Get 47-50 mpg Without Buying a Prius, Seriously!

I’ve always believed in the argument that if you want to get insane gas mileage in your daily commuter, you shouldn’t drop $25K or so on a 45 mpg-or-worse hybrid. You should drop 500 or 1000 bucks on a vintage 50 mpg econobox! No car payment, no sky-high insurance premiums, and you can reap the rewards of fantastic fuel mileage without looking like a self-righteous yuppie. The superstars of the vintage-fuel-sipper set are the diesel four-bangers of the 80′s. They tend to be pretty rare, but on my semi-regular eBay search for "diesel Escort" (I own two, a driver and a parts car), I was floored to discover that there’s a whole pile of these rides up for auction right now. By far the best is this near-mint ’84 in York, PA—dammit, I was just there, I could’ve driven it home! The diesel Escort was produced from 1984-1987 and shared a Mazda-made 2.0L oil-burner with the diesel Tempo and the ultra-rare diesel 626. I’m not going to pretend that they’re easy to find parts for, that they don’t clatter and smoke, or that they’re not nasty little motors to work on. And if the price of diesel doesn’t keep going up at an even faster rate than gas, these aren’t going to be worth it much longer. But the mileage on these is hard to beat, and if you’re looking to get in on the ground floor for Reagan-era diesels, now’s your chance. Get one!