Yup, saw that one a while back and got quite a chuckle out of it. Mine's a bit more, um, sedate. I remember when they first came out I told my son, "That's the most butt ugly vehicle I've ever seen. I wouldn't be caught dead in one." It's amazing what $4.00 / gallon gas will change. The first time I sat in one - at my son's request - I just couldn't get over the room in it. It's kind of funny that more people ask me about my Scion now than my truck. oh well.

 

I picked up a used BMW a couple of years ago, 27-33 mpg.
I've put 21,000 on it that would have been on the truck.

That's 700 gallons of gas I didn't buy @ about 2.80 per gallon ($2,000)
Paid $8,000 for the car and it's still worth $6,000.
And my truck has 21,000 fewer miles.

So far, I figure I'm breakeven.
The longer it goes, I turn the corner then I'm ahead.

 

I paid $200 for the car, 60 for reg and I am not sure about the insurance yet but I think it is going to $5 or $600 a year. The car needs nothing. I had it Ford certified from a friend. It has a couple of things it may need, but nothing major. I drive 40 minutes each way to work. Gas is not going down, not till after the summer anyway if it does drop. I am going to take the gamble and grab this car and beat it around for the summer, maybe get a year out of it. Other than gas I have been looking for something to keep the miles down on the truck. I am doing over 2000 miles a month now as it is just driving to work, that is not including my pleasure driving. Believe me I have tossed around all the thoughts of am I am really going to save money getting this car and yes I think I will. To me the only option was to get rid of my truck and get a Focus, but who the hell would want to do that. The thing that is getting me is the people trading in thier paid off cars and trucks to get a small car to save gas. People getting back into a 5 and 6 year car loan along with full coverage insurance. Now they are the ones you got to wounder about..

 

my scion tc is treating me well.....55 mile round trip commute and i am getting 29 mpg, and i drive it hard.

 

2stroked, I was just checking the asking prices of used xB's - damn, they sure hold their resale! Over 10 grand for an 05 with 100k on it - that cost what new - 15k?

 

Scion xB. Heh, I already have 2 fridges.

I already have a beater, I just need to fix it up. It's a 91 ford probe GT, 190,xxx miles, bought it new back in 91. Fun little car. Gets around 28 MPG, more if I stay out of the boost.

 

Fridges have more curves than the original xB.

 

glc,

Absolutely correct. According to any "book" you check, my xB is worth more now than it was 12 months ago - and I have an extra 22,000 miles on it. Yes, much of that is due to the cost of gas going up, but I have to tell you, the little bugger is screwed together quite admirably. My Ford dealer was laughing at it the other day - until I showed him the front brakes. "Remember what they looked like on my truck with the same mileage?" The truck needed new rotors and pads. The ones on the xB look like new - and I'm harder on them than I am on the truck.

 

Yes, my old 1980's fridge is far more aerodynamic.

 

Look at the Fusion. Its not that much more than a new Focus. I have the 4 cyl, 5 speed. I get about 30 on the highway and 22-23 city and thats driving pretty aggessively. The new 09's are coming out with 10 more hp and a 6 speed manual. Its supposed to be even better fuel economy.

 

well i drive to school 4 days out of the week which is 34 miles one way then i drive to work which is 28 miles from school, then i drive home from work which is only 5 miles from work WHICH rounds up to more or less 16 800 give or take... but yea 16800 miles a year at 4 bux a gallon on my truck which offers 13/16 mpg thats a lot of money

 

You're not even halfway, remotely close to justifying a new car for mileage reasons.

Do yourself a favor and grab a calculator and the search function. Look this stuff up as it has been discussed before and you will see the math required to justify buying a new car for gas "savings," it takes one hell of a cheap car and a heck of a lot of driving to justify it.

 

I am SOOOO glad I bought my motorcycle when I did. I only drive about 12 miles round trip to work and average about 7000 miles a year driving. I don't make a lot of money and gas prices have really put a squeeze on any spending. luckly I invested about $ 3000 into a 2001 492cc single cylinder buell blast that gets 60-70mpg. $7 fill-ups last about two weeks... where the truck took about $40-50 every two weeks. do the math. I figured that I can save about $500 a year in gas if I drive the bike for 6 months. I've already had it for two years.. when I first bought the truck my yearly transportation cost was $8500 for the truck gas and insurance in 05.. bought the bike gas and insurance went up and my yearly transportation costs went up to over $10000 for 06. for 07 they are still about $9000 for the payments on the truck and bike, insurance and gas.. which went up but my insurance premium dropped from $215 a month for just the truck to $105 a month for the truck AND bike. I'm not saving yet but once the bike is payed off 8/09 ill be down to about $7500 a year in transportation costs... speculating gas to be $5+ a gallon.. the truck payment being the majority of that cost. Ill save from 09 on and break even at the end of 11.. so really the bike won't start paying for itself till 2012 but that's ok cause I only payed $2000 for the bike and another $1000 in acessories. plus I get to ride. I REALLY feel sorry for all the suckers buying new cars to save gas right now... by my calculations it'll have taken me 6 years just to break even. but my $2000 bike will have payed for itself by the end of 2013.

 

Too words from my DD.

Geo Metro!
Nothing quite gets the ladies excited like a geo!
Then they see my license plate

NT MINE

 

I'm with this guy. Love my F4i!