what's the truth about trading in your gas guzzler

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

I wish we had the same choices on the used market over here as in the UK. For a start you actually have to make something of an effort to find anything that does less than about 35mpg. Well meaning that if you get a list of 10 cars out of the classified, 6 of 'em would be "good" MPG cars over here, another 3 would be average, and the 1 might be a guzzler ('88 Jaguar XJ6, never raced, rallied or used for bank robberies....) whereas over the pond here it would be 1 good mpg car, 3 average and 6 guzzlers. Kinda miss my old Fiat Uno, 55mpg, no effort, bet it could get 60-70 if you were "trying"

BTW it's somewhat odd, I visited over there a couple of years back and a friend had a Chrysler Voyager, now you can squeeze 25 US out of those here, he was getting 20 Imperial... That's 25/29.6 vs 16.9/20 seems to lose a third on the 98 RON unleaded vs the 87 R+M/2 fuel here. Whereas cars coming this way lose too. The neons over here are known to hit over 40 imperial, whereas I hear they don't do that even with the smaller 1.8 motor available over there.

[startaquote.com]

I've only recently lost interest in buying the newest and best vehicles, but, since this thread is about trading in gas guzzlers it would be interesting to see current real-world prices on trade-in's for 07 - 08 models, SUV's mainly.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Originally Posted by startaquote.com

I've only recently lost interest in buying the newest and best vehicles, but, since this thread is about trading in gas guzzlers it would be interesting to see current real-world prices on trade-in's for 07 - 08 models, SUV's mainly.

This might give you an idea...also you might check what cars have actually SOLD for on eBay...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=92259328

[OokiiMamoru]

I'm facing a tough decision myself.

1989 Cadillac Eldorado, I'm squeezing 20 mpg, 3 tank avg so far. I know I can squeeze about 25 to 28 out of an Chevy Impala 2001-2005 with just eco driving . I only have liability insurance on the the Caddy and getting comprehensive on the Chevy will eat up all my fuel saving advantage. So I'm breaking even. The Caddy is ready for the Junk Yard.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

You know what is kind of funny. That gen of the Eldorado was meant to be the "gassaver" generation, due to GM projecting gas at $3 a gallon in '86. If I had it, before I junked it, I might pull the lifters or pushrods and injectors on 4 cylinders and see how it puttered around like that.

[Kuripot]

I went to the link, http://www.smartmoney.com/consumer/i...car#calculator

I put in my numbers. I didn't get a loan for the car, I paid cash. So in the new car part of the worksheet. I put in 0 for the down payment, financing costs, and term of the loan.

The "TOTAL MONTHLY NEW CAR EXPENSE" box fills in as BILLIONS! LMAO

Somebodies got a sense of humor that wrote that little program.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Originally Posted by Kuripot

I went to the link, http://www.smartmoney.com/consumer/i...car#calculator

I put in my numbers. I didn't get a loan for the car, I paid cash. So in the new car part of the worksheet. I put in 0 for the down payment, financing costs, and term of the loan.

The "TOTAL MONTHLY NEW CAR EXPENSE" box fills in as BILLIONS! LMAO

Somebodies got a sense of humor that wrote that little program.

Even as expensive as gas is right now, all of my vehicles are paid for. I am paying $800/yr to insure those 3 vehicles. A new vehicle has to save an awful lot of money on fuel to offset the monthly payment and higher insurance costs. I'm thinking my next vehicle is going to be an investment vehicle anyway. I've noticed an upward trend in the price of Cadillac convertibles in the 60's - 80's vintage. You can still get a really nice one for under $10,000 , and if you shop diligently you can still get a nice one for under $5,000. I'd love nothing more than a convertible Eldorado or Coupe D'Ville right now. Buy it, drive it on sunny weekends and enjoy it. Sell it in a few years for more than you paid for it. I remember in the late 80's I had looked at a few of them. They were under $1,000 then, and now if you look on Ebay a junkyard car seems to fetch $2,000.

I'm kicking myself for not buying one then... I had an opportunity to buy a nice white 76 Eldorado convertible with a red leather interior for $500. Mom talked me out of it. She said its an old man's car... Cars in the same condition as that one was are now going for $10,000. That would have been the best investment I could have made at 18 years old.

-Jay

EDIT: I played with that calculator... Even if I traded in the Beast for a $20,000 car that got 100 MPG it would still take 108 months for me to break even. I don't think I'm finding a 100 MPG car for $20,000. This isn't counting the higher property taxes and insurance I'd have to pay either. Surely if I can't make the numbers work for the Beast, then all of these calculators are bogus. Poor fuel mileage is no reason to replace a vehicle. Now if I was looking to replace it anyway then I might look into something that got a little better mileage, but mileage alone is no reason to replace a vehicle.

[theholycow]

Jay, we probably all have regrets about car buying choices. I have to say that listening to your parents isn't always the best choice when buying a car; I let them convince me to buy that Grand Am...I hated it for 5 years and I resented it for not being my first choice. I should have bought that Thunderbird I liked instead.

That calculator doesn't cover all the numbers. As I said in my post above, you really have to figure in all the numbers if you want to make your decision mathematically -- anything less and you're either fooling yourself or basing your decision on something other than math.

One way to do it is to figure out your cost per mile. Another is to try to add up your total cost over a given period of time.

Tires for my truck are expensive. $200 wheel bearings need to be replaced on a regular basis. I squeeze up to 19.5mpg out of it but a long-term average including winter would probably be 17...it was 15.5 before I started hanging around here. It needs an expensive front differential. At 175,000 miles it's not getting any younger, and if I keep piling on the miles I'll need to replace it in a couple years. All that adds up to a decent budget for a car, and hence, the VW.

OTOH, if you don't drive a lot of miles it's a lot tougher for the math to work out.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Originally Posted by theholycow

Jay, we probably all have regrets about car buying choices. I have to say that listening to your parents isn't always the best choice when buying a car...

Sometimes, it takes years to realize that maybe they were right...my dad tried to talk me into buying a Chevy Sprint when they first came out...had I done so, I'd have saved a whole lot of gas, spent a lot less time under cars in the '80s and maybe beyond, and who knows, maybe my entire life would have been different....

[theholycow]

Spending more time under cars when you're young is a good thing. It gives you the experience you should have later when you're paying someone else to do your repairs.