Is it time to sell my VX and buy new?

[jadziasman]

With crude oil hitting just about $140/bbl, is it now a good time to fetch top $$$$ for my 92 VX with 180K miles? All I would really need to do is get it painted and I think I could get $3500 for it fairly easily. Mechanically, it's tip top. I have been getting 50 mpg driving it at 60 to 62 mph without any hypermiling.

Any other VX owners thinking about doing this? I would love to get a new Civic or Fit and the $3500 would make a nice down payment with some other feed money. Sure I would be losing some mpg but I would be getting a safer and quicker car that will last for many years beyond the VX (I think!).

Tempting, tempting!!

[92VXHatchguy]

In my opinion, your car is already paid for, so if it were me, yeah, a new car is always nice, but you have to consider that you're going to be making payments again for a new car. I'd say invest the money into something else wisely. So I'd just keep the VX. I bought 2 cars, my VX will be my daily driver and my Si will be my project. I'd say maybe if the motor is still original, maybe get a new (used JDM) vx motor and keep the car forever. Maintenance, gas and insurance is all you'll have to worry about. Everyone is worried about the gas prices, and with a new car payment on top of that? Keep your money my friend.

[mkiVX]

i want a 2000 hx
i think i would trade my mint vx for a 1999 or 2000 hx

[R.I.D.E.]

Oil at 138 a barrel, dems talking about nailing the oil companies with more tax, or pull the subsidies, middle east powder keg, predicted to be 150 a barrel by 7-6-08.

Why get rid of a car that uses 2000 gallons per 100 k miles, for one that uses another $4300 (could easily be $7000) in fuel alone. If you have to make payments, add interest, higher insurance, property taxes.

Mine cost me $5000 in March, still needs a paint job, but it only has 32,600 original miles. I will drive it until they make something better. If they don't I will make something better myself.

Virginia Tech will start working on my prototype design this fall. When they have done the testing and see the efficiency at 90+% it will become the core of the new generation of ultra high mileage cars.

In 5 years this technology could be applied worldwwide. Its simple (25% fewer parts PER VEHICLE) robust (500k mile life expectancy) and easy to manufacture.

I bought mine with that understanding.

Keep your car, in 5 years you will see them scrapping much of what is on the road today, when gas hits $10 a gallon.

Then buy a new car that gets 75 MPG average, maybe even better.


regards
gary

[jadziasman]

Yeah, I thought about the fact that cars with 100+ mpg equivalent are on their way but I have no idea what they will cost. I hope that my VX will last a few more years but with a car almost 17 years old driven at least 55 miles per day who can say how much longer it will last.

I don't mind driving at 60 mph too much but wish others would join me - not too many early adopters of lower speed unfortunately here in the Motor City. I drove over 120 miles today because my wife locked her keys in the Buick and I had to drive in a 100 mile circle to pick up the keys at home, drive to where she works and then back to work again. I drove a constant 57 to 60 and everyone passed me - everyone, even the semi trailers. Not too many inconsiderate s.o.b.s today although a few of em tailgated me briefly before speeding off. I've started to like driving slower again - less stressful. Maybe because I'm the only one going a constant speed LOL!!!

I guess some "kids" don't remember the double nickel speed limit like me. It used to take me 20 hours to drive the 900 miles from Florida to my home in the Chicago area in the late 70's when I was stationed near Pensacola while serving in the Navy. My old 79 Chevette would get about 35 mpg in the summer at 55 - 60 mph. It would only get 25 mpg when it was really cold out - sub zero. Don't see sub zero temps that often any more. Climate change???? Could be.

[FLAteam]

i think you should keep it too, or maybe grab a Civic HX if you can.

...you'll never meet another hypermiler on the road because we'd be traveling at the same speed.

[R.I.D.E.]

The future is not hybrid and it is not expensive. High capacity short duration storage is proven by all of us hypermilers (thats what we do). Even the Prius can be hypermiled to double its EPA rating. You only need to store enough energy to get to 75 MPH once, as long as you can regenerate that same energy at 90% efficiency, wheel to storage-back to wheel. Pulse and glide is only a single event storage system. By definition a hybrid derives its power from two sources. Capacitive storage can give you neck snapping acceleration from only one source, with one regenerative (fuel consuming) supply source, although there could be more than one supply source.

