Best MPG for 2002 GT automatic 'vert?
- Thread starter Tom Wagner
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usaf_branham
15 Year Member
keep your foot out of the gas petal? 
the best mpg i got out of my car (5-speed) was 28 mpg highway, and that was with a CAI and Flowmaster cat back i put on the car when i first bought it, otherwise it was stock. Then I proceded to mod the hell out of it, and now im at around 14-16 mpg (but its hella fun to drive)... I cant say for sure that the CAI and Cat back helped at the time, because, I drove it like i stole it and never bothered to do a miles per gallon check until i was driving from ohio to arizona (strictly highway)...
do yourself a favor, dont sell your stang... everyone i ever met that sold their 'toy' regretted it later, unless of course they were upgrading to a faster 'toy'...
gas prices are a bit**, but you could probably find an old ford escort or equivelant that gets better gas mileage for under $1000...
i was in a similar predicament last year when i moved back to ohio, and found out how bad my car actually was in the snow... so i dropped 1500 on a 96 4wd ranger... best 1500 i ever spent... my car still has 0 rust anywhere, and i have a semi-fuel efficiant vehicle to drive when i dont want to spend the money on filling up my stang on premium due to the blower...
**** gas prices, and opec... i remember when i could fill up at 97 cents a gallon... its sad what the world has come to...
the best mpg i got out of my car (5-speed) was 28 mpg highway, and that was with a CAI and Flowmaster cat back i put on the car when i first bought it, otherwise it was stock. Then I proceded to mod the hell out of it, and now im at around 14-16 mpg (but its hella fun to drive)... I cant say for sure that the CAI and Cat back helped at the time, because, I drove it like i stole it and never bothered to do a miles per gallon check until i was driving from ohio to arizona (strictly highway)...
do yourself a favor, dont sell your stang... everyone i ever met that sold their 'toy' regretted it later, unless of course they were upgrading to a faster 'toy'...
gas prices are a bit**, but you could probably find an old ford escort or equivelant that gets better gas mileage for under $1000...
i was in a similar predicament last year when i moved back to ohio, and found out how bad my car actually was in the snow... so i dropped 1500 on a 96 4wd ranger... best 1500 i ever spent... my car still has 0 rust anywhere, and i have a semi-fuel efficiant vehicle to drive when i dont want to spend the money on filling up my stang on premium due to the blower...
**** gas prices, and opec... i remember when i could fill up at 97 cents a gallon... its sad what the world has come to...
Neither mods will have an impact on your MPG. You're pretty much stuck where you are at.
RedDaemon
10 Year Member
why would you sell the mustang and pay for a brand new car if youre worried about saving money?
+1 on the steeda UDPs
+1 on the steeda UDPs
sneaky98gt
10 Year Member
The best fuel mileage mod is your right foot, or lack thereof. When I go easy with my car, I'll get 26ish mpg on the highway and 18 mpg in the city. When I drive it really hard and have fun with it, I have gotten as low as 12 mpg. It's all in how you drive it.
For what it's worth, my granddad regularly gets 25-26 on the highway and 19-20 around town on his 01 GT auto vert.
And, exhaust is the WORST mod to do for fuel mileage. While it may free it up a little and give the car the ability to get better fuel mileage, all you will want to do is hear it.
And that isn't good for gas mileage.
For what it's worth, my granddad regularly gets 25-26 on the highway and 19-20 around town on his 01 GT auto vert.
And, exhaust is the WORST mod to do for fuel mileage. While it may free it up a little and give the car the ability to get better fuel mileage, all you will want to do is hear it.
And that isn't good for gas mileage.
trinity_gt
10 Year Member
You're only going to do so well with a 3500+ pound RWD V8 musclecar.
Keep the Stang for sunny days and weekends and get the Focus (or a similar gas-sipper...) as a DD.
For a DD and winterbeater I've got a VW GTI 1.8T that gets amazing mileage, is not exactly a penalty box and is actually pretty fun to drive and save the Mustang for nice days and weekends. This also allows me to declare to the insurance company that the Mustang sees limited use, giving me a bit of a break on premiums.
If you can only have one car and can't handle the price of gas for the Mustang, I think you're going to have to look at replacing it if a change of driving habits (e.g. put a virtual egg under the gas pedal...) doesn't return the sort of mileage you're looking for.
One thing that can help is a vacuum gauge. As you drive, make an effort to maximize manifold vacuum and you will see a maximizing of fuel economy. Other tips: Make sure your wheels are aligned properly, your tires are inflated, you aren't carrying extra weight (junk) in the trunk, your brakes aren't dragging, minimize use of the A/C, limit higher-speed top-down driving (increased drag) and so on. But all of this sort of stuff is going to net you a percent or two. If you need more, time to start shopping...
Keep the Stang for sunny days and weekends and get the Focus (or a similar gas-sipper...) as a DD.
For a DD and winterbeater I've got a VW GTI 1.8T that gets amazing mileage, is not exactly a penalty box and is actually pretty fun to drive and save the Mustang for nice days and weekends. This also allows me to declare to the insurance company that the Mustang sees limited use, giving me a bit of a break on premiums.
If you can only have one car and can't handle the price of gas for the Mustang, I think you're going to have to look at replacing it if a change of driving habits (e.g. put a virtual egg under the gas pedal...) doesn't return the sort of mileage you're looking for.
