I had answered a question on recommendations for mileage. But as a question I wrote too much, so what of this?

When it gets right down to brass tacks, few vehicles can beat a 1985 Mercury Escort clone. My ex wife had one, and her boyfriend had "blueprinted" that engine. When "babied" it would AVERAGE on Maine roads (lots of hills) an honest 50 + miles per gallon. It was actually big enough to haul 5 people if three of them were small, though in a cramped "style". It was cheap on parts, it didn't blow it's head, instead every 2,000 miles RELIGIOUSLY it had the best quality coolant placed in it we could find. Every bad report about this car engine (the ford escort 1.6) is silly.

OF COURSE it needs sacrificial metal to keep aluminium corrosion and erosion down to a minimum, it has too much iron elsewhere and the differential; metals will attack each other to the detriment of the aluminium. But fresh coolant and a religious attention to the belts and water pump WILL save a man money over those relative fuel hogs, the 1.9 and later engines.

If you can get an older escort in STANDARD TRANSMISSION good shape, get one, but get it cheap enough to pay for a new cylinder head, water pump, sacrificial plug and a really competent "engine blueprinting". The later means to actually look at the specs published by Ford and true the engine to the BEST PRACTICES, rather than CHEAPEST ALLOWABLE PRODUCTION STANDARD. This means no too tight or too loose ANYTHING and a strait as an arrow crank and cam with the right profile, not "close enough" for the EPA. Ford HAD a world winning car in the 1.6 Escort, but penny pinched itself into near bankruptcy.