Its not the engine, you can get 80% (EPA documented with a vehicle to prove the point at 80 MPG and 3800 pounds), by using hydraulic accumulators or moderate speed flywheels. No batteries required, but if there is a breakthrough in battery technology, combined with solar cell improvements then electric will be the pathway.

Give me your ear for a minute. It can be electric (need a good battery) biofuels (HCCI+compression ignition on gasoline) or diesel. Today my nephew told me they have developed a solar cell (think I saw it on TV) that stores 40% of the potential energy of the area covered by the collector by converting a good percentage of all the spectrum of light. This is in a thin flexible material that could be used for roofing on your home, and generate enough energy to power all of your utilities as well as your car.

The political climate has finally turned towards energy independence. Maybe I should be a grumpy old pessimist, but I truly believe you will see astounding improvements in every facet of energy collection from sources whose potential is known by all of us. Green Tech is the new hot topic and every time gas prices jump OPEC is driving a nail in its own coffin. They remind me of Tobacco Companies.

When this happens the vehicle population will become rolling scrap metal. Its just not the time to buy into a larger inventory of rolling scrap metal. Many of the guzzlers today are practically unsellable. Like the Muscle Cars of the 60's and 70's they will be parked and later scrapped becuse no one will spend $80,000 for fuel for 200K miles. The cost of fuel has just approached the point where it is more than all other automotive costs combined.

You made the right choice in buying your VX, as long as it doesn't cost you a fortune hang on to it. It should be good for 5 more years at 15k a year.

As Yamamoto stated "We have awakened a sleeping giant", so does OPEC in their thirst for our wealth. We have yet to get mad enough to act, and the car manufacturers are too financially strapped to risk jumping on the wrong ship. Only the financial resources of gov't (although calling them resources is kind of hypocritical) will get us to true energy independence. The only nuclear reactor we need is 92 million miles away.

regards
gary

[Project84]

That was inspiring.

Right on, Gary!!

Oh yeah... keep the VX!

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by jadziasman

I guess some "kids" don't remember the double nickel speed limit like me. It used to take me 20 hours to drive the 900 miles from Florida to my home in the Chicago area in the late 70's

I think the average age here is old enough that most members drove during double nickel times. It lasted a lot longer than the 70s...it was repealed in 1995. Since then, in my corner of the country, I haven't seen anything higher than 65 anyway. I think I saw 70 once while on a vacation to PA.

Why, in the late 80s/early 90s when gas prices were at an all time low, were the cars at their most efficient?

Originally Posted by FLAteam

...you'll never meet another hypermiler on the road because we'd be traveling at the same speed.

More like you won't recognize the other hypermiler. I'm at what I believe is a sustainable 40% over EPA while still passing most traffic on the highway.

Originally Posted by R.I.D.E.

every time gas prices jump OPEC is driving a nail in its own coffin.

OPEC is still alive after doing the same thing in the 70s. I'm not old enough to say from personal experience, but it's my understanding that public sentiment was approximately the same as now -- the sky is falling, oil is going to run dry soon, etc.

Personally, I'm all for reducing our OPEC dependence, whether by replacing them or reducing our fuel usage, but I don't think they're pricing themselves out of business.

The only nuclear reactor we need is 92 million miles away.

I love the idea of solar but nobody has managed to make it entirely feasible yet. Unless that happens, in a real bad energy crisis I think nuclear (which I am not partial to, nor am I against it) will get chosen as the quickest practical way to take up the slack.

[StorminMatt]

Originally Posted by theholycow

Why, in the late 80s/early 90s when gas prices were at an all time low, were the cars at their most efficient?

For a couple of reasons. First of all, it takes several years for a car design to become a reality. And it took even longer back in the days before computer aided design, etc. So MANY of the cars of the late 1980s were actually on the drawing board LONG before that - during times when gas was MUCH more expensive. Secondly, the late 1980s is when old, inefficient carbureted engines started to be replaced by MUCH more efficient fuel injected engines. Once again, this is something that had been in the works for quite some time. It is only by coincidence that gas prices happened to be low when all this happened. Of course, as gas prices remained low, size and weight started to creep up.

Originally Posted by R.I.D.E.

They remind me of Tobacco Companies.

Perhaps, in some ways. But even Big Tobacco knows that increasing the cost of cigarettes will be the death of them. On the other hand, Big Oil probably knows that the crude is running out, and they might as well make big bucks while they still can.