. . So, [in] my senior year of high school [there will be] a 40 mile daily commute; easily 4/gls/day
I hope English is included in the curricula.
Length of the school year is 180 days = 7,200-miles (4-gls/day is 10 mpg)
Fuel at $4/gl
At 11-mpg = 655-gls @ $2,618
With a 25% improvement:
At 15-mpg = 480-gls @ $1,920
Difference = 175-gls @ $700
It is difficult to spend money in order to save money.
The best way to save money on this truck, with this commute, is to otherwise use it as little as possible:
No personal use except as combined with the academic trudge and/or family business. The fewer the miles, the lower the cost of ownership to the family on a dollar basis.
I'm sure that'll fly with a 17-yr old, ha! (But were you
Benjamin Franklin, it would. He'd have found a way as he did with a much harder self-imposed course of study and working as a printers devil). Teens -- an invention of the Twen Cen -- have no excuse to ignore literacy or practical skills.
Think you can "save" $700 without spending it first? Maintenance, repairs and upgrades are all different categories. The first two are unavoidable, but the last is purely optional. This talk of FE upgrades (tuners, etc) is in that category.
Skill is what matters. Records first. Planning second.
As of today what is the odometer reading? Real numbers -- as derived from accurate record-keeping -- are the only thing that counts.
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