My old man drives 100 miles round trip to work and back 5 days a week. He drives a 94 chevy suburban. About 250,000 miles on it now. Anyway, he is alive because he drives that beast instead of a miniscule rice burner. Been in a few fender benders with no bodily injury, just sheet metal damage. I don't think saving gas in a rice burner justifies the cost of a life.

The last time prices got to $3 per gallon people freaked, then the price fell and not a peep.

 

A friend of mine has got one and I got to drive it last weekend since I was the designated driver on Friday night. I was really shocked at what poor pick-up it had --even with the 5-speed transmission!

I'd expect lousy performance if I was driving a late-70's Pinto, but I thought those newer 4-banger Honda's would have a little more get-up-and go.....

 

It doesn't have a lot; no....103HP. But I'm not racing; I'm commuting and it never slows traffic even over the large hill on the way.

 

It's 2 yrs old and paid for. Alot of times in the long run people dont' save as much money as they think they do when they trade vehicles to save gas. I think it works in your favor if you have a relatively low model, nice, newer truck and you trade way down with no out of pocket costs. If you trade for a 10 year old Civic that's one thing. If you have an 8yr old F150 and you trade for a brand new compact that costs extra out of pokcet, you then have to look at how long it will take for the difference in gas costs to make up for that initial cost you have to pay in addition to the value of your truck. People sometimes forget, it's not like they're going from buying lots of gas to buying zero gas. They go from buying alot to alot less. But you still buy gas with the new vehicle.

Even if you trade way down, you're now going from a nice, low mileage vehicle to an old used one with higher maintenance cost that has less life left, meaning you will have to change vehicles again sooner than if you kept the truck. now if you keep the truck and shell out a couple grand for the beater, then you basically have to take the 3-4K you spend on the beater, PLUS extra insurance, PLUS maintenance/registration/inspection, figure out the difference between fuel costs for the truck and the beater. Figure out how long you have to drive the fuel sipper before those gas savings exceed the costs of getting and keeping the second car. You might be surprised.

If you live month to month or week to week and you're weekly budget is more important than the broader picture of long-run cost savings, that's one thing. But if you're looking to save over all sometimes depending on the circumstances the most sensible thing is to keep what you have and just keep gas prices in mind when it eventually becomes necessary to replace your truck.

 

Remember the 03'S AND BACK TO 97 f-150'S had issues with frontal off set crashes!!!. Just how safe do you really feel?.

 

Pretty safe, I'm in an 05 f150 crew. Much stronger than the old man's suburban. Way more safe than the 91 probe gt I drove from new.

 

Playing catchup in some of the threads that caught my eye...

My reply to this thread is as follows:

Abstinence leads to masturbation

The End

 

That one never gets old, does it.

 

Just my thoughts.
1. You pay $X for a vehicle
2. You pay $X for insurance
3. You pay $X for maintenance
4. You pay $X for repairs
5. You pay $X for fuel to take you places and home again.

Total = $10X

Now.
1. You pay $X for vehicle #2
2. You pay $X for insurance for vehicle #2
3. You pay $X for maintenance for vehicle #2
4. You pay $X for repairs for vehicle #2
5. You pay $X for fuel for vehicle #2 to take you places and home again.


Total = ($10X) X2 (well, maybe a bit less in the fuel department for each)

SO...... how many gallons of fuel can you buy for vehicle #1 before you are into the cost of having vehicle #2?

 

Simple minded aren't you?

Cost of Veh 2...Bet I could put 10K miles on it this year and sell it after that for $200 less than I paid for it....if not the same

Insurance on Veh 2 is cheaper. In my case I saved cause I cause less damage driving a honda DD than a pickup DD.

Maintenance on Vehicle 2.....Saves maintenance on Veh 1 so it's a wash...maintenance is maintenance.

Repairs....same thing

Gas.....huge savings; hence the idea in the first place.

 

No brainer for me.

Wife had a '98 Malibu that she treated like crap so just on cosmetics alone, we weren't getting diddly out of it for trade in or trying to sell outright. Wife needed a new vehicle after our daughter was born (AC is on the fritz.. too much $ to fix for what the car is worth)...so we bought an '05 Escape for her to drive. Husband (me) threatened her with physical harm (joking) if she didn't take better care of Escape than she did the Malibu, since husband (me again) made a substantial downpayment on this one for her. I still would have done the downpayment whether we traded or sold it outright.

I kept the Malibu to drive to work. The car is already paid for and the fuel savings more than makes up what it costs me in insurance and routine maintenance.. plus, I'm not taking a high mileage hit on the truck either insurance or resale-wise from 60 miles a day commuting to work. If you are strictly talking fuel savings, yes.. probably about 2 years to realize that in what the car is worth, if you factor in retained value in the truck and reduced maintenance on a much more expensive vehicle.. really doesn't take that long at all. The wife's insurance actually went down as well.

Plus I get the added perk of not having to get my truck out in the rain right after I washed it, exposure to two hail storms while at work this spring, etc. I've owned it since August and it's only been rained on twice. You can still eat off of the drivetrain and exhaust if you wanted.

 

I still haven't decided. But just to clarify my situation...

I'm not thinking about getting a second vehicle. I don't have the parking space or money to own two vehicles. I would be trading my '97, 100,000 mile truck for a '00, 100,000 mile 4-cyl car.

So my equation is, still one vehicle, same or slightly higher insurance cost but maybe spending $80 to $100 a month less in fuel.

As for repair costs, I suppose whatever car I buy with 100K is the same crap shoot as my truck with 100K- all I can do is check it out and do a VIN check online (how many owners, lemon check, etc.) and take my chances.

 

Don't do it Hog. You're talking about selling your manhood.

 

At least you know about your truck, who knows what the used 4 banger has been through. Hell, the oil could have been driven for 20,000 miles. Crapshoot is right in that situation.

 

So, buy a hybrid. or electric.