keeping it down now is agressive pressure from the Fed. But the cost of that is a plumeting dollar.

[Euroexpat]

I prefer to spend 3k in an Escort or a Cavalier, they are very reliable and very cheap on gas. And very easy to fix too.

[dr donald lkowery]

I GAVE UP GOT TOYOTA CORROLLA IS SHOULD GET 35 ON NIGHWAY OH NO IT GETS 44 AT 68 MPH