30+ mpg is supposed to be good??

[mbbrutman]

I'm not entirely enamored with my Saturn. It is pushing 13 years old with a little over 81,000 miles on it. At the time (1993) it was a reasonable purchase, but I certainly wouldn't buy any of the current crop of Saturns.

Good points about it:

• Traction control & anti-lock brakes. These were uncommon in small cars in 1993.
• Relatively good reliability. The engine has been perfect so far, except a few minor leaks.
• I feel great pulling up at the gas pump ...
• AC still works!

Bad points:

• It is small .. and low .. and cramped.
• @#!$%#Q$ automatic seat belts

 

[NathanAllan]

I finally applied one of the 'fixes' to the jeep. I put on an oem air filter from some different car and it improved the gas mileage a lot! I made three trips across town and used less than 1/4 a tank. Might not sound like much, but I was using more than that much after two trips! I took a round filter that is supposed to be in a housing and connected it directly to the hose that connects to my housing. As far as measurements, it is about the same as my present filter but in a circle, like if you took the stock one and rolled it into a circle. But it's open and lets a lot more air in. It sounds better running, smoother, and has a throatier sound to it. Didn't do much for performance, basically raised the present power curve up one or two notches(fractions) but the gas mileage is what I was after and I got it. Now I gotta take out my filter housing and block off all the hoses going to it. I could have bought the 'performance' filter for 29.99, but I went to the filter wall at autozone and found one almost exactly like it. This is a cylindrical filter instead of the cool-looking conical one, but it works great.