OVERALL economy of vehicles

[zonker]

Originally Posted by roflwaffle

Where in the U.S. is anyone selling carbon credits?

How to Sell Carbon Credits | eHow.com

Tesla Sells Carbon Credits to Honda for $13.8m · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader

BTW, a correction... Toyota is not selling carbon credits to big oil, but rather Edison gets the Carbon credits for the support of the electric infrastructure and Toyota is appealing that decision saying they should be granted the carbon credits to help offset their own pollution.

[PaleMelanesian]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

more economical to buy a 3-year-old car and sell it after 5 years to minimize cost and repairs.

That was my initial plan. But I found I really like this car and it's been great on lack of repairs, so...

Originally Posted by California98Civic

I chose to keep mine past five years and past ten years because I love the idea of driving one car for forever, slowly rebuilding the thing, part-by-part, over time. Seems more ecological than discarding a ton of steel and plastics (even if portions of it will be reused). But it has started to cost more in maintenance these last few years. Struts, exhaust, radiator...

I won't be keeping it forever, but I'm at 11 years and counting.

[fjasper]

I figure on just replacing stuff as it's needed, and not deferring maintenance. I've had worst luck with cars in the 60,000-100,000 mile range. It seems like once everything that's going to wear out has been replaced once, then you're just on a progressive replacement schedule as long as you want to keep the car. There's nothing like a good detail job and new suspension components to make the old car feel like a new one.

Doing my own work makes it practical (and having an extra car so when one's in the shop I can still get around). I'm all for the repair-rather-than-replace ethos. Local work, long-term relationships, etc. Maintenance gets short shrift in our economy, from the tax code to advertising. I'm not sure why it's $100/hr to have a professional work on my car, but that does give me motivation to try to fix it myself.

Maybe part of the problem is an "investment" mentality people sometimes apply to vehicles. For some reason it makes more sense to most people to take a $5,000 depreciation hit on a new rig than it does to spend $1,500 fixing the old one, even though both will do the same thing.

If some financial genius could come up with an installment-paid maintenance plan, it might make people more likely to maintain their vehicles longer. Seems like it might be the unpredictable nature of repair costs that make new car payments look like a better deal. The incentives are wrong, though, giving people motivation to buy after they discover a problem and cancel after a covered repair. I guess the extended warranties with a refund clause (if you don't make any claims, they refund some or all of the warranty cost) is designed to address this.

[roosterk0031]

My 03 Malibu is doing pretty well, bought it 1 year old 12k miles, $9990, + fuel pump, 2 front wheel bearings, couple sets of front pads, and a idle control valve. Now at 230,000 miles so less than $11,500 into it (not counting oil, filters or tires) $0.05 per mile. Gas is now $0.10-11/mile. Should have bought 2 of them.

[PaleMelanesian]

Originally Posted by fjasper

If some financial genius could come up with an installment-paid maintenance plan, it might make people more likely to maintain their vehicles longer. Seems like it might be the unpredictable nature of repair costs that make new car payments look like a better deal. The incentives are wrong, though, giving people motivation to buy after they discover a problem and cancel after a covered repair. I guess the extended warranties with a refund clause (if you don't make any claims, they refund some or all of the warranty cost) is designed to address this.

I have one of those. It's called a budget.

[zonker]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

I have one of those. It's called a budget.

+1!

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by zonker

How to Sell Carbon Credits | eHow.com

Tesla Sells Carbon Credits to Honda for $13.8m · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader

BTW, a correction... Toyota is not selling carbon credits to big oil, but rather Edison gets the Carbon credits for the support of the electric infrastructure and Toyota is appealing that decision saying they should be granted the carbon credits to help offset their own pollution.

What are those people smoking? The credits Tesla sold are for NMOG (emissions), not carbon. No one in the U.S. is selling carbon credits as far as I know.

[zonker]

Originally Posted by roosterk0031

My 03 Malibu is doing pretty well, bought it 1 year old 12k miles, $9990, + fuel pump, 2 front wheel bearings, couple sets of front pads, and a idle control valve. Now at 230,000 miles so less than $11,500 into it (not counting oil, filters or tires) $0.05 per mile. Gas is now $0.10-11/mile. Should have bought 2 of them.

thankfully cars are made much more reliable than they used to be.

in the 60's if your car lasted 100k you were lucky.

now 200k is the norm with many cars seeing little to no repairs in that time frame.

[99LeCouch]

My rolling couch is pretty economical for me. It needed a lot of parts this year, however, it should go for several months before needing the next round of work. I got the car for next to nothing, so my expenses have been fuel/insurance/maintenance/registration. It sure is cheaper than the new car that everybody wants me to get, and that I don't want.

[cfguy2000]

Originally Posted by fjasper

I was planning on selling my old gas hog and getting a new Fiesta or Elantra, but when I ran the numbers, even at 4.50/gallon, it was cheaper to feed the gashog than to eat the depreciation, etc., on a new one.

So I'm modding my old car for practice, and when I get it figured out, I'll mod the gas hog and see if I can bump it up 20-30%. (I'm really hoping for 55%-30mpg, but I try not to set myself up for failure if it's not necessary. )

Crude little total-cost-of-ownership spreadsheet attached.

How about comparing versus a used vehicle? It seems like wishful thinking to believe that you could save enough gas to get a new car but you can get a 1997 Corolla that gets 30+ mpg for about $2000. Just a thought.