Posted by jdemaris on May 08, 2008 at 10:55:30 from (67.142.130.19):
In Reply to: Re: gas prices posted by Dave F. on May 08, 2008 at 09:53:58:
If you can't justify the expense of a third vehicle to get better fuel mileage - seems buying a new one from Detroit would never be cost-effective either.
Detroit tries to predict what consumers want and will spend money on . . . and up to now - high fuel mileage utilitarian cars did not sell well. GM and Ford spent a small fortune recently getting ready to sell smaller rigs with small European style turbo-diesels. Now - with diesel being a lot more than gas - the public probably won't buy very many.
We only have two drivers in our household - me and my wife. We MUST have 4WD or AWD most of the time - otherwise we'd never get home on any winter day, and even in the summer - a 2WD won't make it up our steep dirt mountain road after a heavy rain. We have a smal farm and need vehicles for towing, hauling stuff, etc. besides just for transportation. We keep six vehicles on the road at any given time and switch around a lot. Each one costs $300 per year for insurance, so it's not a huge expense. I know people that pay that much per year for just one rig. I just took all my full-size diesel trucks off the road but one. Also put two 2WD diesel cars on the road which we won't be able to use on real wet days. But - my wife's 91 Volks Jetta diesel gets 38 MPG "around town" and 48-51 MPG on the highway. My 81 Chevy Chevette diesel gets 36 MPG - 45 MPG. My wife's little Geo 4WD Tracker with a gas engine gets 30 MPG driving back and forth to work on steep mountain roads. My 85 Isuzu 4WD diesel mini-truck gets 28-30 MPG in all driving. My 92 Dodge 4WD ex-cab Cummins diesel truck gets 21 MPG down the highway empty and 18 MPG with a camper on it. And, our 98 Dodge AWD Grand Caravan gets 21 MPG on the highway. We are often using the van in place of the Dodge truck and camper for long trips when we can get away with it. We need room for two adults, one kid, one dog, and lots of extra gear - and also must have AWD or 4WD for most trips - so a small car won't work. We just keep on watching fuel prices and pick what we drive based on the prices. One advantage to having so many is . . . if one breaks and needs work - we just hop into something else and fix it later. No hurry. And - they're all pretty easy to work on - except maybe the Dodge Caravan.
I miss driving my Ford F250 with the 7.3 turbo diesel - it the nicest driving truck I've ever owned - but - it's a fuel hog. So, for the moment, it's sitting with no plates on it. I've been trying to decide if I should sell it in a down market for diesels - or keep it and see if anything changes. That's the way we do things. Not for everybody for sure. But, works great for us. Winter comes and we put three Subarus on the road - two 4WDs and one AWD. Winter beaters that stop . . . and go anywhere and get 23-32 MPG doing it. If tomorrow - somebody came out with a 4WD that had some room in it, and got 35 - 40 MPG on the highway - it would probably also cost over $30,000. Seems if I bought one, I couldn't live long enough for the fuel savings to come close to paying for the change.
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