OT- buying car to save on fuel costs...

My truck is paid for (14MPG), and has a lot of life left in it. I have to use it for at least 600 miles a month- trips up to the farm hauling stuff.

The cost of a new car 15k or less, doesn't really save me any $$ per month due to car payment. (honda civic, 40mpg- too small!)

So I thought I would go the used route and find something for 8k or less(sedan 25 MPG), but my numbers still do not add to much savings in the short term..

So now I'm looking at the well used crowd and not really finding anything that doesn't need work (tires, tuneup)...(no car payment though..)

talk about fuzzy math...

So maybe I'm looking at this all wrong... cars are not a short term investment, rather they are a money pit!

The biggest cost for many drivers is the insurance, particularly collision and comprehensive. For those drivers it makes excellent sense to buy a car of low value. Liability insurance only? Major saving.

Did nobody ever think of fuel costs when buying cars? Who needs 265 hp in a midsize sedan? If you want to change something, try legislating a 100 hp cap for all non-commercial vehicles.

Wife cars: SUVs are great in winter, and nobody wants his wife or mother stranded somewhere because of a lack of traction. My wife's RAV4 is harder on gas than an econobox, but she loves it.

My friends laughed at me for selecting a 4 cylinder, 5 speed, SUV, with low range but without air. They say it's underpowered, but it delivers an honest 24 miles per gallon in winter, higher in summer, and performs strongly off-road. So in the last couple of weeks my cost of fuel has gone from 10 cents to 12 cents per kilometer. Big deal!

I can't tow a tractor with it so I hired a student with his father's truck. Cost me $100. My 4Runner tows lighter trailers just about every day of the week.

Summary: Fuel costs are just part of the picture. Insurance is probably more expensive. Major savings in insurance and interest can accrue if you drive a well-maintained beater, but think of fuel consumption even when the stuff is cheap, because it won't always be.

Most of my trips can be done with a little car. We have had excellent luck with Mazda Protege's. I think we have had 6 of them over the years, and none of them has required much of anything besides normal maintanance up to 200k. I have bought all but one as low mileage used cars and most of them have been handed down to my kids and are still on the road. Toyotas and Nissans are also good cars, but I have always thought my dollars went a little farther buying the Mazdas. With the Protege's we regularly get 30mpg overall, but the best thing has been that they have been so completely reliable. I wish my experience with U.S. made cars would have been as positive.

Insurance costs are something else to factor into the equation. An extra vehicle costs quite a bit each year to insure, especially if you need to have collision/comprehensive coverage. But at $3 per gallon for gas, it makes a lot less sense to drive a 10mpg truck on a trip when a 30mpg car could do the job than it did when gas cost half that.

I will be buying another small car soon. They don't make Mazda Protege's any more, but maybe I will find one that is a few years old, or maybe I will get something else.

I am guessing that there will be a whole lot of low mpg SUV's on the market for cheap prices. I am sure glad I didn't give in to my wife when she wanted to buy something like that.....

I have also run my truck on 50% mix of E85 with mixed results... mileage suffers a bit...especially if you run it on 100% E-85... I checked out the new E-85 compatible trucks- the E-85 mileage rating is poor. Until e-85 is priced $1.00 or so less than regular gas- then it will pay.

I am sick of paying high prices at the pump so I have to make a decision here soon, thanks for the opinions...

Rod

40 - 14 = 26 mpg savings. 1,900 / 26 = 73 gallons of gas saved per month. X $2.50 per gallon = $183 per moth.

Not enough to make a full payment on a car but if you look at it as an asset then the gas savings will go a long way toward paying the payment on the car.

Just another perspective.

Other than a $2,000 to $3,000 car like the Honda, I can't justify buying another car to "save" on gas.

Mark

I also have a farm and need a good truck occasionly. Have another job as well where I commute about 33K/year.

Three years ago, I bought a used VW Jetta Diesel for the commute to work. It gets just over 50 miles per gallon. Has a turbo, and with the 5 speed is just a s fast as any other car on the road. Now have about 150K on it, and it should last for about 250-300K.

Very good car that the savings in fuel alone has already paid for.

For farm use I have a 1989 Ford F250 4X4 that had about 100K on and I paid cash for about $4K. It has the 351 Windsor and gets about 11 miles per gallon, but I only use it for the farm and put about 4K miles per year on it.

I suggest that you get a VW Diesel and an older truck. Don't know of any other more cost effective solution.

Just my opinion.

Mike

Assuming the car would get 28mpg, you would realize a savings in gasoline of $204/month or $2448/yr. With repairs, plates, and insurance, it doesn't leave much for depreciation.

Good luck with your decision!

The difference in mpg will pay for the car payment and save me some money on top of it with the amount that this gets driven, usually 75 miles per day or so.

I personally blame GM for ruining the market for diesels in passenger cars in this country with that horrible 6.2l diesel they put out in the 80s.

The worst thing is that the army hummers are powered by that weak, unreliable thing.

With the weight of an armored hummer, what they really need is a turbo cummins like in our 3/4 ton dodge, or the ford powerstroke, or the duramax, etc.

But thats a different topic, haha.