[thatguitarguy]

Well the tire decision was made easier by the fact that I couldn't find any used 155s and the new ones were M&S and not snows. I didn't want to pay a premium price to get a smaller tire. My modding is, by necessity, ECOnomical as well as ECOlogical. So I bought a set of studded Hanooks for $100 on CL. They don't have many miles on them, but they are 185 70/R13, so I was concerned that they would fit in the wheel wells without scraping. Cost $47 to have them mounted, but they fit just fine, and give me a little extra height for driving through the deep snow. I will have to calculate for mileage because of the extra diameter, but it's nice to have a little higher effective drive ratio.

The previous owner showed me some calculations he had done for the last few months he owned the car and since August he had spent a little over $50 for gas with an average of a little over 40mpg. I followed him a bit for a test drive, and it was easy to see that he doesn't spare the whip, so I think it won't be too hard to get 50mpg without any modifications other than the nut behind the wheel.

The next thing is to make sure it's going to make it up to Leadville from Denver with 60-70 miles of climbing with a total elevation gain of about 2 miles. I don't think it's going to be a problem, but it was a car that had been slammed into a curb hard enough to pop the airbags, and the longest trip it had since that accident, was yesterday when I took it to the tire shop to get the snows mounted.

I hope I can keep a fairly accurate log of costs incurred similar to what Johnny Mullet has done.

So, my starting point is 150,315 miles. Purchase price $350. Tires and mounting $147. and a headlight $10.

Starting total $507.