"I knew nothing about the Feather Duster, other than Darell saying they were rare. Most people thought it was just a neat phrase I made up. But I found out it was an economy option package ($50.56) featuring lightweight components." Mike's car features the aluminum inner hood and trunk-lid panels and aluminum front and rear bumper mounts designed to make the Duster as light as a . . . well, you know. The crash-resistant bumper mounts and the transmission casing are also aluminum. A fiberboard headliner and pop-out windows also trimmed off weight. The shipping weight for these cars was around 2,700 pounds. As a result, they were getting as much as 20 mpg in town and 36 mpg on the highway, numbers comparable to today's economy cars.