Free Car Day! Or the day your car pays for itself.
 

If we don't already, we need to have a thread where people's money saved on gas equals the purchase price of their car. I just moved from a 2005 Legacy GT to a '92 VX. I'm predicting about ten months to save $1500 in gas over the LGT.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ght-31253.html

here you go.

regards
mech

my KIA is a $500 car

Total fuel used: 250.14 gal
Total fuel cost: $750.09
Total fuel saved vs. EPA: 228.4 gal.
Total saved: $685.2

but KIA screwed up the EPA testing like they did recently but the other way around

My coupe Tempo cost me a 12 pack. I guess I was golden after the first fill?

Even better lol, when your gas savings buys you a free car! And it's an Insight, talk about a feedback loop!

My Escort costed $800 dollars in 2012. As of today - Total saved: $781.74 (based on avg. cost per gal./L)

In the next few weeks, it will pay for itself! And get this; I started recording in August 2014!

I don't think I'll ever make the money I have put into my insight back, but idc. I just like getting good mileage.

However, vs my camry that I used to only get 30mpg in, I have saved over 1,000 in gas by switching to my insight.

If i bought a 1989 Russian Lada/Vaz 2101, I would save around $650 in insurance alone in a year.

It consumes about as much as my Celica, and It is a carbed lazy-ass, but i would have a car that is a lot easier to fix at home and has very cheap spare parts.

And it has a hand crank for cold winters :D

It has no ABS,it is noisy, rattling, and loud,
the safety is minimal (my mom almost died in a frontal crash driving one at 40km/h in the 90's) and the it has no power steering.
And the handling is a typical 70's RWD car. And the rear is panhard-type.

But i need a cheaper car than my Celica, as it has advancing rust so no winters for toyo until i can get a workshop to fix it.

My jeep cost me 8000 euro.
Monney invested in the car is around 2500 euro.
Total sum 10500 euro.

Monney saved in 2013 is 300l at 1.1euro is 330 euro
Monney saved in 2014 is 800l at 1.1 euro is 880 euro

Total saved until 1 januari 2015 is 1210 euro in 2 years time.


Prologe is that the car is payed back in 2030 :)
Then it is time to buy a new car :D

I'd probably rather get a motorcycle instead of a Soviet jalopy, but the old Lada does seem to make sense considering these aspects.


At least it's still more comfortable than a motorcycle, reasonably roomy inside, and its longitudinally-engined RWD layout provides a lot more of room for improvements (not just regarding fuel-savings but also performance) compared to the space-constrained transversely-engined FWD layout prevalent in the modern compact cars. You could even attempt to retrofit it with ABS if you get the willing to do that.


Can't you fix it by yourself?

I am not positive that I remembered to log all of my fuel, but it looks like I have driven Chorizo 12,467.6 miles in nineteen months, Lifetime Fuel Economy: 44.3 mpg (US), Total fuel used: 281.4 gal (US), 1065.2 L, Total cost: $616.05. I could have sold Bacon for what I paid for Chorizo, although I thought I could get more out of it. I was getting 27 MPG in my Forester, so if I improved enough that that became my average, I should have saved about $394.78 in gas.

I would have saved thousands if I just sold my Subaru when I replaced it.

You kind of tried to sell it.

Are we talking about saved money over EPA or over the vehicle it replaced?

It will take me a really long time and many, many gallons before Vera pays for herself if compared to the previous vehicle, but I will get there eventually. :snail:

If we are talking about over EPA, then the car literally might not last that long before enough is replaced that it's even the same car. If that's the case then I should have named her Car of Theseus. :D

I was personally talking about how much my new car is supposed to save me over my old car on my new longer commute. But if your driving and ecomods get you over EPA and it eventually pays for itself that way, double bonus!

I was just suggesting a thread like sort of like the car's birthday or something, or in the style of a Dave Ramsey WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!! phone call on the radio. Mark the day.

Black Widow paid itself off in less than six months from the gas savings.

I bought Black Widow for a grand, and immediately went from 12 mpg in my Land Rover to 43 mpg in the Festiva. I drive over 12K miles a year, and gas was over 3.50 a gallon at the time, so in less than six months the car was free and clear.

From the remainder of the savings from driving Black Widow for over two years, I was able to pay cash for Turtle, my first Insight.

I am a big Dave Ramsey fan!

As long as the bodyshell is the same, even if it would eventually have many patches to fix rust holes, that would still be the same car :D

Ouch. Based on these results I'll have to drive the Honda another 20 years to save the equivalent in its purchase price.

The savings against my truck should be much, much higher but there's another 20 years' worth of gas records that aren't on the Ecomodder fuel log.

Grandpa's axe. Replaced the handle three times and the head at least once, but it's been a great axe for 50 years.

What I'm getting over EPA is what I'm saving. What I'm getting (including the over EPA gain) over the last car is what the car is saving.

If I look at the difference between my Saturn and Focus, the Focus will never pay for itself. I don't think Focus has the potential to equal the Saturn's if for no other reason than the extra weight the Focus has. But if I look at %over EPA that I am saving, the Focus is a little over 1/4 toward the $1,100 price I paid for it.

But I also sold the Saturn for $750 so does that change anything?

That's a good way to look at it. I didn't try to calculate how long it will take with over EPA for the car to pay for itself, but last night I guesstimated --umm-- I mean calculated it at around the 100k mile mark vs the F250. Depending on fuel prices of course, as well as the difference between diesel and gas, might be up to an extra 10k. Works out pretty well to me, since that's when the final warranty runs out.

That's quite strict. I would have said the frame, in case more aerodynamic body panels ever happen. :thumbup:

I could have also said the frame, but nowadays almost every compact car has an unibody. But all of it is questionable. BTW an uncle of mine once had a Simca 8 rebuilt around a shortened VW Beetle chassis, and it was still titled as a Simca 8. One could eventually guess what would happen if its current owner eventually rebodied that chassis back into a VW Beetle...

VW wanted around $25K all up to repair my Transporter, so I got a new Renault for 'free', with enough left over (theoretically of course) to fuel it for life (200K km).

How much did you pay for the Kangoo?

My car is saving me roughly $100/mo. over the EPA for THIS car. So at that rate, it would take me 60mo. (or 5yrs) to save enough fuel that the car would pay for itself. This doesn't take into account that my previous vehicles were very bad on mpgs...

So my "free car date' should be August of 2018! :) I'm looking forward to it.

Current car is a 2010 Mustang GT with quite a few mods running on 93 octane. Gas is 2.89 for 93 and 2.39 for 87.
Just bought a honda civic 96 with 159k miles for 742$. Great running car just needs some tlc, a new clutch, and some misc gaskets and seals. But currently havent done a thing to it
So 13mpg in the mustang around town vs the civic at 37 mpg (not a ton of testing done but thats my approx on my few miles driven) it will take 4700 miles to pay itself off.
But basically driving it like a diesel until i do the maintenance needed. But its looking like it should be finished for less than 1100$. Not half bad! Got 49mpg on the way home (49.8mpg) through the mountains of arkansas about 150 miles with 30psi mismatch tires and a piss poor clutch.

My car was free! But I had to marry the owner LOL

MPGray was bought new. You could argue the money was free, considering I usually make money on cars, on houses and on other things I buy and sell. With a couple hundred grand in sweat equity from two houses and a couple hundred cars, the accounting gets tedious.

I like having one car, at times I have owned half a dozen bikes, cars and trucks. At my age one car pushing 55 MPG suits me perfectly and for short distances I am going to try a bicycle.

21 former vehicles in my garage, since joining the forum, might be a record.

regards
mech