Annual fuel cost per household

[arrow]

This thread brings up an interesting point which may be a bit of a hijack. Many people have jumped to a new car that gets better gas mileage thinking to save money. One has to weigh in several factors. I just went through this with one of my daughters. She's spending $75 per week for her Nissan frontier 6 speed 4wd that is getting 20 mpg. She looked into a new Elantra. Her style of driving would get around 35 mpg with this car. She's has 1 year left for payments on the Frontier. If she bought the new car, at the end of the 5 year note, she's spending almost $1500 more than if she kept her truck for the same period weighing in the payments and cost of gas for the new car. Of course she'd have a 10 year old truck that would need stuff so it could equal out or worse if she needed to replace a clutch on the truck. None the less it is not automatic that you'd save money in the long run if you are almost finished paying for your old vehicle and need to take out a similar note on a new vehicle even if the new car is getting almost twice the mileage. $250-$300 per month can buy a lot of gas if it's not going into a car payment.

 

[KML]

I buy all of my fuel - gas for the car and boat, diesel for the truck, and Ag for the tractor - from my Co-op that also uses the Fuelman and CFN billing systems. Even when I purchase on the road it shows up on my monthly statement. One advantage is that it tracks by what card (mine or my wifes) what type of fuel, and the miles on the vehicle (if you enter it properly at the pump) I do, my wife doesn't

The down side is that I can tell you that last year I spent $14,366 on fuel, my wife drives to d@mn much and diesel sure isn't cheap anymore

 

[Diamondpilot]

My household averages approx $900 a month. Around $11,000 a yr in fuel.

I love my Dodge Ram with Lifetime Bumper to Bumper warranty but the 13.6 mpg avg is costly!

I though my Nissan Titan was bad at 14.4 mpg average.

Chris

 

[Diamondpilot]

This thread brings up an interesting point which may be a bit of a hijack. Many people have jumped to a new car that gets better gas mileage thinking to save money. One has to weigh in several factors. I just went through this with one of my daughters. She's spending $75 per week for her Nissan frontier 6 speed 4wd that is getting 20 mpg. She looked into a new Elantra. Her style of driving would get around 35 mpg with this car. She's has 1 year left for payments on the Frontier. If she bought the new car, at the end of the 5 year note, she's spending almost $1500 more than if she kept her truck for the same period weighing in the payments and cost of gas for the new car. Of course she'd have a 10 year old truck that would need stuff so it could equal out or worse if she needed to replace a clutch on the truck. None the less it is not automatic that you'd save money in the long run if you are almost finished paying for your old vehicle and need to take out a similar note on a new vehicle even if the new car is getting almost twice the mileage. $250-$300 per month can buy a lot of gas if it's not going into a car payment.

Yep, I see this all the time. I call it stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny syndrome. Most, and I mean 75% or more, are so blind they can not see this. It does get more complicated with bigger trucks like my F-350. Tires are $1200 every 30,000 miles and oil changes even doing them myself are expensive at $75 each. Bigger trucks cost more to maintain, just the facts.

What I have done is buy a fixer upper small car. The last two I bought I keep for 3 years each and sold car #1 for $600 more than I had in it after 40,000 miles and car #2 I sold for $50 less than I had in it after 40,000 miles. Both gave me about 33mpg during the time I had them and were cheap to maintain and my total insurance bill went down due to more discounts. Plates were $100 a year that I did not include but the offset in economy more than paid for that, oil changes, tires, and the nickle and dime items and keep the miles off my nice trucks.

This only works if you can buy the cars right. Both I bought with major issues for less than 1/2 blue book. The last one I bought I had to put $2000 in a $6000 car the day I got it but I knew that going in.

Chris

 

[JDgreen227]

This is an oldie but should make a few of you guys laugh:

Back in 1974, my dad purchased a new Ford LTD with every option available, and when they began talking about gas rationing, he panicked and traded it in at less than a year old, and purchased a Maverick to replace it. Needless to say, he took a big loss on the trade in, and paid sticker price for the Maverick, then Ford discontinued that model after 1977, and the "orphan" status cut the trade in/resale value of the smaller car.

Sad thing is, they never rationed gas, and my dad really didn't drive enough to have to worry about that anyhow. He was always a very careful man with a dollar, and I never understood why he did such a thing.

As for me, my 3/4 ton Yukon XL struggles to make 13 mpg, but I drive it less than 1,000 miles a year, so who cares about the fuel mileage?

 

[crazyal]

This thread brings up an interesting point which may be a bit of a hijack. Many people have jumped to a new car that gets better gas mileage thinking to save money. One has to weigh in several factors. I just went through this with one of my daughters. She's spending $75 per week for her Nissan frontier 6 speed 4wd that is getting 20 mpg. She looked into a new Elantra. Her style of driving would get around 35 mpg with this car. She's has 1 year left for payments on the Frontier. If she bought the new car, at the end of the 5 year note, she's spending almost $1500 more than if she kept her truck for the same period weighing in the payments and cost of gas for the new car. Of course she'd have a 10 year old truck that would need stuff so it could equal out or worse if she needed to replace a clutch on the truck. None the less it is not automatic that you'd save money in the long run if you are almost finished paying for your old vehicle and need to take out a similar note on a new vehicle even if the new car is getting almost twice the mileage. $250-$300 per month can buy a lot of gas if it's not going into a car payment.

