Main > Everything Else

What kind of gas mileage do you get?

<< < (20/39) > >>

shardian:
"New car just as likely to break down as a reliable used car".

There are no statistics, just personal experience of me and family/friends. I have had used cars that have problems, and I have had used cars that never have problems. My current car is a Volvo with almost 300k miles on it. Everything works, and I know it will start and go every time I hop in. The wife drove it before me, and her step dad drove it before her since it was near new. In 300k, it died on the step dad once with a minor issue. The wife had a dead alternator once and happened to be next to an Advance auto. Once on me as I pulled out of the drive way the timing belt broke - which was a surprisingly easy fix.

Before that I had a Geo Tracker that I had up to 215k miles when I traded it in. I had a clutch cable freeze once, and an alternator problem another time. That was it over 6 years.

I also had an "it's just getting broke in at 120k" Toyota Corolla. That thing gave me plenty of problems with overheating, and the engine blew after I had it for a year.

My dad bought a Brand New Ford Ranger, and it routinely had to be worked on throughout the warranty period. The warranty is up now, and it drives like ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- and is very unreliable.

The thing about new cars is this: they are only new the first day. Once it is 5 years old, it is just as likely to have issues as the 5 year old model I picked up used. The only difference is I paid half as much as you, and am much more statistcially likely to spend less on the car per year in a cost over time ratio.

paigeoliver:
Insurance matters because no one with two brain cells to rub together has full coverage insurance on a car worth less than 5 or 6 grand. The comprehensive and collision doubles your insurance rates at a bare minimum.

Also, fuel prices are not simply an upward only trend, in real dollars they have been all over the place historically, and they just found some oil that will now be the third largest oil reserve in the world (and it isn't controlled by middle eastern interests) you will see some changes once that starts pumping.

paigeoliver:
Also, if you are purely shooting for finances here then the gas mileage champs of the past (Geo Metro, Honda CRXFX, and Ford Festiva) win hands down. It is far cheaper to keep repairing and rebuilding them than it is to drive anything recent.

Unfortunately every car ever made that got impressive fuel economy was also a total rust monster.

Also, to comment on an earlier comment. Motorcycle fuel savings is phantom savings, motorcycles only have a fraction of the service mileage in them that cars do (thus that purchase price eats deeply into the fuel savings, it doesn't matter what sort of mileage you get when you are depreciating at 25 cents a mile), and if you are adding it to a stable that already includes a car than you are paying extra insurance and licensing, which also eats into your savings.

ahofle:
That's one way of looking at it.
My bike is a Honda, was cheap ($6000), insurance is dirt cheap (under a $100 a year since no collision), annual owner tax is around $20, and I didn't buy it solely as a means for gas savings.  I bought it because I enjoy riding.  The gas savings (and having an extra vehicle) is just extra gravy.  The fact remains that when I use it to get to work, I essentially pay half for fuel compared to what even a fuel efficient car owner would pay (probably a quarter as much as the typical giant SUV soccer mom driver).

danny_galaga:

--- Quote from: Jdurg on April 25, 2008, 11:00:02 am ---Paige makes a lot of great points, but there are some flaws in the logic.

1.  Gas doesn't cost $3.50 a gallon anymore.   :P  The price of gas isn't a constant rate.  Unlike a car payment, the cost of gas will continuously rise so the gas cost of a gas guzzler will rise as time goes on.  I don't think we'll ever see the price of gas drop over the long term ever.  (My buddy has a Jeep Wrangler and he is considering not driving it anymore because he is going broke every week filling it up with gas).


--- End quote ---

how cool is that! the price of fuel doesnt go up for new cars, only old ones! i guess i better trade in the master after all...

oh, and ahofle, its interesting about motorbikes. i remember when it used to cost MORE to insure a bike than a car! the prices sure have come down lately here. a lot fairer now, and good timing since it will encourage more people to ride them to work (which is coincidental since the insurance companies dont really ahve a reason to encourage fuel savings)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page

Go to full version