I just bought an '86 Cavalier wagon, and I'm in love with it. I bought the car from the original owner's family (the guy bought the car new in '86 and is now 98 yrs old - doesn't drive anymore). It has only 74K original miles on it, and is in good original condition. As a matter of fact, I just changed the original disk brake pads on the front end. The car is gray, and is in very good shape overall, with the exception of the driver's front door, which is rusted at the bottom. I have seen many Cav's with similar rust, I assume it's from plugged drain holes in the door bottoms? I've started looking at local Pick-N-Pull junkyards for a good gray door, but no luck yet.

This will be my "work car", so I'm mostly interested in reliability and fuel economy. If I can get 25 mpg, I'll be pretty happy. Any idea what I can expect from the 2.0L engine and auto trans?

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself, and say thanks for providing such a valuable resource.

SteveM

I have the exact same motor in mine and quite honestly I think it gets worse gas mileage than my Jetta. The Jetta gets around 28 or 30, so I assume the Cav gets about 25... that's a guess though. But hey our cavs have an OHV, which is less efficient than the OHC.

My '92 Cavalier wagon with the 2.2 (essentially similar to the 2.0) and 3-speed auto got a pretty consistent 25 mpg most of the time, except on extended highway trips, when I could get up to 31 if I'd keep my foot out of the floor.

Congrats on the nice find and welcome to !

I found that after a complete tune up and a new oxygen sensor I get around 27-28 miles per gallon. EPA rated mileage was around 29 new I believe so that's not too bad. Sounds like your car was very well taken care of in that last 20 years! Have you changed out all the fluids, etc yet just to make sure its all good to go?

Your wagon should be a very economical car to drive. Best of luck with it, and feel free to post up some pictures of your new J.