4 neighbors bought new cars to save on gas. Is this a trend!

[pandora174]

My BIL & SIL bought just one family car for themselves & teenage daughter. I have no idea how that's going to work. But they traded in a guz guzzling pickup & they do work together but I have no idea how the teenage daughter is going to get to school & back or her many after school activities ? Oh well if it saves them money we're all for it

 

[MrsPooh]

We are planning to do this within the next couple of weeks.

Vehicle #1 is an older, gas guzzling full-sized pickup dh purchased with cash used because he was working on the weekends for a friend who owns a courier business. Since gas prices went so high it is not really worth the cost/time to do that work. He only drives to/from work because when we go anywhere as a family we take my vehicle. It cost him about $10/day for gasoline to work. He is going to sell the pickup and use the cash to buy a cheap, older, more fuel efficient car. Will only cost us the price of registration and sales tax but considering the amount of gas this monster uses it will be worthwhile.

Vehicle # is an older Explorer that I love but that gets cruddy gas mileage. Main problem with it is that it will soon require alot of work. It has been paid off for years. I'm planning to sell it and purchase an older minivan my parents own. They'll sell it to me for whatever I get for my truck and we'll actually handle it as a gift from a family member so I won't owe sales tax, only registration. The vehicle will be much more reliable but will also get much better gas mileage.

So, for us we'll only put out a small amount of cash for sales tax and registration and have two more fuel efficient vehicles. Would never work with one we owed much on.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Where I live, everyone still has Yukons and Suburbans. They are still everywhere on the roads. Not much has changed. As posters here said, everyone already owns these huge expensive cars and they would lose much more money trading them in. So the SUV still rules here. I don't care what the media says - here everyone loves SUVs and won't consider a vehicle much smaller - except maybe a large trendy "crossover" which all still look like SUVs to me!

Yes, here too. SUV's everywhere. Our Yukon however, has been relegated to the driveway. Me and DH have 3 cars between us and there's no sense feeding the gas hog if we don't have to for now. I only fill up maybe once a month anyway, but $45 for a fill of my little car versus $140 for the Yukon is a big reason why its not on the road.

 

[minnie1928]

What's funny in my situation is that a few years ago my co workers were making fun of our 4 cylinder cars (at the time we both had Saturns... now DH still has his Saturn, I now drive a Jeep Compass, bigger but still a 4 cylinder non the less)... well back fast forward to today... they have large gas guzzling beasts that they have hefty payments on ... I wonder who is laughing now????

Back in 10/06 I bought a Camry Hybrid. I traded my paid for 2003 BMW X5 and it was almost an even trade, and then I got some of the tax credit that was still available. At the time all my coworkers laughed at me, said I was becoming "Al Gore" and starting to look a little green. Now I'm the one laughing! I went from a car that required 93 octane gas to a car running on 87. The BMW got 16-18mpg, now I'm consistently getting over 40. They all still have their V8 gas guzzling SUVs and are complaining how gas is killing them.

The thing that amazes me is that they'll complain how much they spend on gas and yet they refuse to carpool. Two of them live very close to each other and could EASILY carpool (same hours, same trip, etc) and they still don't carpool.

 

[DawnM]

Yeah, it doesn't make sense for us to do that either. All cars are paid for, but 2 of our cars do get between 30-40 (both Saturn 4 cyl.), so we are driving those more.

DH drives half way to work and takes the train in and his company subsidizes. That has helped a lot (and he no longer has to pay the $175/mo. parking!!!)

We do have a Sequoia and we just took it on a 1200 mile trip, but it sure is nicer than having 3 boys in the back of a Saturn and both dogs and luggage in the back!!! But eventually we may have to resort to that!

We are hoping that by the time we need a new car (probably 5 years) there will be some more ecologically friendly options that are even better than what is available now.

Dawn

 

[Canusa Family]

My DH (economics major that he is) made a very detailed spreadsheet for his car, initial investment, gas cost, break even point, etc..

Even though gas prices have increased, he is still better off with his Ford EXPEDITION (read gas hog) than a new car. I think he came up with a figure of 7K in order to make a new car "work" for him.

Since he fills up once a month at approx $100 a tank = $1200 year.

It would take 5+ years (not quite six) to hit that point. If I am doing my math right, its a little over 5.5 years to break even for that 7k.

7K does not buy a new or used car. So for the meantime he will continue to drive his Expedition sparingly.

If he fills up once a month he must not drive that Expedition very much!He'd be lucky to get 15 MPG.Now gas is close to $5.00 a gallon.Id say its more closer to $130-$140 to fill that Expedition.I just filled my SUV up today and cost me $100 and I still had 1/4 tank..

 

[corie161]

We debated on trading in, but didn't think it would be worth it. DH has a truck and I have a Trailblazer. My commute to work is less than a mile, so I don't use gas as much. DH just changed jobs a couple of months ago and he doesn't need his truck as much for work so instead of trading he bought a 1991, yes you read right it's 17 years old , Ford Escort to drive to and from work. We also drive it on the weekends when we can to save on the gas. Even with insurance we save on gas monthly. So far it's averaged 30-33 MPG. It's not the prettiest thing on the block, but it runs great!

