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75 Dodge Dart w 225: Any idea on gas mileage?
  • SamboneSambone
    Posts: 89Senior Contributor
    Hey Guys -
    Weird question I know, but 4+ bucks a gallon is starting to really hurt and the Hemi in my Ram is mighty thirsty.

    I'm also tired of my wife yammering on about how I need to get a fuel efficient car to commute with. I am also a car guy and the idea of puttering to work in a Honda or worse yet a Hyundai is so... icky.

    Today on the way home I saw a flash of emerald green out of the corner of my eye and spotted a very cute 75 Dodge Dart Swinger at a small used car lot. It appears rust free and according to the vin is a 225 slant 6 with a 1bbl. I want to go check it out tomorrow and see what the story is.

    What I would like to know is what kind of mileage I could expect from that little car. I've searched online and have read a few quotes about Darts with 225s getting 24 city and 30 highway and want to know if this is true. If that is the case, my wife and her Subaru tree-hugging attitude can suck it since that's what her little soulless hatchback gets.

    Can you guys tell me? I WANT to drive a cool car every day, not just on the weekends...
  • Marconi
    Posts: 549Platinum Member
    Don't know about 30 mpg, but 20 to 25 mpg is well within their range, maybey the right combo and very good tuning 30mpg might be possible.
  • SamboneSambone
    Posts: 89Senior Contributor
    If I can swing it, I'd like to purchase the car- it's in great condition with a new paint job... even 20-25mpg is twice what I'm getting now. Sounds pretty dang good to me. Thank you!
  • Marconi
    Posts: 549Platinum Member
    Only things I ever saw go wrong with these engines were, if the valves get out of adjustment and start clattering, they'll start missing--solid lifters, and with a lot of miles on them they'd quit running a backfire thru the carb like a timing gear went out, they use a plastic gear on the distributor and they will peel, split. Pull the dist, drive out the roll pin, slip the new gear on, put the dist back in and retime the engine. All told ,takes about 1/2 hr. to do!
  • hrallan
    Posts: 99Expert Adviser
    Years ago I owned a '70 Plymouth Satellite 2-dr hardtop with the 225 slant six and an automatic. It was definitely one of the best cars I ever owned. It never burned oil, rode and drove good and averaged right at 22mpg. I would think that a Dart would be a little lighter (not sure how much but surely some) and might get better gas mileage than the Satellite. In my opinion, Chrysler's slant six was one of the best engines ever built.
  • SamboneSambone
    Posts: 89Senior Contributor
    Thanks Guys -
    I bit the bullet and bought the Dart. What a cute little car - I love it. I drove it around a few days before the old muffler finally let go but it runs like a dream and the muffler was clearly due to be replaced anyhow. The fuel gauge doesn't exactly work like it's supposed to, so I'm going to have to do some fancy figuring to learn exactly what kind of mileage I'm getting, but I KNOW it's better than my truck.
    Want to see a pic?
    1000972c.jpg
    By earthshaker5769 at 2011-06-02