[ShadeTreeMech]

I'm trying to sort what you all are going on about.

I've never owned a vehicle less than 8 years old, and the vast majority have been more than 10 at date of purchase. And the vehicle I had with the fewest miles had only 90k miles on it. Sure, the bit of extra care to keep them maintained take a bit of time, but I've yet to pay more in repair costs plus the cost of the vehicle than even a 3 year old vehicle. And I do put miles on, and my wife tends to love driving a bit too aggressively.

I suppose if my wife complained about a 3 yr old vehicle being old, I'd laugh at her and tell her I'm not made of money. Then again, all that salty sea air may change things considerably. I'm a couple hundred miles inland, so cars tend to last a long time out here. To be quite honest, most autos out here end up being scrapped before their time, so I assume something about Europe drastically shortens the life of vehicles.

Veggie oil in a gasser is something I actually have experimented with rather successfullly. Whenever I have a bit of engine problems, such as lack of power, or suspected clogged injectors, or rough idle, I put in a quart of veggie oil straight from the bottle, a bottle of acetone in the form of original nail polish remover, and the strongest rubbing alcohol I can find (90% is usually the one I go for.)

You'd be suprised how this will get an aged engine running better nearly instantly. And it usually has lasting results.

Whenever I have to change the motor oil, or we change out the cooking oil in the fryers, I'll strain it out with a coffee filter and plop in to as much as a gallon in a full tank with no noticeable change in performance. Even when I put in as much as 1/2 a gallon of veggie oil in a nearly empty tank, the worst I noticed was the exhaust smelled slightly of burnt cooking oil. The smell of the exhaust strikes my ineterst. When it smells strong of unspent fuel, I know I have a problem. If I smell burnt oil, I look for the engine using up oil. I suppose that's why I like e85. Sure it burns a bit more fuel, but it smells a lot better during fueling and while burning it.