I am torn...I love my maverick...it was my first car. But it doesn't get the gas mileage i need and i don't have the monies to fix it. i just wish that i could keep it and still buy a new car, but i don't think i can afford it at all. Any advice on this...
Lets see...New car note $400+ each month for 60 months or 2 or 3 car notes to fix your Maverick to get 25+ mpg.
Keep and fix the car. New cars are nice, but they ain't Mavericks!!! You will come out better moneywise if you fix your car, instead of spending 15K+ for a new or nearly new one. How do I know...........?
Why are you getting bad millage with it? rebuild the carb, ignition upgrade,full tune up.... the 200/c4 in the falcon gets 20+mpg hwy with a 27" tire and 2.79 gears .
It should be getting better than that. You should be knocking around 28-30 mpg. I guy in our club is getting 27 mpg with smaller 24.25" tires and lower 3.10 gear in his '62. I get 19.5 with a hot V8 and 3.25 gear with my '60
Not here....we have the worst traffic in the entire us. Also when we calcutated it, it was with the old carb and smaller tires.
If you think of payments for repairs to your Mav as car payments, you will come out ahead keeping it. They are as basic as a car gets, nothing complicated about repairing one. I kept our last two vehicles for almost 10 years each. (mid-1990s cars) A couple of times a year, there might be a $400-500 expense. That still works out better than the $300/month the wife's Mustang is costing us (but it is really nice ... we "had" to buy it). While talking about mileage ... here is a combo I would love to see... 4.0 SOHC V6/5 speed automatic/3:31 rear out of a new Mustang swapped into a Mav. The Mav weighs almost 1000 lbs less. (the Mustang is upwards of 3800 lbs!) The 4.0 is 210 HP and is fairly quick in the 'Stang. It would work really well in a Mav. Gets 26 MPG highway, too, so in a much lighter car, I would hope for low 30s. Get a wrecked Mustang, pirate all the good mechanicals, sell off a lot of stuff not needed and make money. I wish I had the space to pull all this off ... deed-restricted neighborhood ... Oh yeah, ... and the time to do all of this ... my poor Comet doesn't get enough attention as it is ...
If it has that engine, then you should have no problems whatsoever with the mileage. Try getting a full tune up on it as well as finding someone who can tell you if the carb needs to be rebuilt or not. If you have the funds, I would switch to one of the 1bbl Vaporizer carbs from Pny Carbs since they are reengineered to help the engine breath more. Problem is, it would cost you $400. If you don't wanna do that, get the tune up, followed by some new tires, shocks and if the car still has points, get yourself an electronic ignition upgrade ASAP. That engine should not be a reason for you to get rid of the entire car. Any problem with mileage can easily be bypassed. If you want more advise, www.fordsix.com is a great site to read up on how to make the car that much better in the mileage category.
i think of it this way new car payment 300 new car full cover insurance ? add all that up and put that amount into your mav over 5 years and when you buy a car brand new the value drops 5000 the second you leave the dealership because it's not brand new anymore
keep the maverick and fix whatever is needed to set it up for better milage, the new car won't do much better than the six in a mav. and you can do a lot of maint. or buy a lot of fuel for what a car payment is each month, so if your on a tight budget (who isn't any more?) you will spend less money keeping the maverick.
