Economics of modding

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Among the many things I hate in my home country, one of them is the cost of cars. It's impossible to find something decent for that price, and private imports of used cars are a PITA and restricted to 30-year or older cars.

Did you forget that notable eco cars thread? This Metro sure belongs there. Anyway, that's too nice-looking for me to get tempted to ruin it with extreme aerodynamic mods.

[freebeard]

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post545342

I chose the efficient cheap beaters thread. MetroMPG thought the finish was shot. The front is definitely worse than the rear. Rusty wheels too, but the interior looked Okay.

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by SH@UN

This is why I try to explain to people, if you spend $5k-$10k more on a car to get 5-10 more mpg, the car will never pay for itself unless you keep it 20-30 years, and even at that it's gonna need some good repairs by then. Food for thought. Kinda like people who buy a new $8k-$9k motorcycle so they can save on gas. It will NEVER pay for itself if that's the only reason you get it.

Get something cheaper and mod it if need be.

I think you'll need to repair any car over 20-30 years. But yeah, 5-10mpg better for $5k-$10k has a long payback period at current gas prices.

At the same time, if gas goes back to $3-4/gallon for a few years, or you find yourself having to drive more, the payback can speed up a fair bit.

I guess another way to look at higher MPG is a hedge against higher oil prices, even if the payback could be decades at the current rate.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by roflwaffle

I think you'll need to repair any car over 20-30 years.

By that time, unless it's either some model highly valuable as a collector's item or has some feature that turned uncommon on newer cars that makes it desirable to very specific groups, much of the residual resale value is long gone but it's still often less expensive and energy-intensive to repair an old beater to keep it on the road instead of having a new econobox built and shipped to the dealer.

But yeah, 5-10mpg better for $5k-$10k has a long payback period at current gas prices.

At the same time, if gas goes back to $3-4/gallon for a few years, or you find yourself having to drive more, the payback can speed up a fair bit.

In an old beater that would anyway be in need of some extensive repairs, that might actually sound like a good excuse to apply some technical updates that would be much likely to extend not just its useful lifespan but also its fuel economy. For those who take modding their cars more as a hobby than as a money-saving trick, it might seem quite reasonable. And there are other priorities that might lead one into ecomodding, such as a wish to decrease the consumption of imported energy resources.

[slowmover]

Decrease imports. Politics.

Would be best to not be dependent on that sourced or produced outside of ones polity.

Rare earth minerals, anyone? Integrated circuits?

That list gets long.

A 1962 Dodge Dart wagon with Slant-Six and a bolt-action looking better all the time.

(In turquoise, right, freebeard? That Nevil Shute vibe)

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[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by slowmover

Decrease imports. Politics.

Would be best to not be dependent on that sourced or produced outside of ones polity.

Rare earth minerals, anyone? Integrated circuits?

That list gets long.

That's not exactly what I had in mind, but it does seem quite sensible to also rely more on vehicles that can have a higher amount of local/regional content for critical systems. Well, eliminating most of the overseas freight for OEM parts and their due replacements does increase the overall efficiency through the operating life of the vehicle.

[freebeard]

Peter DeFazio has been campaigning in his 64 Dodge since, what? 1987?

Eugene Weekly : Best of Eugene : 2011-2012 | eugeneweekly.com

Of course Lane County loves Rep. Peter DeFazio. He is known to quote Lord of the Rings when making political analogies, and he drives around Springfield in his Dodge Dart with his dogs lolling out the windows on his way to chat constituents up while shopping at Bi-Mart. What more could you ask for?

Peter DeFazio - The Full Wiki

Peter Anthony DeFazio (born May 27, 1947) is an American politician. He serves as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Oregon, representing the 4th Congressional District since 1987. The district includes Eugene, Springfield, Roseburg and part of Corvallis. DeFazio is Oregon's most senior member of Congress, which makes him the dean of Oregon's House of Representatives delegation.

My 1964 Clark Cortez had the 225, with a carter side-draft carburetor — the same one[s] the used on the 1953 Corvette.

OTOH when I was in high school we went into Salem on Friday nights in a red 1960 Valiant station wagon. It was a friend's fathers. I'd park the bullet-nose Studebaker, and when we got down to the pavement, we'd jack up the front and crank down the torsion bars, then raise it up when we got back.