Back when gas was about $1/gallon, it made sense for me to use my old Ford 3/4 ton 4x4 as a spare car, rather than buying and insuring something that got better gas mileage than the 11 the 460 Ford would usually get. I think at that time I was putting 4K or 5k on the pickup per year and probably less than 10% of those miles were hauling anything but me. I need to have a pickup once in awhile, and after having a 4x4, I doubt that I would be satisfied with a 2wd again. And the big Ford will pull my car hauling trailer if I need it to and also will handle my camper if I want to travel that way.
But when gas went up to about $2/gallon, I decided that putting most of my second vehicle miles on a small car would work out better. I found and bought an old Mazda Protege with only about 60K miles on it for $2K. It consistently gets over 30mpg and works just fine for my needs. I do have to insure it, but with only the coverage required by our state law, it doesn't add that much to our insurance bill, especially when adding the Mazda caused the pickup rate to go down somewhat.
So now the pickup just sits there most of the time, ready when I need it, but not costing me much to own. At this rate, it will probably last for the rest of my life. I do keep a trickle charger on it, so the battery does not go dead.
I keep my wife in a fairly new, low mileage car, and she seems to put about 25K miles on it every year. I want her to have something that is totally dependable and which meets our family's needs, as well as getting good mileage. Our Pontiac Vibe does that very well, and I am able to use it when we go somewhere together or plan to go long distance.
Over the years I have had good luck in buying cars that were several years old, but which had fairly low mileage. I am always looking for what I think will be a good deal.
For a long time, I thought I would upgrade my pickup to a newer diesel. But at the high price of diesel now, and the relatively low number of miles I HAVE TO put on a pickup per year, I don't think I could EVER come out on it. So I have decided to just keep my old pickup, which might get a new paint job one of these days.
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Today's Featured Article - Restoration Story: Fordson Major - by Anthony West. George bought his Fordson Major from a an implement sale about 18 years ago for £200.00 (UK). There is no known history regarding its origins or what service it had done, but the following work was undertaken alone to bring it up to show standard. From the engine number, it was found that this Major was produced late 1946. It was almost complete but had various parts that would definitely need replacing.
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