 

[Cindy B]

If he fills up once a month he must not drive that Expedition very much!He'd be lucky to get 15 MPG.Now gas is close to $5.00 a gallon.Id say its more closer to $130-$140 to fill that Expedition.I just filled my SUV up today and cost me $100 and I still had 1/4 tank..

We live in a cheap gas state. Gas is still about 3.75-3.85 or so. He did fill up for $95 the other day--I was with him. One tank will last him about a month.

He works from home so there is savings there. He fine tuned the air intake valve and he gets between 16-18 mpg. (I want to say 16.7 but that's in his spreadsheet.)

 

[dismom24]

We were already in the market for a "new" car. We bought a 2004 and traded in my van (which had no loan and was starting to need work). We are already saving $125.00 a month is gas. When we looked at all the figures and were basically breaking even $$$ wise, but I don't think a brand new car would be.

 

[luvmy3jewels]

This is going to be strictly from an economic standpoint and not environmental responsibility so I will say that upfront. For some people trading their vehicle in for a more fuel efficient vehicle makes financial sense. These are people who drive a lot of miles and currently have a gas guzzler. For an extreme example, I have a co-worker who traded her 2 year old Hummer for a Toyota Prius. This is someone who drives 50,000 miles a year and she says that the Prius has more than paid for itself.

In my situation, I only drive around 11,000-12,000 miles a year and have a 1 year old Odyssey. The thought of trading in for something more efficient has gone through my head just about every time I fill up....but I know that that is not a cost effective solution in my situation. I now try to stop and pick up items from stores that are on my way home, and when dh is home I use his more efficient car to make any extra trips out.

Everyone's situation is unique (age and value of current car, current mpg vs. new mpg, miles driven, etc) so you would have to sit down and do the spreadsheet to figure it out on an individual basis whether trading down makes financial sense.

 

[T. Lynn]

I have a Suburban but don't want to sell it. Its great for towing our camper. My DH did purchased a banged up 2001 Jetta that he's going to fix. That may be my summer car to save on gas and mileage on my Suburban (hate putting miles on it).

 

[ROIE01581]

we traded in my husbands "sport car" it used hi test and had awful mileage. So he got a Honda FIT. His car had over 80,000 miles and all the dash lights where on too. But it was only 5 years old.

 

[ceecee]

We needed a new one anyway so we got a Camry Hybrid and DH is loving the mpg he gets! We still have the old car (we planned on donating it after we used the full tank of gas it has) I've been driving it instead of my van which gets only 17, the Oldsmobile gets 26 but has 194,000 miles on it!

 

[ohiojoy]

Yeah I don't think it's worth it unless you drive a whole lot and have a truck/suv with really bad mileage. I know for me I would only save less than $500 a year and I would have to spend $20,000 more to get a new car so just not worth it.

 

[Sunobo]

Both of our vehicles are paid off so we've been putting some serious thought into how to combat the high gas prices. I drive a full size van with lousy gas mileage and hubby has a long commute and drives a chevy malibu with okay gas mileage. He really wants a motocycle so we figure if he gets a good used bike and I drive his car then we will save quite a bit of money even though we will have payments on the bike for a little while.

 

[powellrj]

we did last month. DH has a car allowance that dictates what kind and year of car he has to drive. He had to trade by the end of the year anyway, so we just traded early because his car was getting awful mileage and he got something smaller with better mileage.

 

[daisy1234]

Yes ...I agree evreyones situation is sooo different...for some it does make sense. I just hope this thread helps folks taht are thinking about trading to do the math so they don't get taken advantage of when they are out there shopping for the new car. WE have two cars paid for and we think about having a van and another ecomony car as the ideal situation but right now our cars run, are paid for and get 20/ 26 highway. So I can't complain. I just have been doing what many of us budget minded disers are doing...trying to limit unnecessary trips! Th

 

[mlraabe]

We are kind of in the situation now. Our Suburban has to go. I love it but it is starting to cost us a lot of $ in repairs. But, it is paid for. So, it is hard to jusitfy getting another big SUV (we need one with 4 kids and all of their stuff) and paying high gas $ or just keep dealing with the one we have now and just have the gas $ and the repair bills. That being said, right now the big used car dealership has amazing deals on 05-08 suburbans, yukons, navigators, etc. It makes it a little more tempting!

 

[Taja]

I'm sooooo glad I bought my 2003 Toyota Corolla instead of the SUV everyone wanted me to buy at the time! My little car sits there in the covered parking area at the office surrounded by huge SUVs--and their owners are complaining about the operating costs! Most of these vehicles are for status, rather than family need, so I don't have a lot of sympathy! *LOL*

 

[myAAbatteries&aTD]

We are buying a new car strictly for commuting purposes... we're keeping my suburban (paid for this month - YEAH!) and dh's truck (no payments on it either), both of which get anywhere between 16.5-19 mpg and buying a Honda Civic Hybrid which will get 45 mpg. Dh has a very LOOOOOOONG commute and I drive A LOT for business so it makes sense for us to get a new car and save major money on gas every month..... we'll probably put about 50,000 on the car next year between the 2 of us (yes I did say 50K) - hopefully the year after that we can cut the mileage on it in half, but it will still be worth not having to fill up the suburban and truck twice a week at $100 each time...... we're having to wait on the hybrid to be delivered, but it should be here this month sometime.....