Get Outta My Car!

Posted by TheBisch
September 12, 2008

In the wake of my recent car problems, and the price of gas, it’s no wonder that people are buying new cars. Another blogger that I read regularly, Atomic Bombshell, just traded in her Acura for the new VW Beetle.

I’m considering making a new car purchase too…and I’ll have the same requirements she did.

1. Must no longer be forced to purchase premium 91 octane gasoline.
2. Must have fuel economy of around 30 miles per gallon highway.
3. Must have a much lower overall cost of ownership than my previous vehicle.

The only problem is, I’m 2 1/2 years into a 4 year car loan… But I’m actually “right-side-up” in this car, due the discounts and the value of my previously paid-off car went into reducing the loan amount on this one…. It’s kinda weird to say I have about $9,000 in equity in my car. ;)

I’m torn…. I want to get rid of my premium gas guzzler (currently averaging around 16.5 MPG around town). It gets great gas mileage when on the highway (Anywhere from 26 -32 MPG), but I don’t do much “highway” driving around town. It’s 12.7 miles each way to and from work, most of it is on streets with several stop-lights. I mostly hate the fact that the car needs premium gas, and much of it. It is a great *looking* car… and it’s great to have that V8 power when cutting someone off in front of my apartment complex (which is the only way to get out of my apartment complex on a weekend).

But I don’t want to start over on my car payment. After all the trouble I’ve had with my Impala, I will not buy another General Motors product. I am looking at Audi, Acura, Honda, and Nissan. All of which can get expensive quite quickly. Another problem… I’m tall. These cars are not made for tall people. I feel like I’m humping the steering wheel in some of these things.

I refuse to look at another American product after all the trouble I’ve had with mine, but I don’t like the “smallness” of the Japanese products (and can’t afford those fancy European cars)… I really not sure what to do at this point… maybe I’ll just continue to cry at the pump when I pour another Ben Franklin into my gas tank.

My Daily Life, , ,

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Comments

I thought about it as well… and here is how I came to my conclusion:

My Chevy Avalanche has a 33 gallon tank. I can use regular so right now the average fill up is running me just at $100 if I fill up as soon as the gas light comes on. I go through about a tank a week on a bad week and a tank every 2 weeks on a good week so Lets say I spend about $100 every week.

Given that my truck is paid off I dont have any expenses there nor do I have to worry about any kind of equity investment so with that said here is my logic:

I pay $400 a month in gas.
If I were to trade in my truck I *might* get $10,000
If I were to buy a Prius they run about $28-$30,000
That would leave me $20K to finance
Over the course of 4 years that would make my payment roughly $400 a month which is equal to what I am paying for gas now.
I would then have to put gas in the new car which would run me about $50 a week
Given those numbers I would be spending an additional $50 a week above what I am spending now.

Remove the maintenance aspects from these equations and I am losing money by trading in my truck therefore I am not trading in my vehicle any time soon.

If gas prices get so bad that it becomes prohibitively expensive to fill my truck up, Ill ride my motorcycle (which, coincidentally, is also paid off and gets about 35mpg)

Make sure you do the math first and make sure you arent better off just keeping the car and paying for the gas.

Comment by Rick on Friday, 9/12/2008 @ 9:58 am

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