[Flakbadger]

I wanted to share some quick numbers with everyone and didn't want to start another thread.

EVERYONE I knew seemed to be concerned with "your truck is paid off, why buy a car?" when I was car shopping. Well everyone, here's why.

So far, since trading my 4.0 liter '03 Ranger and buying my 1.5 liter '09 Yaris, I have logged:

Yaris
Miles: 2780.4 mi.
Using: 71.27 gal. (39.01 MPG)
At price: $4.23/gal.
Car payment: 2 x $161 = $322
Total cost (Fuel + payment): $322 + $301.46 = $623.46

If I hadn't traded, my Ranger would have used:

Ranger
Miles: 2780.4
Using: 173.78 gal. (2780.4mi./16 MPG)
At price: $4.23/gal
Car payment: $0.00 (was paid off)
Total cost: 173.78 x $4.23/gal = $735.09

Meaning $735.09-$623.46= $111.63 stayed in my pocket. This is huge.
After school gets out I won't be driving so much, and next year I will live closer to school meaning less miles. This means I'll be driving far less, and that's great. Even so, this car has saved me more than $100 and I thought that was impressive. I'm sure that as gas prices continue to rise in the future, it will continue to be a good investment, EVEN WITH my car payment.

One quick addendum: though the tires were in fantastic shape on my Ranger, it would have also needed a new catalytic converter, clutch and brakes, meaning ~ $2,000, and it would have needed them pretty soon. My Yaris needs none of these things.