So I recently bought an '85 GL wagon. It has the three speed pushbutton 4wd and a carbed 1.8l. I drove it from Bozeman to Denver (usually ~10 hour drive) last weekend and was slightly disappointed. Obviously a three speed tranny will only go so fast, and these engines are relatively gutless but I was expecting a little better MPGs!
I was driving as fast as the car would do (about 75 with down hills faster/up hill slow) and was shocked to get only around 16.5 MPGs! Drove it a little more conservative on the way home, keeping the engine speed under 4k and still only got a little over 20mpgs.
I would like to do an engine swap some day and was curious what combo gets the best MPGs. obviously this varies with tire size, driving style and many other variables so if you could include some specs on what you are running, that'd help!
