Commuting

[3Ts]

I have to have my truck for occasional use. Let's see, a second vehicle that I could fit into would cost around $35k. at $2.50/gal that is 14,000 gallons of fuel. That equals 266,000 miles. and that does not take into account taxes, insurance, registration, titles, etc. I can drive the truck for less than it costs to buy a second vehicle.

 

[4570Man]

There's used vehicles for a lot less than 35 grand.

 

[John Fitzgerald]

We drive wife's small car to/around town and to do short errands and such. Anything over about 50-60 miles round trip, we drive the F150. The little car is just not comfortable for longer trips or for driving on the interstate, but it's good for getting around tight spaces in town.

 

[aczlan]

It amazes me the number of people driving full size trucks, some 4x4, every day to work and back. When I first moved to my current house I drove a 4 cylinder Ford Ranger and was getting about 25 mpg. I then went to a 6 cylinder F150 in the early 2000's and was getting about 21 mpg. When the price of gas jumped to over 3$ I switched to a small car, a Hyundai Accent and get about 33-35 mpg. I've put over 190,000 on that little Accent and have saved a ton of money on gasoline, maintenance, and depreciation. I still keep a full size truck for occasional use but I probably put less than 1000 miles per year on it.

Does anyone else drive small cars anymore? I really don't see many on the road in our area. It's mostly trucks and suv's. I'm sure the sales numbers reflect that too.

Kevin

With fuel at $2.54/gallon and driving 10,000 miles per year, if you spend more than $2032/year on insurance and maintenance for your "commuter car", you are losing money driving a car that gets 50MPG vs one that gets 10MPG.
With fuel at $2.54/gallon and driving 20,000 miles per year, if you spend more than $1524/year on insurance and maintenance for your "commuter car", you are losing money driving a car that gets 50MPG vs one that gets 20MPG.

MPG	Miles/year	Gallons/year	$/Gallon	$/year
10	10000	1,000	$ 2.54	$ 2,540
15	10000	667	$ 2.54	$ 1,693
20	10000	500	$ 2.54	$ 1,270
25	10000	400	$ 2.54	$ 1,016
30	10000	333	$ 2.54	$ 847
35	10000	286	$ 2.54	$ 726
40	10000	250	$ 2.54	$ 635
45	10000	222	$ 2.54	$ 564
50	10000	200	$ 2.54	$ 508

Aaron Z

 

[WilliamBos]

There's used vehicles for a lot less than 35 grand.

The Civic i quoted the payment on is only $21,000 plus taxes (13%) and financing. After the used POS I traded in on my Ram, wont buy used again.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I'm driving my F150 Super Crew all day, every day... period. Who wants to T bone a squirrel and have the air bag engage ???:confused3:

 

[Katahdin]

My daily driver is a Jeep TJ, I can get both a small form-factor and lousy gas mileage! LOL.

I do like the maneuverability and ease of parking in the Jeep. If I had a longer commute, I'd consider a front-wheel drive car in the 40 mpg fuel economy range.

 

[4570Man]

Adding in maintaining on a second vehicle isn't exactly fair. Maintenance is mostly dependent on mileage and you'd spend less on your other vehicle. I've made several pro second vehicle post. With that said I drive a truck.

 

[charlton289]

I Have a Nissan rogue AWD which my wife drives back and forth to work my other vehicle is a 01 Dodge Durango 2 WD with the 5.9 in it. I was driving that back and forth to work till my prostate cancer forced me to quit my job I was driving about 60 miles round trip for work but if we go anywhere we take the Nissan. It definitely gets better mileage than Durango but the Durango is a better ride comfort but we do what we have to do to get by. But if it wasn't for the Lord Jesus who knows where we we would be.

 

[Streetcar]

I have to have my truck for occasional use. Let's see, a second vehicle that I could fit into would cost around $35k. at $2.50/gal that is 14,000 gallons of fuel. That equals 266,000 miles. and that does not take into account taxes, insurance, registration, titles, etc. I can drive the truck for less than it costs to buy a second vehicle.

I have coworker 450lb and 5-10 height drive a Honda Civic.