The car would deffinatly be a 5spd, and I dont see going too much into mods besides exhaust. I am trying to replace my ranger, but the 4cyl's are becoming hard to find with lower miles.
You can get very impressive mpg's...... With mild mods on my 04 automatic I get 18 mpg around town , and highway cruisin ... 23 mpg even with the AC on and
4 people in the car. Whats even better it runs on regular....
I get 18mpg in hard, stop and go city driving where the engine never even gets up to operating temp. In "normal" city driving I get about 20mpg. On the highway, I have seen as high as 26-27, but i'm usually at 24 or so. Mods are in sig.