3.89

[bfrikken]

I hate to bring up gas AGAIN. But gas jumped 28 cents yesterday. We're also battling budget issues in the office, so I'm sure no real raise again this year. So, since I commute 120 miles per day, my wife and I just did the following:

Called Comcast, gave them a chacne to lower our rates. Then cancelled. We are now going to DSL, satellite, phone for a 100 dollar/month package. This will save us close to 50+ dollars per month.

Called my cellphone service. I just found out we get a discount at work, so we'll save between 10-12 bucks a month.

Still looking at prices for new vehicles, but I'm not sure that's teh answer right now. The 18-20 mpg I'm getting isn't necessarily desirable, but the vehicle is paid off. My Aztek is my pickup truck.

[Russianwolf]

look at older but dependable vehicles that you might be able to pay cash for.

That's what I did on my truck, granted its not for commuting to/from the office. But I found an old truck that would fit my needs for $600. Been driving it for over 2 years now and I bet I've only put 3000 miles on it so fuel isn;t that big of a deal.

But if you can find an old Civic, diesel car, or something of that nature for a couple thousand and get the benefits of 30+ mpg for your commute......... It might help too.

[crokett]

Yep. I plan to drive my Vibe for as long as I can and will try to talk my wife into an older truck (or at least a beefier trailer) for when I need to really haul something. I would not have gotten the Vibe when we did if the Civic had 4 doors - getting a kid out of the back seat of a 2 door car gets old real fast.

[Alex Franke]

Is public transportation an option for you?

I take the bus to work usually (it's actually free in my town) and find it to be a great opportunity to catch up on my reading.

When I lived in San Diego, I also took the bus and it actually got me to work faster than if I drove. (There were bus/carpool lanes to avoid traffic.)

[jonmulzer]

Buying a new vehicle to get better mpg almost never works out. Let's do the math. You are getting 19 mpg and commuting 120 miles a day. So you are using 6.32 gallons of gas per day at $3.89 per. Fuel costs per day would be $24.58. Now, let's make a stretch that you would be able to find a vehicle that you liked that would get 30 mpg. You would use 4 gallons of gas per day at $3.89 for a fuel cost per day of $15.56, saving you $9.02 per day. Assume 21 commuting days per month that would save you $189.42 per month in fuel.

Those are all pretty weighty assumptions also. Are you going to in actuality be able to get 30+ mpg? If you are going to take a loan out to buy this car, would your payment be less than $190? If you are going to pay cash for the difference, divide what you are going to pay out of pocket by $190 and that is how many months it would take to break even before considering the massive depreciation that new vehicles go through. When you account for that, there is almost no way for it to make economic sense. New vehicles lose about 40% of their value in the first three years.

If you want to cut your fuel usage, look for a Honda Civic or something like that with a price equal to or less than retail book value for your vehicle. Dependable and great mileage. Just because you are mad about gas prices though do not make a rash decision that saves you $200/month and costs you $300.

Really looking at the numbers though, there are other issues with your budget if things are getting tight. If they dropped the price of fuel to $3.00/gallon it would only save you $30 a week on your vehicle's fuel costs. About the average cost of a cheap dinner out instead of cooking at home.

[bfrikken]

Actuallly, quite the opposite, math supports the new car. Here are the numbers. This is going off the theory that my aztek with 85k miles on it now does not give me any mechanical issues and can last another 4-5 years (yeah right).

If we assume a constant 3.89 gas price (i think that is low when looking at 5 years. I don't ever expect to see 3.00 again, and 3.50 is looking like a distant memory (however I can see us getting 3.40's and 3.50's again because it looks like a deal now thanks to the conditioning of 20 cents at a time increases)

Aztek: 0$ cost up front, no monthly payment, 600 Miles per week (in just work travel), 18MPG (cause that seems to be what i consistently get and can count on over time), 27,000 miles per year (which is conservative when I figure on 50 work weeks - around 3 weeks worth of vacation/sick/timeoff then rounded down for conservative amts) .
Cost for next 5 years: $32,400gas (can we say, 0 resale value )

Prius: 25k out the door (don't think that offer will still stand, been a month since I got that on the table)
Cost for next 5 years: 25k+3kInterest+13kgas = 42k (and consider a used 5 year old prius with 110k miles on it has a bluebook of 10k)

Corolla: 17,5k out the door est 35mpg
Cost: 17,5k +1300Interest+13kgas = 32k total


So, it appears that something like the corolla new breaks even with continuing to drive my aztek; however, it is unrealistic to think my aztek will last 5 years let alone 2 more years. And that is not factoring in a single cent towards any maintenance on a vehicle getting up there in age.

These of course, are full priced new cars, and no money down. When I said New before, I meant a replacement for my aztek... I.e. a good valued USED car would suffice if I felt like I could get a deal on it that way. However, there is some value in a full warranty that lasts a good deal of a vehicles life compared to nothing on my aztek.

I cannot speak to differecnes in insurance, because I have not gotten quotes yet to factor into these equations.

My decisions are hardly ever rash, so I'm not worried about that. My wife and I plan out our purchases very thoroughly. We are always looking at various ways to save money on things. And, gas is driving another hard look at things. If the housing market didn't suck in our area, we'd be looking at that as a possibility. I lost my carpool partner because he finally sold his house. Watching what he went through leaves me no interest in that as a solution right now.

[Alex Franke]

Aztek: 0$ cost up front, . . . Cost for next 5 years: $32,400gas (can we say, 0 resale value )

Prius: 25k out the door . . . Cost for next 5 years: 25k+3kInterest+13kgas = 42k (and consider a used 5 year old prius with 110k miles on it has a bluebook of 10k)

Corolla: 17,5k out the door est 35mpg . . . .Cost: 17,5k +1300Interest+13kgas = 32k total

Wow -- talk about running the numbers! considering the repair costs of cars under warranty versus older ones that aren't....

