Cost of getting into a fuel efficient car
 

So on a whim, and because I feel like pointing and laug...commiserating with the next guy driving an empty superduty who complains about fuel prices yet refuses to do anything about it.

I pointed my browser to craigslist in my area. In "cars&trucks-by owner" I put in 3000 for a top price and hit search.

I found 9 ads posted either today or yesterday that had cars I feel I could touch 50mpg consistently in the summer in without doing much in the way of mods(guino and a kill switch).

At 52 weeks a year 5 days a week times 50 mile round trip commute
(not figuring extra driving or time off which maybe a wash, but I bet the extra driving beats out time off) gets me 13000 miles per year.

13000 miles a year /20mpg is 650 gallons times 4 (and rising) is 2600 a year
13000 miles a year /45mpg is 288.8 gallons times 4 (and rising) is 1155.5 a year

so a < 3000 dollar car can save 1450 a year in fuel costs.

Looking at my 9 cars 6 of them are less than 1450.

add in 400 a year in license and insurance and I am at 1150 in savings I am down to 4 cars that will pay for them selves in less than a year.

Odds are that if I pick carefully, one of them will be able to last at least a year (13,000 miles) without anything other than regular maintenance (most could allow couple hundred in maintenance before hitting the 1150 dollar brake even point).


*If fuel hits 5 a gallon 7 of them remain "free"
*If my current ride gets less than 20mpg more choices are available
*If I drive more than 50 miles round trip the pay off is sooner
*If I take the guzzler the efficient car is replacing off insurance and park it coupled with fuel hitting 5 a gallon 8 remain profitable
*If fuel hits 5/gallon I drop the guzzler and I haggle even just a little I could pick any one of the 9
*If I can't be bothered to drive efficiently only 3 of the cars have a chance to make this work
*If I choose poorly I may not break even
*This plan does not work if I have a legitimate use for a larger ride
*I can't go this route if my ego won't fit in an econ-o-box

Deja vu! I've had the same conversation/demonstration numerous times. The bottom line is, the whiner just likes to whine, as all the logic in the world isn't going to get him/her out of that ignorant empty guzzler until it consumes a big enough part of his/her budget to squeeze something they like even more out of it. :rolleyes: on them. So then after that, their whining is to be met with laughter and derision.

It really depends on how long your commute is, I did the mathc for my dad once, IIRC just keeping his 15mpg chevy is almost the same compared to finding a beat up civic and insuring both, only using the truck as a wood hauler.

PLTWstudent -

That sounds like an equation with a graph. As the commuting distance increases, the car gets smaller and more fuel efficient.

CarloSW2