Knee jerk reaction

[ifirefight]

Just wondered if anybody has sold/traded their gas guzzler for a more fuel efficient vehicle. Seems to me, people are spending thousands to save hundreds.

I drive a Ford F-250 that gets 12-13 mpg. However,I am not trading it in on a compact. Correct me if I'm wrong...but isn't SAFETY the reason most of you bought a larger vehicle in the first place?? So you spend 30-50k on a "SAFE" vehicle..then decide..All that safety stuff is over rated in order to save a few bucks on gas. Don't get me wrong..I don't like paying high gas prices either,but I will stick with my big heavy truck.Thanks.

 

[renogaw]

i bought my truck to haul stuff. can't do that in a pinto...
did you see that toyota just recalled 800k trucks for a body rot issue, and are giving OVER blue book value based on pristine condition? it honestly sounds like a sweet way to drum up business...
force everyone to trade in their trucks, give em some money and then hope they buy a new one from you LOL. specially since they are giving $500 if you buy another toyota on top of your trade in...

 

[jrthomas40]

i bought a truck to have another vehicle to drive when i put my honda in the shop... but i have been looking for a small truck like a tacoma instead of the f-150 but it is killing me right now because the honda is out of commission but i have been driving my motorcycle more now the weather is better

 

[nicetry]

I don't think it's a knee jerk reaction at all. If anyone can foresee the price of gasoline dropping to even $3.00 a gallon, then clue me in. My sense is we'll see $5.00 per gallon gas by year's end. It's a matter of economics for many. My Durango is close to $80.00 to fill and gets maybe 15 mpg city. It's big, roomy, practical for our needs (camping, hauling, towing) but it's become unnecessary and simply too expensive. When my lease is up in 6 mos., I'm certainly looking at something smaller and cheaper to operate. I think you'll start to see a whole new generation of vehicles that can offer space,comfort, amenities and decent fuel efficiency in the next couple years. It's corporate suicide for the auto makers not to do otherwise. I think there will always be a market for large vehicles, but I also see that maket shrinking in favor of more practical vehcicles that can be afforded by the main stream buyer.

 

[pontius]

my wife and I both have V8s. if I was getting a new car now, I would most definitely be looking for a smaller motor. maybe not a compact car, but maybe a Colorado or something.

 

[reefraff]

I'm thinking I may need me one of the new Camaro's or CHallengers. They are going to hit the market at the worst possible time.

 

[reefkprz]

I have a v6 2.3 with turbo (oh yeah by by gas

), a 4cyl wagon. a 3cyl metro, and a 4 cyl bike. small and mostly semi efficient but I cant haul stuff. the wagons ok but no HP behind it when loaded. I'm keeping the turbo though its just FUN.

 

[bdhutier]

I could be wrong, but I do see fuel going back down. Probably not any time soon, but in a year or so, maybe. The actual field price of crude has stayed fairly constant, it's the futures that have gone up. I'll bet around $5/gal (whatever the barrel futures price is then, maybe $200?), the bubble will break because people will have substantially curbed their usage by then, and demand will drop. Add to that the eventual strengtening of the $US, and it will normalize prices. Supply has been constant, demand is down a little (something like 1% last I heard), so those are not really the issues how I see it.
Since oil is traded in futures, it's just like a stock where the price will continue to go up until investors realize they are dangerously over-valued, and they will bail on it.

 

[sepulatian]

I still drive the same lil POS that I did before. $4.15/ gal tonight

 

[invertcrazy]

wanna talk bout bad fuel milage
500 cat draggin 80,000 w/ 2 150 gal fuel tanks @$5.00/gal

 

[aquaknight]

Yea, some times it really doesn't make sense at all. One guy at work wanted to park his truck and get a motorcycle. I was like oh yea? Take a look and it's some $18,000 Harley.

However, somewhere make note of this, by the end of the year oil back down to $80'ish a barrel and gas under $3.00/per gallon. Just going to be too much surplus.

