Traded the Insight

[RH77]

Yep, you read it correctly -- I traded the Insight for a 2006 Acura TSX with low miles.

The real story: my Wife teaches high school and drives regularly when school starts. We figured that we save about $20 a week or more if she uses the hybrid daily, since I have a variable, home-based travel schedule and often rent cars for work -- so we traded until Summer So, I get my Insight back once in a while...

In the meantime, I park the TSX and drive the Integra, which is getting about +10 MPG and keeps the miles off of the newer vehicle.

So my question -- how many of us here have stumbled upon a vehicle with great FE, only to let someone else in the family use it??? I have a feeling that it happens all the time...

RH77

[Frank Lee]

Judging by what I see out on the road, 99% of the time the females end up with the newest vehicle. If you see a beater, more than likely there will be a guy driving it. Why is this? Is there a code somewhere that says women must have new vehicles? Do they have more access to funding for new vehicles?

But yes of course it makes sense for the one racking up the most miles to have the most fe car.

[Ryland]

I loan out my civic vx to whoever needs it and have been driving my electric car as my main vehicle.
I also have a friend who works up in AK for 3 weeks at a time and loans his car out to a friend who would otherwise drive a jeep.

[Daox]

I just got my Prius back not horribly long ago. My wife used to be the one racking up all the miles. Now my commute is farther than hers.

[Piwoslaw]

I sometimes lend my car as a cargo hauler since it's the biggest and most fuel efficient in the family. The only catch is that it goes with the driver, since then it uses the least fuel.

One of my brothers-in-law wanted to borrow the car for a family vacation "because it hardly uses any fuel". I told him that the amount of fuel used depends on the driver more than on the car itself, and that with him tearing down the road at 160 km/h (100mph) he won't be seeing 3.5 l/100km on the on-board computer.

[cfg83]

RH77 -

My wife can't drive stick so I get to drive my SW2 all the time. And yes, it's the beater. Technically I could get a better car but I don't want the debt and I don't like all the newfangled electronicos they are stuffing in new cars theze dayz.

My "loss" is that because I have the wagon, I have more hauling capacity, so we use my car for lousy MPG jewelry show commutes. I don't mind from a big-picture POV (bad MPG that's doing *work*, aka hauling stuff around), but it hurts my lofty MPG goals.

CarloSW2

[botsapper]

Another anecdote. Men usually commute with oldest and highest mileage horse in the barn. Wives/mothers get the biggest, spacious, latest, safest, and fully-equipped vehicles. They are the source of humankind and nurturer of our progeny.

...my wife was driving our children on to way to school, an elderly driver absent-mindedly crossed in front of their path...the head-on collision had a combined closing speeds of 85 mph! Newtonian laws and our larger family vehicle saved their lives. Complete safety deployment and heavy-duty strong crush zones only allowed a broken wrist (wife's), moderate seat-belt bruises on the children, and frayed nerves.

My much older ride would NOT have fared as well.

[dcb]

The mrs gets the most reliable one around here. Or sometimes the running one

[Frank Lee]

Ah yes, the old men are expendable thing.

[Arragonis]

@RH77 I'm confused (easily done) how many cars do you have ?