Commuter Car Math

[CTX-SLPR]

So being the geek that I am, I did a spreadsheet today to look at the cost recovery of buying another vehicle to get better gas mileage vs. a Big Block Suburban. The answer was pretty interesting. The basic answer is in today's used car market combined with TX gas costs, it takes a really cheap vehicle or a long drive to make it pay for itself in less than 3-4yrs. Now there are certainly other advantages like fitting better into parking spaces and garages but purely on gas alone, it's not a very compelling argument.
I guess it might come down to paying out of savings once to get a vehicle that fits into your monthly income for gas or slowly bleeding your savings to keep the thirstier vehicle going...

[Sleeper73]

I don't know how you feel about bikes but I get about 50 miles to the gallon and full coverage is a joke. My truck hardly ever leaves the driveway.

[Loren]

I love fast cars and big engines and drove a big-block El Camino for everything for 20 years but have come to where I believe that when I'm just commuting; driving down the freeway one direction in the morning and the other at the end of the day while someone else is in another car going the opposite way, 5-6 times a week, I really shouldn't be using up more of the world's one-time-gift petroleum resources, or even taking up more space, than I really need to. It seems kind-of ridiculous that 200 lb me (it's been a while since I checked) needs 6,000 of iron and plastic to be pushed through the wind and accelerated and stopped how-many dozen times just to plant my butt two towns over or wherever, every day.

So I guess the point is, for me it's more than about just direct costs.

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With that I'd bought a '98 Saturn, the kind with the DOHC 4-cyl and 5-speed which can haul-ass just fine, for $250 and spent another $1500 giving it the rebuilding it needed but my daughter bought it from me for her commute. I still have another Saturn (wagon, I kinda like the wagons) but it's the SOHC/auto and a dog so I watch for another dual-cam/manual car.

Why Saturns is, due to relatives having them (sometimes running to very high mileage like 300K) I've been through the pain of figuring out how to fix the weird little cars so I'm familiar. Plus they were an American brand. A Jetta or Subaru might work too and look better in the grocery store lot although cost more, as for me gosh it's great to be old and have that vanity thing essentially disappear and I don't care.

Or my '78 El Camino on-again/off-again project which I've come to believe my effort at putting a '90's LT1 motor in was a dopey idea even if the motor was essentially free and am picking up a 5.3 LS this weekend that might be better. Bigger and thirstier than the Splaturn but still smaller than my extra-cab-4x4-long-bed pickup and I don't drive that much anyway.

Of course if you've got a household of people going, you'll need to still keep a family truckster around, and the per-seat mileage when you're using it is probably pretty good.

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Another thing is stuff like parking, and insurance. That one-person-me has to pay insurance on two cars if I have two, is nada bueno in my opinion. Then tires rot, batteries go bad...so if you need just a little car 90 percent of the time and a big car the other 10, if you want to avoid those costs you're stuck with having just the big car.

Just my thinking, your take may vary.

[Captain]

FYI, for this argument....
I would have to see the current tax tables, but I used to get 53¢/mi deduction using my vehicle for work. This was a "Average" to cover everything, oil changes, tires, gas, AND DEPRECATION !!

So, a Vintage "Beater with a Heater" could actually make you money.

[Sleeper73]

I'm sitting here staring at my Firebird and I can picture it with an LS motor. Daily driver is starting to sound good.

[Loren]

You only live once!

[CTX-SLPR]

The cost of registration dropping between CA and TX is what makes getting another vehicle even conceivable. Something fitting for a solo or kid drop off commute while the Suburban gets saved for hauling stuff, transporting 6-9 people around an the like. I really like the idea of having something smaller to try to park in a parking garage vs. the Suburban and as gas is likely to keep going up, the repayment will close quicker.

[SuperBuickGuy]

that's true - as long as you don't live in a tax state (e.g. NY/CA), you can own cars for purpose.

[Dan Barlow]

Another suburban owner here , I've got way to many cars and trucks . The vette has been down for probably 6 months, the 350 S10 in at least a year and a half , so I had been dailying my 10 mpg suburban till my wife turned a $9500 2014 i think Acura TL into a perfectly operational $1700 total . And while this isn't the most economical "Honda Accord " out there with its 285 horse V6 , I can average 24 driving it like I'm on the autobahn . And while I'm only 10 miles from work and tried to keep errand running to mostly on the way home , the suburban was really eating up alot of cash . The buying of this car back from the insurance company has probably already paid for a 1/3 of it into gas saving . I still have the 'burb but only use it if one of the kids need to borrow the car or we have a blizzard like last week , or something needs hauled .I was going thru 50 bucks trying not to drive it much a week to 40 bucks lasting 2 weeks . I'd highly recommend a Honda product.

[Sleeper73]

My wife has a KIA Forte hatchback and it's been a pretty good little car. Heavy tint on the windows and you're good to go.