irvan

I filled up my 63 Starfire an hour ago and for the second time it averages 7mpg driving it around town. Is that normal mileage?

Koda

It's close. How big is the engine? AC on?

Don R.

They were never intended to be economy cars. I have never even checked mine but I remember years ago when I used these as daily drivers it was hard to pass a gas station. Unfortunately with 3.42 gears they are not much better on the highway. 7 mpg does sound a bit low though unless you put your foot in it all the time, have you checked the tune lately?

rocketraider

394 were never noted for gas mileage but you must consider 102 octane super premium gas was only about 30 cents/gallon back then. 7 does sound low though.

My green 64 doesn't get as good gas mileage as the blue one did- that one would regularly deliver 18 mpg highway, and the best the green one has done is 14.

Oldskeeper

we are paying about 7.00 a gallon here right now (1.89)/litre so 7MPG is like a buck a mile, you gotta get a tune up or rob a bank to keep her on the road.
I'm getting about 12 mpg when I drive them/if I drive them.
Steve

irvan

Thanks, yep, 394, drive like old man, probably ought to try a tune up, never did anything but drive it in town the last few months I've owned it.

Sugar Bear

Can you confirm the accuracy of the odometer? Interstate highways have accurate mile markers for comparison. Are your trips short with a cold engine/choke on? Seven sounds low.

Tedd Thompson

The 63 I had would average about 11-12 MPG, thats some city and hwy driving combined. Not much worse than my 55 does now, milage wasn't high on the priority list back when they were making these cars....Tedd

Summerof84

7 is a little low, maybe in constant stop and go city traffic, that would be normal. City driving around here has stretches of a 1/2 mile between stops, so I would expect 9-10 then. When I bought my 68 442 way back when, I had to drive it 100 miles home. Seeing how the 350 Cutlass I had then was getting 15 mpg, I expected 10 from the 442. Was I ever surprised when I got 14 mpg!

MDchanic

True, but that's $2.33 a gallon in today's dollars.

I agree that 7mpg is low. When I drove 455cid '68s (an 88 and a 98) to work every day in heavy NYC traffic, with a fairly heavy foot, I was getting 6-8, so I would agree that, within the "normal driver" range you should be getting about 10-14.

- Eric

rocketraider

Then why am I paying $3.75/ gal for 93 octane? LESS octane! Looks like I'm paying about a buck-fifty more than I should be!

Just goes to show that "adjusted for inflation" index isn't all it's cracked up to be and someone is making piles of money off the motoring public.

Wouldn't be so bad if fuel costs didn't influence the cost of everything else.

But, it's like I was told many years ago- "if you have to worry about the cost of owning an old car you probably shouldn't have one".

MDchanic

Because over time, especially over the past twenty years, the actual income of most Americans has declined, while the costs of commonly bought items has increased, thus rendering essentially all of us in a situation where we are poorer than our parents were, or at least poorer than we had expected we would be by this age, without really being able to pin down why. Our kids will have it even harder, as "globalization" progresses, putting all of us in competition with Chinese, Indians, and others making a dime an hour with no workplace safety or environmental rules to follow. The Chinese, Indians, and others don't mind, because they used to make a nickel an hour, so they've just doubled their money, but our incomes are mysteriously, almost imperceptibly, declining, like air from a slow-leaking tire, where you look at the car and say, "It almost looks like that tire's getting low... Naah, it's my imagination..."

- Eric

Oldskeeper

Glenn, we are paying 1.40/ litre here for reg with up to 10% ethanal or 5.00 a gallon (approx)
I wish for the day when it's 3.75 a gal !!!
Steve

Tedd Thompson

Gas cost about the same everywhere till it gets taxed by your government. In the states I doubt if there would be an increase (adjusted for inflation) if the government(state and fed) didn't get to if first....Tedd

MDchanic

The federal excise tax on gasoline was 4¢ a gallon in 1963, 18.4¢ in 2008, so while that's part of it, it only accounts for 14¢ a gallon.

State taxes add a bit, of course, with California taxes the highest in the country, currently at 71.3¢ a gallon, and Maine taxes at 48.4¢.

If there's a culprit, I'd point to the states, but even at the current US maximum of 18.4 + 71.3 = 89.7¢, it still doesn't make up the difference.

- Eric

Seff

It's gotten a lot harder to find/extract oil. Not that there isn't any, but we're approaching the point in time where it effectively takes one liter of raw oil to produce one liter of raw oil.