Hi Folks,

I recently bought a 1981 Mercury Capri (my first car ever!).
I have noticed a few problems with the car :

	1. It gives very low gas mileage (something like
           11 miles / gallon ; I hear other car owners speak of
           gas-mileage figures like 25 miles/gallon (wow!) etc.).

	2. When I start the car, it goes into high idling (something
           like 1500 (or is it 15000 ?) rpm. After driving 4 or 5 miles, 
           it comes down to 300 (or 3000?) rpm. 

I would like to know if there is any way by which I can fix these
problems. Or is it natural for an old car like this ? (it has
done about 117,000 miles). Someone suggested that I change/rebuild/
recondition the carburettor. I am not prepared to do it
unless I am sure it will fix the problem. And yes, I got the
car tuned-up recently (within the last 200 miles or so).

Please let me know if you have any suggestions. Please respond
by email since I don't scan this newsgroup regularly.

Thanks.

Regards,

--Sudhi.

-- 
Sira Gopinath Sudhindranath. email : sudhi@ucs.usl.edu.