Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
Oh I see. My deliveries were always onesie-twosies.
Still, I don't see how you can come out better with a truck. Local yocals deliver pizzas with full-size 4x4s  Ha Ha, figure 10 or less mpg then figure the other costs/mile in, then figure their pathetic wage in my two-bit town, and I have to conclude that they are only doing it for the fun of it. |
Well, my truck is a compact, not a full size! It's a 362,000 mile 1998 Nissan Frontier king cab 4x2 with a 2.4 liter DOHC KA24DE under the hood, a 5 speed manual trans and 3.54 gears. It used to get 24 mpg delivering until they started with this whole RFG and E10 nonsense.... Now it sees 21-22 mpg delivering. The cost offset with the Metro in regards to fuel would be around $150 a month but that is exactly what the extra charge is for the Metro's insurance. Therefore, both items negate each other and there is no economic advantage to the Metro. I am still going to try and find a way to save on gas in the near future, but losing the truck's utility for no financial benefit makes no sense. Right now I can use the truck to do light hauling for extra cash as well as use it to do mechanical work out of.
The truck will probably get it's own build thread soon. Once I am rid of the Metro I will be modding the Frontier for improved MPG. I just found a nice stash of old coroplast signs at work that are mine for the taking and will become a grille block. I also plan to lower the truck about 4 inches with lowering blocks and an adjustment to the torsion bars. A garden edging air dam and possibly side skirts may also be used if I think they will work. I also just found a bed topper at the junkyard but am debating the benefits versus the fuel needed to accelerate the extra mass. Likewise, that Frontier also had factory cruise control that will find it's way to mine if it is still there the next time I go. If all goes well I hope to push it to 25 mpg city and just shy of 30 highway.
(Pic is from 2 years ago when the truck just turned 300,000 miles. It's a one owner vehicle too.)
And my Cutlass after I finished the body and paint. A few trim details remain...
This car had a 360hp Chevy 350 and only gets 15 mpg city/21 mpg highway. (My target was 17/25) It was my first delivery car from the days of $1 a gallon gas and still sees occasional delivery work when no other car is available.
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No green technology will ever make a substantive environmental impact until it is economically viable for most people to use it. This must be from a reduction in net cost of the new technology, not an increase in the cost of the old technology through taxation
(Note: the car sees 100% city driving and is EPA rated at 37 mpg city)