Short Commute vehicle recommendations

[VBOD]

Wife would like a more economical vehicle but still seats a family of 4 for weekend trips & groceries. This may be silly, maybe even ridiculous to some but the her commute to work is just 2.5mi mostly county-highway. It's 1/2mi downhill, stop, continue 1/4mi downhill, uphill 1mi, level 1/4mi, stop, level 1/2mi. after work, it's about 1mi around small town for a couple stops then back home reverse route to work. There's no way walking, biking or the Geo will do. Needs to have good snow/ice ability, and large enough (mass) to be safe in an environ dominated by large SUV's, 4x4's, farmers trucks & semi's. What would you suggest, gas, diesel, hybrid, multi-fuel, preferably used, maybe trade Geo+Mounty? Her Mounty gets around 15mpg and we'd like a little better. Heck, depressing but at times I think we could trade it for an old 'burban and still get same economy, more room.

[Frank Lee]

Sounds like she knows what she wants and won't care what my opinion of it is.

FWIW, I'll put out there that if this thing is really only for such a short hop, you will benefit from the smallest mass engine you can get, perhaps cast iron block would be best, so that it warms up quicker.

Well, if it's REALLY for such a short hop, it should be electric. Yes I totally love my electric bicycle for around town hops; I haven't bought much gasoline all spring, summer, and fall this year and you know what? I really don't miss going to the gas station and giving them my money.

[Ryland]

What is wrong with the Toyota/Geo? it's a 4 door sedan, right? seems like the ideal family vehicle, at least it was for my parents, holds 5 adults and has a large trunk as well as being a very safe car that does good in the snow if you have snow tires on it.

Personally I would go for electric as well, 2.5 mile trips eat cars up, you can wear out an exhaust system per year, battery too, brakes, oil changes, starters, everything wears out quickly because of the constant starting and stopping, so a home built electric car would have more then enough range and replacing the battery pack every 5 years would cost less then up keep of a gasoline car, or so says my mother, who is a book keeper and lives 2.5 miles from work and tends to walk there if the weather is nice.

I live 3.5 miles from work and love my electric car for getting there, it means that my Honda Civic is often on loan to friends who need a car or who's car otherwise gets poor gas mileage.

[CFECO]

First, how long are the weekend trips? If not over 40-50 miles, a plug in electric is ideal for this situation. For snow and ice conditions, your need for space, and size for safety, I'd suggest a awd Chevy Astro Van conversion. There would also be enough room for a small, externally vented generator to extend the range on trips. With "long range" not paramount, affordable lead acid batteries could be used, and mounting them below the floor would provide excellent handling. If building one up from parts cars, like starting with a van with a blown engine, a standard 4x4 truck transfer-case would allow selective 2wd-4wd. Even better could be two motors, one main for rear drive, and a second on the front axle for low traction situations.

[VBOD]

Yes, she does like the Mounty but we're thinking ahead and educating ourselves on the possible alternatives. We really like the Geo but it's overmatched by the size of most rigs it may get bumped by around here. I like the electric idea especially if that's what electric cars are designed for, I don't know much about them though. I'll have to really bone up on things before a diy electric would be considered.

[Frank Lee]

Learn how to drive and getting smacked on the road won't seem such a certainty.

[VBOD]

It's not me I'm worried about. Wife's driving record is spotless for over 25 years and mine never had an accident for 30. We drive defensively! We chose the Mounty 10yrs ago for it's engine, weight, capacity and airbags.

If we could thin our vehicle herd by replacing 2or3 for 1, would be nice. I wonder how those displacement-on-demand cars would do for short trips.

[Frank Lee]

I don't think DoD kicks in until everything is all warmed up and it's cruising down the highway.

[Patrick]

Subaru

[Ryland]

You don't need to build your own electric car, there are plenty out there for sale, not all of them are in running order but you get more for your money by buying used, a good example of this is one that I was about an hour to late to buy that sold for $1,500, the motor in it alone cost $3,000! (top of the line, very powerful electric motor) and it had the full set of gauges, wiring, motor adapter, all these parts that would cost time and money, it just needed a speed controller and batteries.

But back to gasoline powered cars, when you are thinking about safety, remember that most crashes are single car accidents and because of that a big part of crash testing is smashing the car in to stationary solid objects and while a large vehicle might be better for crashing in to other vehicles, the statistics seem to show that large vehicles are also more likely to crash because they are harder to control, less nimble and tend to be more top heavy.