One thing that can help is a vacuum gauge. As you drive, make an effort to maximize manifold vacuum and you will see a maximizing of fuel economy. Other tips: Make sure your wheels are aligned properly, your tires are inflated, you aren't carrying extra weight (junk) in the trunk, your brakes aren't dragging, minimize use of the A/C, limit higher-speed top-down driving (increased drag) and so on. But all of this sort of stuff is going to net you a percent or two. If you need more, time to start shopping...
patman0911
Founding Member
MSRP for a stripper Focus is 16k - that will pay for a lot of gas.
If you drive 12000 miles a year and the 'Stang gets 18 MPG city and the Focus get its rated 28 city then you'll save a whopping $1200 over the course of a year if gas goes up to $5.00 a gallon. Only $900 a year if it stays at $4/gal. If it's all hwy miles and it's 40MPG vs 25MPG you're looking at a savings of $900 @ $5/gal and $700 @ $4/gal.
It almost never makes sense to trade a perfectly good car in for a newer one with better MPG in the interest of saving money. It does make sense if you need to replace your car anyway and you want to lower your future fuel costs when you do so but you'd never realize any savings by switching just for the sake of MPG. You could come out ahead if you bought a used car that got significantly better mileage that was in similar or better condition and didn't cost too much more than what you could get for yours.
As stated before, take less trips, keep your foot out of the gas and keep the RPMs down, like below 2K.
I figure the extra gas I burn is just part of my entertainment budget.
joshjwc9
Active Member
One of the best things I've found to work recently in my Vortech GT, although being a manual, is taking it out of gear when coming up to a redlight or slower moving traffic. I've picked up about 2mpg just from that on 3/4 of a tank. I've also still been seeing some boost, but not as heavy with this hotter weather and my non intercooled setup.
I'd also suggest gears to help you get into the powerband quicker, 3.73's or 4.10's will help your city mpg's but hurt your highway mpg's.
I'd also suggest gears to help you get into the powerband quicker, 3.73's or 4.10's will help your city mpg's but hurt your highway mpg's.
03_TrueBlue_GT
Active Member
I tend to get 17-24 mpg with my stang and its got 3.73 gears. Just gotta stay outta the gas even though its soo hard to not listen to that great sound... You could do a tune up like new plugs, air filter, fuel filter, oil change, and hell even sea foam the car to get rid of the carbon deposits.
Just my two cents. Oh and I love how I only have to pay half of what all my friends pay with pickup trucks when they go to the pump for a full tank...
Just my two cents. Oh and I love how I only have to pay half of what all my friends pay with pickup trucks when they go to the pump for a full tank...
Driving techinique truely is the biggest 'mod' you can make for gas mileage. Other modifications will have unnoticible effects at best.
Driving for mileage means driving a little slower. Let off the gas the moment you see a red light in the distance, just generally take it easy and try to avoid hard brakes.
I usually get 21-22mpg in my mixed commute, and I always have the gas on the floor at some point during the drive. On the highway, I normally get 25mpg going a little over the speed limit (75-80mph). Funny thing... same day and same car, same load; I got 25mpg and my wife got 26.5mpg when she drove. Yup, driving slower helps.
If you want to do something for mileage, make sure the tires are at the correct pressure and check to make sure you aren't overdue for a tune up (plugs). Other modifications have insignificant gains, except for increasing compression ratio. Higher compression can increase the thermal efficiency of the engine... but then you need more expensive gas.
Driving for mileage means driving a little slower. Let off the gas the moment you see a red light in the distance, just generally take it easy and try to avoid hard brakes.
I usually get 21-22mpg in my mixed commute, and I always have the gas on the floor at some point during the drive. On the highway, I normally get 25mpg going a little over the speed limit (75-80mph). Funny thing... same day and same car, same load; I got 25mpg and my wife got 26.5mpg when she drove.
Yup, driving slower helps.If you want to do something for mileage, make sure the tires are at the correct pressure and check to make sure you aren't overdue for a tune up (plugs). Other modifications have insignificant gains, except for increasing compression ratio. Higher compression can increase the thermal efficiency of the engine... but then you need more expensive gas.
Now that it's getting a bit warmer, I've notice that in my daily commute I'm getting around 24mpg. When I'm on the highway I drive 5 over and use my cruise control. Keeps me getting good mpg's and not getting any tickets .
Don't sell your 'stang, pick up a used 4 cyl. if you're worried about gas $$. I picked up my 2000 Escort zx2 a couple of yrs ago for $2k, it's paid for and I get better than 35mpg, and since it's fwd it's my bad weather car.
.Don't sell your 'stang, pick up a used 4 cyl. if you're worried about gas $$. I picked up my 2000 Escort zx2 a couple of yrs ago for $2k, it's paid for and I get better than 35mpg, and since it's fwd it's my bad weather car.
How heavy is your right foot? How many miles on the car? Did the previous owner upkeep the car and have detailed record of this?
You need a tuneup of some sort for sure but to what extent that is the question. Spark plugs are easy to pull (minus rear ones), air filter is easy as well. Those are the 1st to to at least check I would say. Fuel Filter might be the next step in the process.
I'm pretty light on the gas pedal and the car is 103 thousand miles. So I should change the spark plugs and cai?
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Do you know anything about the previous owner's maintence? I would say at least check the plugs but it probably wouldn't hurt for peace of mind. If your car is bone stock it might have the paper filter still but typically they have been changed to a reuseable one. Also if you just picked up the vhecile I would go ahead and change the oil too just to be safe.
OP: please don't get a focus.. Patman's post says it all I think.
03_TrueBlue_GT
Active Member
Definitely check the plugs, they may be the stock motorcraft ones still in there. I switched mine out as soon as I got my car even though it had 70k on it the plugs were nasty.
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