>I was talking with my daugther last night after a car commercial came on advertising a new hybrid that would get 50mpg. The cost was very close to a small house. My daughter asked how many mpg we got in our car and what the average is. It got me thinking about it. Before our lust for power and government regulations, many cars achieved more than 30 mpg and some close to 45-50 in the 70s and 80s. My mom bought a Honda Civic in 1974 that got 48mpg. It was small and had a small engine but it really did get 48mpg. My Ford Pinto got over 40mpg. Some others were the Datson B210 (anyone remember that one?) and the Renault LeCar. Some of them only had 65-75hp (90 if you were lucky) and took more time to get to 60mph but the gas mileage was great. Now we appear to not be willing to sacrifice 'power' and size for gas mileage.

We have driven Geo Metros in my family for a while. New ones were over 50mpg and sometimes in the high-50s. My old one is in the low 40s. Use of A/C subtracts 4 or 5 from those numbers.

Sticker price in 1989 - 1993 or so: $8000 with A/C and no stereo
Weight: about 1700 lbs
HP: 55
0-60mpg: probably about 13 seconds with manual shift
Handling and braking: questionable

For that last reason, I probably won't get another one, even though they last practically forever and almost never break down, with minimal maintenance.

People didn't realize how good they were, and they had a serious image problem. So they were sold to teenagers and people who didn't maintain them. A used Geo is likely trashed.