Quote:
Originally Posted by slowmover
but i can almost guarantee it's always cheaper to go the shorter route
The number of full stops is the killer. Not so much a penalty on the gasoline go-karts as compared to diesel trucks of any size, but it is still there. Wear & tear is cumulative over tens of thousands of miles. That is still the metric about saving money.
The heavy subsidization of fuel in this country makes chasing a few tiny tenths nearly meaningless. It's the cost of the vehicle over X-miles and Y-years that is the starting point. Extending the life of a vehicle over several more years is where true savings are found. Fuel cost is just one of a couple of variables under control of the driver. The rest is a fixed game.
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I've put a lot of thought into this and I disagree on the economic bit. At least - in the context of the cars that I drive.
My Corolla in the 220k neighborhood:
$0.08 per mile repairs + maintenance over the last 33k
45MPG @ $3.6/gallon = $0.08 per mile (28MPG = $0.13/mile)
(I'm pretty sure the wife's Civic now in the 150k neighborhood has been significantly lower than that in repair $ per mile for the last 50k, but I haven't actually tracked it.)
(Razor never said it was about money. For all we know he wants to minimize CO2.)