[Kristofor]

If the housing market didn't suck in our area, we'd be looking at that as a possibility. I lost my carpool partner because he finally sold his house. Watching what he went through leaves me no interest in that as a solution right now.

Perhaps still worth a look... If it's bad in your area it's probably about as bad 60 miles away near your work... So it would probably take longer (perhaps much longer) to sell (definite hassle factor), but then you'd be looking at buying an equally discounted replacement house.

BUT.... You'd have an extra $500/month to apply to the payment that you're currently flushing down the drain to buy gas. Personally I would much rather pay $500/mo toward a house which will retain, at least some of its value (and over time increase again) than toward gas which is "gone" once it's been burned.

You would also save 2+ hours of your time each day. For my sanity that would be worth $100/day. In more pragmatic terms, If money's really that tight, those 2 hours represent an extra $400/month you could earn by working as a whopper-flopper or other $10/hr job (perhaps twice that or more if you have any skills that fit part-time positions in the local job market). Tack that on to the $500 in gas and you're up to having a "spare" $900 to put towards a mortgage.

Of course if your credit isn't very good (as viewed by the bank) you might not be able to obtain a new loan in the first place so that could be a concern

[bfrikken]

Perhaps still worth a look... If it's bad in your area it's probably about as bad 60 miles away near your work... So it would probably take longer (perhaps much longer) to sell (definite hassle factor), but then you'd be looking at buying an equally discounted replacement house.

BUT.... You'd have an extra $500/month to apply to the payment that you're currently flushing down the drain to buy gas. Personally I would much rather pay $500/mo toward a house which will retain, at least some of its value (and over time increase again) than toward gas which is "gone" once it's been burned.

You would also save 2+ hours of your time each day. For my sanity that would be worth $100/day. In more pragmatic terms, If money's really that tight, those 2 hours represent an extra $400/month you could earn by working as a whopper-flopper or other $10/hr job (perhaps twice that or more if you have any skills that fit part-time positions in the local job market). Tack that on to the $500 in gas and you're up to having a "spare" $900 to put towards a mortgage.

Of course if your credit isn't very good (as viewed by the bank) you might not be able to obtain a new loan in the first place so that could be a concern

Yeah, The real savings is in time. The market by us is real slow, but believe it or not, it's picking up 60 miles away. The area I work can thank some huge job announcements to feeding the housing market. That, and the fact it would take us a bit to even get our house ready for the market. 2 little kids not only wreak havoc but eat up your time. We're not hurting, but need to be realistic about our budget too, if that makes sense. My wife is staying at home with the kids, and that is our choice. She's an engineer, and could be bringing home nice pay, but she is an awesome mom and we choose to have her at home I know, that job at home is more rewarding then the engineering field. She's finishing her masters and when she's done with that, the hope is she can go back to work and the kids are in school then.

[Garasaki]

Buying a new vehicle to get better mpg almost never works out. Let's do the math. You are getting 19 mpg and commuting 120 miles a day. So you are using 6.32 gallons of gas per day at $3.89 per. Fuel costs per day would be $24.58. Now, let's make a stretch that you would be able to find a vehicle that you liked that would get 30 mpg. You would use 4 gallons of gas per day at $3.89 for a fuel cost per day of $15.56, saving you $9.02 per day. Assume 21 commuting days per month that would save you $189.42 per month in fuel.

Those are all pretty weighty assumptions also. Are you going to in actuality be able to get 30+ mpg?

I bought a 97 honda accord 5 speed 2 (I think?) years ago. Payment was less then 190 a month. Mileage was/is a true 32 or 33 mpg during the summer - 29ish during the winter.

Just had a diff car break down (a true 35 mpg car ) and was driving my pickup (13 mpg) to work (25 miles each way).

I saved more in gas money then the car payment, real dollars no assumptions made. And gas is a dollar more a gallon now!!!

[germdoc]

Sounds like a replay of the early 70's. That's when my Dad got a Datsun stationwagon for commuting to work instead of his beloved Pontiac Bonneville. That's what I learned to drive on.

I was going to write a long rant about gas prices, with quotes and footnotes and stuff, but I just don't have the energy. As best I can tell the high price of gas in this country is mainly due to the high price of oil. (Duh.) Since oil is a commodity traded on the futures market, there seems to be a bubble mentality--must buy today because price will be higher tomorrow, which is a self-fulfilling prophesy. And of course the speculators are getting in the act, figuring they can buy today and sell tomorrow at a profit, even though they no intention of even taking possession of 1 drop of oil. Then there are the issues of depreciation of the dollar and foreign demand for oil.

It's complicated. Yet another thing in life no one really understands (along with the minds of women, why men do comb-overs, Pauly Shore, etc.).

[bigstick509]

The soaring gas prices bring to mind this old favorite.

[big tim]

I went to the gas station today and asked for 5 dollars worth of gas, the attendant broke wind and handed me a receipt.

Tim

[bfrikken]

I went to the gas station today and asked for 5 dollars worth of gas, the attendant broke wind and handed me a receipt.

Tim

Thanks, I laughed out loud at my desk. Others think I'm crazy now.... I just said, oh you'd have laughed too at some guy farting and getting 5 bucks, nevermind...

[jonmulzer]

If you want a new vehicle, buy a new vehicle. Using the gas mileage argument to justify purchasing one is silly though. You are running the numbers backwards, not accounting for risk and other things. I really don't care either way, it is not my budget.