[Daox]

Another quality and humourous MrMoneyMustache (a financial / early retirement site, great stuff btw) article strikes again. What to do if you have a gas guzzler, keep it or sell it because its paid off? I cut out the math parts, but its all there in the link.

It’s Never too Late to Ditch your Gas Guzzler | Mr. Money Mustache

Some good quotes:

When I hear people describing their beloved trucks and SUVs, I often hear comedic phrases like, “it’s not that bad, actually. I get 17MPG in the city”, or, “on the highway, I can get 22-23 MPG consistently”.

Those are good figures for a dump truck or a school bus, but when you’re talking about a vehicle that is regularly used to transport fewer than 10 people, they shouldn’t even enter your realm of consideration. Reasonable fuel economy starts at 35MPG (US, highway), and much higher is possible. The Honda Insight 2-seater from the early 2000s, for example, regularly returns over 70MPG in combined use, yet you can buy a nice 2001 one on the used market for about $5000. If you commute alone or have no children, this may still be the ultimate car. Take that, Prius!

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Let’s put it another way: Switching from an SUV to a car, will save you enough to buy a new luxury car every ten years, or an excellent used car every four years.

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This is a point that cannot be stressed too strongly. There is almost no possible case for driving around in a sub-35MPG car. And yet the roads are full of them. Virtually all of the drivers are broke, and they can’t afford even the fuel bills for their cars. And yet they continue to buy more gas guzzlers for themselves. It’s the biggest source of mass insanity in the modern world, and yet people still buy these ridiculous cars for themselves every day.

If you have a side business or a very large family that requires major cargo capacity occasionally, it is usually much more cost effective to own an efficient car for most of your driving, and a second behemoth vehicle (an early-2000s minivan for example) for the rare hauling events.