You’re joking, right?
I am stuck with my gas guzzling 1992 Pontiac Bonnaville (sp?) that only cost me $800. I get 17mpg on a good week. It was the best car I could afford. Someone buy me a more fuel-efficient car and I’d be glad to use it.
And for the inevitable post of someone telling me to buy a bike, I’d like to point out that we can’t all live in these nice little pre-fab communities with pre-planned short distances between the residential and commercial sectors. Some of us actually live quite a ways from work.
Captain C, Its the people that CAN afford a new car that cause the problem, not you. They buy these ridiculously expensive and inefficient new SUVs then complain about gas prices, as if they have no control over their consumption. I suspect that you will purchase something more efficient when you have the means to do so. The SUV crowd will just buy another SUV.
The dealers are either sold out of the fuel-efficient cars, or they’re gouging the prices to the tune of thousands of dollars over MSRP (yes, over MSRP, not over invoice). They’re sure not gonna make it easy for us. And I don’t think I’ll be riding my bike to my jobs that are 100 miles and 70 miles away from my home, respectively, in opposite directions. A “gas-out” is obviously not the solution, though.
Another way to use less gas is to drive more slowly. Very few people are willing to do that, though, no matter how expensive gas is.
I just assumed that mswas’ question about making a commission on a bag of Doritos wasn’t serious. I mean surely people understand how retail works. Right?
Right?
Maybe I don’t want to know the answer to that.
Let’s just say that “deliberately provocative” is not inconsistent with the profile.
If the SUV owner were upside down on the car loan, it could- that happens when you owe more on the loan than the car in its current condition is worth at resale.
How far?
It would be 12 miles on a heavy traffic highway with no sidewalks or curbs, or 14 miles on an expressway. Neither makes biking much of an option. I do however intend to bike to class this summer, which is only 2 miles through residential back streets, so I guess that counts for something.
If there were only a word to illustrate this kind of thing…
The alternative to an SUV is not a bicycle or a fuel efficient care.
The alternative is a motorcycle or a scooter.
I could have bought a used second car so I could get to work. Instead I bought a brand spanking new motorcycle for about half what I spent on a used 2003 car.
I’m still breaking in the engine, but so far I’m getting 40.7 to 44.3 MPG (if I’ve done my math right – 5.31 L/100 km to 5.78 L/100km).
If you don’t want the whole hassle of learning to deal with a clutch, get a scooter, which is even more fuel efficient – and cheap to own! A 125cc bike can handle the highway (but you’re not going to be passing many people), while a 50cc bike is perfect for city streets – and you won’t need a motorcycle license.
If they own the gas station, then yes. What other reason did you think there was for them to sell you that stuff?
I think that a gas out is a great idea!
If no one is at the station, it makes it easier to maneuver my Humvee when I am talking on my cellphone on the way to get my cats declawed.
Easily. Say you own a 1995 GMC Gasguzzler. Not worth much at all, but it runs and it’s yours. You’re only carrying liability insurance. Now, you want to buy a Civic. How used? You either need to have a few thousand bucks laying around (yeah, right…) to buy one out of the classifieds, or you go to a dealer and finance one. You now have a monthly car payment, and you’re required to carry collision/comprehensive insurance. Your monthly costs have now gone up by about $250 for car payments, and $75 a month for the insurance - an increase of $325 a month. Have you been spending more than $325 a month for gas? If not, the new car will cost you more money than keeping the SUV.
Even worse, what if you want to keep the SUV because there’s no way you’re going to let your big slobbery dog into the new car? Or you like gardening, and feel ill at the idea of putting smelly sacks of mulch and fertilizer in the car? Now you’re feeding and insuring two vehicles, making the finances worse.
Look, if you feel that you really need an SUV then that’s the price you gotta pay. If you don’t want to haul things in your car there are other options. Hey, I once hauled a load of crawfish for a few hours in my car, and yeah it kinda sucked, but it went away after I left the trunk open overnight. Not a serious thing.
The point about SUVs is that we managed to do just fine before them (they were called station wagons) and everyone else in the world does too. If you feel you gotta use one don’t feel sorry for yourself because gas is getting dear.
As for the price differential between a civic and a GMC gas guzzler, it’s simply a matter of calculating which car does what. If it works out, then fine. I didn’t do the maths on your example, but I can imagine a scenario where the difference in gas prices can make up for the loss in the trade in.
Station owners typically make more profit from chips and soda than they do from fuel.
I was slow on citing:
(Danger Will Robinson - PDF):
Nitpick - in some states you do need a motorcycle license to operate a scooter.
For the enlightened who choose this route - Scooters can get 60-90 mpg, they come in models powerful enough to take on the freeway (although the advisability of this is dependent upon your judgement) and they cost as little as $1500 for a new model.
For those of us just too darn big to fit on one, you can always get a standard motocycle. Mine gets 40-45 mpg.
With motorcycles and scooters, you get the lower emissions, the improved mileage, and you’re dealing with well proven technology. The tradeoff is you take a calculated risk, and you need to learn new skills. If you’re serious about lowering your gas consumption, this is one very effective and economical option.
Then you need to seek help for your obsession with keeping your car clean. A little dog hair on a car seat never killed anybody and doesn’t affect the functioning of the car.
Most people put things like mulch and fertilizer in the trunk, where there’s nobody around to smell them. If you’re buying too much mulch or fertilizer to reasonably haul in the car, you might want to see if the store will deliver it, or if you can make more trips and get less of the stuff per trip.