Trucks & SUVs

[order99]

I've never owned a truck myself, and i've never owned a new vehicle EVER-i'd rather buy used and do a little maintenance here and there than make payments, and i've always kept an eye to fuel efficiency.

Having said that, many is the time i've wished for a truck. And my faithful '93 Festiva, which has carried:
-600 lbs of Quickcrete without so much as a brake squeal
-several 10' poles (arcing from the passenger foot well to the tip-top of the driver's side hatch, it is JUST possible)
-a 6'X4' board splitting the car in half visually and leading to some...creative mirror use to maintain legal visual fields
-an entire writing desk once the hatch brakelight was temporarily removed
......has ALSO wished I had a truck.

Sadly, the type of small truck I desire-say, the old Datsun trucks my Dad once owned and routinely achived 28-30 MPG with, or the VW Rabbit Diesel pick-ups getting the same or more-have apparently gone the way of the Wooly Mammoth. Now that I have a little in the bank from selling my overly-large home and purchasing a Travel Trailer, I wouldn't mind finding a nice, SMALL and fuel-efficient truck and see what Eco-mods I could add to it...maybe even finding someone who would care enough about my little red car to give it the attention she deserves and put another 300,000+ miles on her, seeing as I find ownership of multiple vehicles a waste for one single guy like myself...

I could even consider an SUV-

(GASP!!!)

-as long as A) it had 4-wheel drive and B) I lived in a location I needed 4-wheel drive.I'm sure I could Eco-mod SOME efficiency out of the beast, right?

As far as 'showing off wealth'... that is a completely alien mindset to me as I have never HAD any to show off...in the improbable event that I should somehow accquire a vast fortune, I would most likely continue to buy used when possible and live the way I do now...maybe eat a bit fancier now and again. The only exception to this might be if I decide to travel, and get something capable of towing a 2006 29' Jayco Travel Trailer-but these days a decent used F-150 might have the horsies for that...

[slowmover]

I saw a Subdivision (Frank's term for Suburban) on the auction list with 432,000 miles.
That's about $100,000 in fuel costs (todays prices) alone. I'm sure the neighbors were impressed.

regards
Mech


That's an interesting metric that almost never gets any consideration.


It is the only one that matters. And factor in the additional land and house construction expense (financed) that more closely covers vehicle "true cost". That'll bring the morally superior hybrid owners to a full conversational stop.

It is that fuel is subsidized. Nothing else really matters, in the ultimate view.

As to pickups, I found it pretty funny that I could show that over 300k (what a DODGE CTD can do) that my 2WD, manual trans 1T will pay for a new version of the same in saved fuel costs where the driver makes some attempt at fuel savings. This is over the 15-mpg reported average of a 4WD/auto trans truck. Of course, lifted and fitted with offroad tires makes the payoff faster.

We might say, people are free to spend what they will, but the utility of the vehicle, truck or not, is the real point.

IOW, why a 4 to 6-person vehicle with but one aboard 99% of the time. Other than a Smart Car seems stupid, on the face of things. It isn't just pickups.

And leave the hitch receiver in place. Fuel savings don't exist for this change, but loss of utility is central to the vehicle when used as designed. Removed parts tend to be lost, and fasteners aren't happy at being re-torqued, anyway.

.

[yoyoyoda]

A few years ago you would be hard pressed to see an SUV or 4x4, now they are one out of every 3 cars, and it is completely unnecessary to be driving them in suburbia here not to mention lethal.

Every month or so I hear of a crash involving a small compact and a large 4x4 trayback, where the woman occupant of the small car is killed and the 4x4 driver has run a red light.

It infuriates me that they are allowed on suburban roads when clearly raising a vehicle 2 feet off the ground is going to end up pummelling their bumper bars right into the head of a small car driver.

It makes me feel like it is only a matter of time before I am next, but why do I have to give up my life just because of keeping your stupid little snotty kid safe? Its not even worthwhile, my life is clearly more valuable than someone's who is going to waste it on mass consumption and polluting the world, pumping out 3 babies and downing a slab of beer every day.

We all know what the problem is, selfish people who don't care if they "accidentally" murder someone, but it is still cold blooded murder if you are stupid enough to be driving a large mammoth car in and around HEAVILY built-up suburban areas.

I think that ecomodding should go hand in hand with discouraging 4x4 use in suburban and city regions, maybe tounge in cheek insults to 4x4 drivers would be good enough to get their attention and bruise their egos.

This is why I am seriously considering raising the front of my car up with new springs and shocks... To maybe get my car a bit of an edge of safety on the roads.

If I ever do crash my car it will more than likely end up in losing somebody that I hold dear as she rides passenger, and my two front legs so no more walking for me, completely, as I have very long legs and the front dash and firewall will protrude so far in that both of my legs and knees will be severely broken.

Also because I am so tall I will have very severe head injuries, probably severe brain damage, as it is now my head is 1-2cm off from the roof at all times so a side on collision will result in my head impacting the side pillar, cracking my skull open and breaking my neck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW1GPvKIBxE

[D.O.G.]

A guy I work with used to drive a Prius and got really good fuel economy from it (way better than my Mazda).
Then his wife had their first child and suddenly the Prius was "too small", so he bought a mid sized SUV.

Now I make a point of telling him what FE figures I got with each fill, just to rub it in.

[Frank Lee]

See that all the time in the ads: "Selling car due to baby". So the babies are HUUUUUGE there too, huh?

[Grant-53]

We had 3 children in our '85 Plymouth Horizon until moved up to a Caravan. My wife and her two sisters grew up riding in VW Beetles and Honda Civics. Her father rode motorcycles and she rode behind him to her summer job. See the book "High and Mighty" about the myth of SUVs and the problem of bumper heights. If you are concerned about head injury get a helmet. I wear a Bell full face when riding my bike in the winter.

[gone-ot]

We drove around with three kids, plus wife & I, in our 1972, 1976 Pinto and 1981 Escort Station Wagons! Of course, the wife later up-(down?)-graded the Escort for a 1987 Astro Van with V6 engine (ha,ha).