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2619408
I still drive the same lil POS that I did before. $4.15/ gal tonight

try 4.52...

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by AquaKnight
http:///forum/post/2619454
Yea, some times it really doesn't make sense at all. One guy at work wanted to park his truck and get a motorcycle. I was like oh yea? Take a look and it's some $18,000 Harley.

However, somewhere make note of this, by the end of the year oil back down to $80'ish a barrel and gas under $3.00/per gallon. Just going to be too much surplus.
while hard to believe, some economists are saying the same thing. they are saying that many asian countries are subsidising oil through the gov't. to the tune of $1mil a day. the countries are going bankrupt. bye bye subsidising, buh bye oil usage (people are too poor to pay the high prices), buh bye world record oil usage, hello surplus.

 

[niskyvaulter]

this is just a response to the statement in the first post. one of the largest misconceptions in the automotive industry is that big cars are safer. turns out, no. the only reason that people say compacts are unsafe is because large cars are actually giant threats to anything smaller than them (i.e.; cyclists, pedestrians, your kids playing a baseball game in the street...). bottom line: The only reason that large cars are "safe" is because they make all smaller cars comparatively unsafe.
btw, i completely agree with your main statement that its worthless and a waste of gas (manufacturing, shipment) to buy a new car to save a few hundred.
automotive fun fact: did you know that the model T got 25 mpg? makes you wonder what we could be doing now if we were more responsible people.

 

[demartini]

I can't even stand to look up at the price sign anymore, so I can't tell you how much per gallon I'm paying. I do know that I'm paying as much to fill my mini cooper as I did for when I drove a chevy blazer... and that was just 2 years ago.... driving through San Francisco everyday kills my gas!

 

[briand7878]

You can get the e85 conversion for about $250.00. I dont care what the stats say. E85 is 2.89 here with gas at 4.09. In my experience you dont lose the 15% efficiency that they claim. If you have an E85 station close to you give it a thought.

 

[theclemsonkid]

I Didn't trade in my Civic, but I did pick up a new Yamaha Vino 125cc scooter for the summer here in Ohio. I obviously can't haul anything other than myself, but at 90 miles per gallon... I can go to work, most random stuff around town (bank, small grocery trip, odds and ends) and be just fine.
I've had it for almost three months now, and have spent an average of $38.80 per month to fill it up. Had I been driving even my small 4 cylinder Honda, I would have still been at about $152 a month.
So at an average savings of $113.20 a month, over the course of early spring to late fall (let's just say nine months) I'm looking at saving aprox $1,018.80 a season.
Considering I paid $2,699 for it brand new (About $3,000) out the door, it should be paid for in savings at the end of it's third year.
Couple that with the fact I'm actually doing something better for the environment, and I feel pretty darn good about the purchase. Plus, it's a freaking blast to drive!

 

[kerriann]

i went in the opposite direction as well. i traded my 2005 sentra that was getting 28 mpg for my jeep patriot, however, my patriot gets pretty good gas mileage (at least so far - i've only had her a week). i needed 4-wheel drive for weekend ski trips to maryland and that POS ice skate i was driving before just wasn't cutting it. not to mention while i was saving in fuel costs i was spending in repairs. sorry folks but there's a reason foreign cars are cheap...just took me awhile to figure it out myself!

 

[groupergenius]

I'm pulling one of my old diesel Mercedes out of the barn and running used vegetable oil. FREE FUEL BABY!!!!!!

 

[spiderwoman]

Hubby put his F-350 duely (diesel) on vacation for the past 2 weeks when they were racing in Charlotte area and took out his GT3000 that he is driving with racing fuel. No matter what the fuel price is, I don't see us downsizing our day-to-day cars. He has his big truck and I have a Z71 4x4 Suburban that does pretty good fuel mileage considering it's size.
Where I come from, the current US fuel price is peanuts and we used to drive old American muscle cars all summer long and refused to count how much it cost.