But she would also have a 4 year new vehicle with less mileage. So you need to figure in what the difference in value between the two would be. Of course if she was to buy a hybrid and had the added costs up front of buying one and then the costs of replacing batteries when they die it gets even more complicated.

Personally I think we have moved from the 2 car family to the three car (maybe even 4 car). You now need a small fuel efficient car for each person who works for commuting, a full size car for family trips, and a pickup. The elcheapo commuter car gets the bulk of the mileage and is what gets replaced. The truck and family car will now last a very long time so they don't get replaced very often (but you still have the added cost of buying them).

Of course if you don't take trips the family car may not be needed or if you have a trailer you may not need a pickup. But most families need one or the other. If your younger you could be lucky and live near your parents to borrow a pickup when needed. But with gas costing what it does it's getting to the point where it makes more sense to buy a couple year old econobox and run it into the ground.

 

[crazyal]

Yep, I see this all the time. I call it stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny syndrome. Most, and I mean 75% or more, are so blind they can not see this. It does get more complicated with bigger trucks like my F-350. Tires are $1200 every 30,000 miles and oil changes even doing them myself are expensive at $75 each. Bigger trucks cost more to maintain, just the facts.

What I have done is buy a fixer upper small car. The last two I bought I keep for 3 years each and sold car #1 for $600 more than I had in it after 40,000 miles and car #2 I sold for $50 less than I had in it after 40,000 miles. Both gave me about 33mpg during the time I had them and were cheap to maintain and my total insurance bill went down due to more discounts. Plates were $100 a year that I did not include but the offset in economy more than paid for that, oil changes, tires, and the nickle and dime items and keep the miles off my nice trucks.

This only works if you can buy the cars right. Both I bought with major issues for less than 1/2 blue book. The last one I bought I had to put $2000 in a $5000 car the day I got it but I knew that going in.


Chris

When I had more time I would buy cars wrecked with rebuildable titles. Places like this http://www1.casmiami.com/listings.asp that sell cars with minor damage like storm or hail damage that's just cosmetic we easy to fix, run for a year or so then sell for what you had into it. I haven't looked lately so I don't know if the prices are still worth it.

For example this Subaru would sell easily for $12k even with the rebuilt title and 20k miles on it a year from now around here.

 

[Diamondpilot]

When I had more time I would buy cars wrecked with rebuildable titles. Places like this http://www1.casmiami.com/listings.asp that sell cars with minor damage like storm or hail damage that's just cosmetic we easy to fix, run for a year or so then sell for what you had into it. I haven't looked lately so I don't know if the prices are still worth it.

For example this Subaru would sell easily for $12k even with the rebuilt title and 20k miles on it a year from now around here.

I personally do not mess with salvage titles as they are called in Indiana. I just wait till I hear of someone trying to trade in a car and not getting much for it for whatever reason. My last Saturn I bought with 68,000 miles for $2850 cash. It need a full exhaust system, $800 done at Midas. A power window regulator, $100 done by me. A new sun roof assembly, $500 (stuck partially open) done by me. Tie rods and ball joints, $100 done by me. Front brakes, $75 done by me. Tires and a alignment, $450 done by Tire Barn. New horn, $15 ebay find done by me. New speakers, $100 done by me.

Anyway, I got this car up and running tip top and then changed all the fluids, belts, ect in the next week. It was a good little car with just the typical GM stuff going wrong from time to time. Yes, I put $2000 in it before I even drove it but once done it was under $5000 for a $6000 car that was in tip top shape with power everything, sun roof, auto tranny, cold ac, ect.

Chris

 

[JDgreen227]

But she would also have a 4 year new vehicle with less mileage. So you need to figure in what the difference in value between the two would be. Of course if she was to buy a hybrid and had the added costs up front of buying one and then the costs of replacing batteries when they die it gets even more complicated.

Personally I think we have moved from the 2 car family to the three car (maybe even 4 car). You now need a small fuel efficient car for each person who works for commuting, a full size car for family trips, and a pickup. The elcheapo commuter car gets the bulk of the mileage and is what gets replaced. The truck and family car will now last a very long time so they don't get replaced very often (but you still have the added cost of buying them).

Of course if you don't take trips the family car may not be needed or if you have a trailer you may not need a pickup. But most families need one or the other. If your younger you could be lucky and live near your parents to borrow a pickup when needed. But with gas costing what it does it's getting to the point where it makes more sense to buy a couple year old econobox and run it into the ground.

Wife and I have a commuter car for her ('04 Saturn) and a luxury car for trips ('04 Lesabre) and my Y2K GMC for hauling and towing, our '93 Cutlass for a summer driver. The bulk of the mileage gets put on the Saturn.

The headache is, even though the three lower mileage vehicles get less than 2,000 miles per year put on them, they still cost us $900-plus a year for insurance and plates each.

 

[rasimmo]

My annual fuel cost is staring me in the face every paycheck. All my fuel gets put on a credit card and is deducted from my check. YTD it is $5962.39. That is with a 10% discount from the company I work for, and buy the fuel from. I have an 09 F-250 diesel adn an 08 Altima. Both get 12 to 15 thousand miles per year put on them. This is pretty depressing, but probably won't get much better.