I finally got a new job! except its 27 miles away

[Regenerit]

Hello everyone! I have been working minimum wage 8.25/hour 5 miles away from my house now at Brookfield Zoo for nearly 3 years now as a seasonal working between 20 and 32 hours a week depending on the season and if I was in school or not. Last night I was hired to be a seasonal Ecological Resource Specialist, basically an ecological restoration technician for 12/hour for 30 to 55 hours a week. The job however is 27 miles from my house with a mix of 40% highway and 50% city, 10% country roads. My job starts at 7am so I may be able to skip out on rush hour in the morning however I was informed that we tend to be back by 5 or 6 which is rush hour time. I'm looking at about a 40 minute to 1 hour commute one way for morning and afternoon respectively.
I'm driving a 1993 chevrolet lumina that I have been able to make get about 35 highway through pulse and gliding on neutral and about 22 city for a combined of about 26 or so. This means it will take me a little over 2 gallons on a good day for an entire commute which is not bad I think but would definitely like to improve it.
What I'm hoping to improve are my city numbers and my dad owns a 1999 honda civic coupe which he doesn't use much at the moment since it needs a few things fixed and a some stuff renewed so if I can get it fixed up, I can probably be doing upwards of 30 mpg average soon which would drop the gallons down to about 1.5. Additionally, I forgot to mention thwt the price down south where my work is is 20 cents cheaper so even better!

[SentraSE-R]

Congratulations! Take the bus.

[Regenerit]

Originally Posted by SentraSE-R

Congratulations! Take the bus.

The bus goes no where near my work place. My job is in the country.

[euromodder]

Is that a manual Civic ?

Grab it, fix it, mod it, and slash your fuel costs

[Regenerit]

Originally Posted by euromodder

Is that a manual Civic ?

Grab it, fix it, mod it, and slash your fuel costs

It's an auto with 150,000 miles. It runs but it has the check engine light on, needs new plate stickers ($100 right there), has problems with the left power window going up all the way, needs the air conditioning fixed, and maybe new brake pads. I'm looking at around $700 or more to get it up to tip top shape. At the minimum, I need $100 for plate stickers to have it on the road which is very doable. I'll ask my dad since he does drive as well and may need to use it later.

[roosterk0031]

26 to 32 mpg at 270 a week is only going to save about $7 a week. 14 weeks payback for tags alone. 100 weeks for all repairs. I'd stick with the Lumina for a while longer.

Step up to a 40 mpg car when you can afford one. 26 to 40 will save about $12.50 a week or $50 a month

If it not tagged is there insurance on it?

[Regenerit]

There's insurance on it, its just recently that the plates expired and since my dad is driving the van around for work, he hasnt bothered renewing the ones on the civic. My plate stickers for my Lumina are due to be expired in July as well so I might just step down to the civic after I get permission from my dad since Im going to have to pay $100 for the plate stickers anyway.

[Regenerit]

I did some calculations:
at $3.77 a gallon
If my Lumina can get 26 mpg and the civic 33 mpg (being I drove the civic the same way to acquire the same economy rating as my lumina)

A typical round trip of 54 miles
On the lumina would be $7.83.
On the civic it would be $6.17
About a 21.2% decrease in fuel use or $1.66 saved per round trip.

At 5 days a week of working and 4 weeks in a month
On the lumina would be $156.60/month.
On the civic it would be $123.40/month.
A monthly savings of $33.20 cents on average at $3.77 a gallon.

[UltArc]

What are your thoughts on selling the Lumina for the Civic? If you were given the Civic, and sold it, I would hope you made enough to make it perfect. Take care of your lights on dash, maybe new brakes or tires, and any eco mods you want. It's a standard and a few years newer, so I would lean towards it anyways. If you did the mods yourself for your Lumina, I'd anticipate you could do them for the Civic. And if you haven't done the under pan and all yet, you could get the Civic, have it repaired to full operation, then do a belly pan, and as you try to sell the Lumina, mod the Civic to perfect, and then when Lumina is gone, complete the switch.

But I'm not even sure if this is an option. Another option is to trade both cars in on something VERY efficient, such as one of my preferences, a TDI, Fusion Hybrid, or regretfully the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. There are many great options, and I'm sure others can assist you in finding one, my knowledge is rather limited on the topic.

I ran a lot of numbers, but without a monthly car payment, I don't think it can be done with a new/first owner car. No matter what, you're still doing great with the Lumina.

[Regenerit]

Ultarc, since thee civic belongs to my dad, I'm going to have to buy it off of him if I decide to do any mods to it besides general maintenace. He's not so fond of the aeromods on my car as it is. Lol With my new job, I'm hoping to get a more fuel efficient vehicle in the future (I'm eying the 2011 elantra quite a bit ) but for now, I'm going to see how this new job goes and maybe drive the civic every now and then.