My brother had a bug eyed sprite. He was in 70+ mph bumper to bumper traffic in LA when a chunk of 4X4 came out from under the truck ahead. He had a 4X4 and a complete exhaust system come out from under his sprite.
I had a 4 cylinder with 5 speed manual Aerostar we bought new in 1986 (IIRC). Power was ok, not great but I did tow an early bronco from Yuba City, CA to DFW with it. It was definitely underpowered while pulling the bronco. I put about 150K miles on it before trading it in on an Explorer.
Five years ago we bought a dealer demo with 4550 miles and 6 months on it. The warranty started when it was originally placed into service, 6 months prior. The one year free sat radio also started then. We lost 6 months off the warranty and free sat radio as well as 4550 off the mileage...
In regards to your driving with the windows open in the early morning and after dark. I saw a MPG study a number of years ago that showed the best mileage was with the windows closed and A/C off. Second best was windows closed and A/C on. The worst mileage was windows open and A/C off. Windows...