OVERALL economy of vehicles

[zonker]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

someone must buy a new cars, or there would not be used ones!

True all used cars come from new cars... but the case for buying a new car when there is such an abundance of used cars out there is not very green nor eco minded.

I'll be the first to say i love that new car smell, and the allure of trouble free driving for the first 5 years of ownership (I don't buy european cars so I can say that lol).

But that does come at a cost - one that does not outweigh the benefit of maximising our use of what we as a society already have made.

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

Yep, not always about money. People spend money are many things.
I don't need a boat, but it makes time with my family very enjoyable.

Everything makes or does not make sense depending on how you look at the issue at hand. A boat to take your family out on is nice. But IMO they have too high a social cost to our country, such as sending our troops into oil rich countries to insure the oil flow continues.

So, to me, as long as we're spending LOTS of tax dollars fighting wars in Iraq and now Libya, I need to learn how to give up most of my oil based guilty pleasures until they return home.

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

Many of the modifications discussed here also don't make sense.
My MGEO will not recover the build costs in gas savings in all likelihood.
It is more a hobby and a challenge, but does move us in the right direction for the future. If oil becomes $500/barrel, then it WILL have a big ROI.

I LOVE your MGEO project!

It's not only about what money you shell out to build the car (although I'm sure there are spouses who would disagree on that comment lol), but also the personal satisfaction you probably get out of making a eco-mechanical work of art.

Even eco minded people can have ego's.

[instarx]

This is an easy calculation for me. I have logged everything I've spent on this car from the day I bought it, including tolls, car washes, taxes, tags, repairs and insurance. From March 2008 until today it has cost me $0.51 per mile. If I leave out vehicle cost depreciation it was $0.28 per mile.

Fuel comprised $0.133 of the cost per mile, or ~27%. For pure operating costs (excluding purchase price/depreciation) fuel was 47% of my cost.

By buying a used car I saved the cost of mining the minerals to make it, smelting the steel, assembly, and shipping a new car.

The tool I use is online at www.spritmonitor.de/en/ that calculates all this for me. It also tells me my per-tank and total fuel mileage, emitted CO2, and my average fuel cost per mile (13.27 cents).