The 3000 300 30 challenge - is it possible?

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sovietspybob said:
I'm going to say an old Impreza STi, 30mpg is possible in them. I've had 33.5 once but to get that you have to do some proper hypermileing. 25 is more the average.

http://beta.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/subaru/impreza-sti/subaru-impreza-sti-redtopimport-1997/272536

Also as i seem to be turning into a Subaru fanboi

http://beta.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/subaru/legacy/subaru-legacy-gtb-estate/502609
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You might struggle with an import. No way would my RA do 30. My UK turbo would do over 30 but that wasn't quite 300HP.

Once I brimmed a Nissan Pulsar GTIR and drove it 200 miles completely off boast and it managed to do it in half a tank according to the needle. Not saying it would have done 400 on the one tank but I reckon if I turned round and drove back I could have got 350. Most times you couldn't 200 out of a full tank!!
 
Saab 9000 Aero with a decent stage 3 will just make 300, but will come in under £3K and should average 30mpg (unless you either boot it everywhere or live in a city). Quite capable of over 35mpg on a long distance cruise as well, without having to drive like Miss Daisy.
 
Its a nice idea in principle but if you are bothered about 30mpg then its probably not the right car anyway, fuel is the least of your issues with 15+ year old 300bhp cars.
 
andrewdodd13 said:
Won't the S500 have the potential to throw up huge bills for things like suspension and engine stuff though?

Because if not I'm totally getting one...
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This is exactly why they are cheap. Almost all of them at this end of the market are being sold by knuckledraggers desperate to escape from the finance disaster they embarked on whilst thinking that a cheap Merc was a good idea.
 
andrewdodd13 said:
Won't the S500 have the potential to throw up huge bills for things like suspension and engine stuff though?

Because if not I'm totally getting one...
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It depends on your definition of huge bills....

In the context of other cheap cars then yeah, its a top end Mercedes of which high spec models run well into 6 figures new. Plus its now old so everything will likely be approaching EOL.

If you appreciate that it is a seriously expensive high end car and treat it as such then owning one is an absolute pleasure. I put over 100k miles on mine over the space of 3 years, and even when I sold it at 170k+ miles it drove absolutely beautifully. (That's if you can find one worth buying, you might stumble across a rare one owner example even at bottom end money).

This all said personally I wouldn't bother with this generation any more, the new generation 06- models are dirt cheap these days too for what you get. These are absolutely beautiful cars with many revised parts over the older model which in its day was a technical showcase for Mercedes with many new "experimental" systems which had not been seen before. As such it is a more reliable and much more up to date proposition. My neighbour runs 2 of these newgen models and neither have given him any trouble at all to my knowledge. I'd buy one of these without hesitation. (If I now didn't have a total disregard for anything with a fixed roof ;)).
 
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Matt82 said:
easily? mine used to average 24, was horrendous on fuel
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I could get an easy 30mpg (a bit more if driving absolutely everywhere off boost) from circa 260bhp in my rev 3

Bit unsure why the 30mpg criteria is there though? You'll obliterate any saving pretty quickly fixing a couple of problems even on something japanese (which is probably the best bet really) - as an example I spent a lot of time getting the alternator out of an mr2 engine bay - and i mean a lot of time, probably around 8 hours all in by the time I went away, thought about it, came back stripped more out, manouvered it again - considered pulling the subframe / driveshaft, got hindered by rounded bolts i couldn't grind etc etc. Ok I'm just some idiot on his driveway but you encounter all sorts of stupid problems on older motors
 
30 mpg is kinda the mental benchmark I set myself so I can relate to that. It's just a nice to have.

In a similar vein as above though, I never got better than 28MPG out of my 2.0 turbo and I did *really* try once or twice :D
 
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