SUV owners "staying the course"

Hey now! Let's not get all "intelligent" with this!

Stupid got them into the SUV's, stupid will get them out! and we'll all be better off.

Gas prices will likely level off right around the time the OPEC nations decide that they don't want us to get to interested in alternative fuels.

aircooled wrote: Stupid got them into the SUV's, stupid will get them out! and we'll all be better off.

That should go in the quotes section of the magazine. You could possibly even sell a line of bumper stickers.

As mentioned above, some people just plain need big vehicles. I don't have family, but I do have a family of cars, so the Suburban has come in handy for towing. Hauling 4 people and a dog plus all of our race gear inside, plus the fully loaded trailer behind it, is pretty convenient! For towing to Thunderhill (24 Hours of LeMons in December) we had to tow over a mountain pass. Even with clear roads, we had to have 4x4 AND chains to legally tow over the pass. So, if I didn't have the Suburban, I couldn't have supported my racing habit....and you guys wouldn't be telling me to drop racing because it requires I own a 4x4 Suburban, would you????

In case it makes you feel any better, the diesel truck has since been converted to run waste vegetable oil. This is my second 4x4 Suburban converted to run on WVO. If you're ok with the fuel side of things, they're really handy to have around. Like somebody above said, some people just pay for fuel despite higher prices because they have the money and it's not a big deal to them. I like to tinker so I did the WVO conversion instead of just shelling out $$$$....with a 40 gallon tank, $5/gal is painful even if it gets 19 mpg.

Bryce

^ If you use it the way God and GM intended, have at it. If you were using it for an urban Starbucks run and pick up your 2.1 children at private school, I could be persuaded to show up outside your house with torches and pitchforks.

ZOMG a person that uses a suburban for its intended purpose.. to haul lots of folks and gear over "rough" terrain..

I knew a kid who was 1 of 6, his dad bought an expedition. His mom had a full size van.
But..

Family truckster FTW!

I’m glad my wife & I kept the Honda Civic we bought new back in 1995…it’s a five speed and gets 38 mpg on 87 octane even with the A/C blowing and a quick pace; 42 mpg is attained under optimal conditions.

It hasn’t been a daily driver for five years but a year’s worth of insurance & registration is less than the few days of car rental we’d be paying each year for various reasons if we didn’t have it. We park it on the street and about once per month, there’s a “if you want to sell your car call…” note under a windshield wiper blade & I’m certain it’s value has appreciated a greater percent than any of my stocks in the last six months. I probably need to change my thinking as right now, it’s what I leave at the airport so no one will mess with my car but my 2003 Explorer is probably a safer bet.

"You think you hate it now, wait till you drive it."

There's nothing wrong with using a Suburban to haul tons of stuff and tow, that's what they're made for. If it runs on WVO, all the better. The reason people are pissed at SUV drivers is they hog the road (and parking spaces) with their giant battering ram and drive it like a sports car, all while talking on the cell phone, and they get this big gas-guzzling behemoth for what? To move a few kids, if anything. Wow a normal sedan totally couldn't do that.

I don't mind the rising gas prices so much. With only an 8 gal tank in one car an a 10 gal in the other, I ain't spending a fortune even if I top up both cars. If $5 a gal gas is what our country needs to build some nuclear plants and research renewable power, then I'm all for it.

Besides, it just means less SUVs I have to dodge on the way to work.

PHeller wrote: Gas prices will likely level off right around the time the OPEC nations decide that they don't want us to get to interested in alternative fuels.

They've already tried that. pushing up production last year had no effect on price. See my latest links in the Future of Petroleum thread for reasons why.

Jensenman wrote: Having said that, if I can score a $4000 Accord or similar for a DD I'll probably do that and keep the Trooper to pull the race car. Over that same 5 year period, the car would ccost me $800 a year for the purchase, $200 a year for insurance (multi car discount), $60 a year taxes, figure it gets double the Trooper's mileage cutting my fuel cost in half is $1690, or $2750 a year, times 5 is $13,750 or a fuel cost savings of $3150.00. That makes some sense.

So, you spend $4k up front to save $3100 at the back end.

No, I know what you mean. I've thought of that, too, but for a number of people, spending $3-4k in one lump sum right now is a stumbling block no matter how much it saves on the back end. And that's not including the costs of maintenance or repairs on a possibly beat on cheap used car.

Our local newspaper recently ran an article about the price of used Geo Metros. If memory serves, they have apreciated in value by about 25% in the last year.

I can see why, In the area where I live most people commute "over the hill" to work so we end up driving a lot (I drive about 20,000 mi a year)

My car gets about 20mpg -- so thats 1,000 gal/year @$4.50 gal -- $4500

A metro gets what? 40mpg -- so thats 500 gal/year @$4.50 gal -- $2250

The car would pay for itself in 1 year...

My ZX2 gets 28mpg on the comute. Over 35 on trips, 40 attainable. The Liberty gets 16 on the commute, close to 20 on trip. So guess which gets driven the most. Towing the Jeep gets 10 to 14 mpg. So basically, it is an "as needed" vehicle. 4wd is over rated. The ZX2 with four Blizzaks will go places the Jeep on all-seasons won't go in 4wd. Except deep snow. Ground clearance only reason.

Off topic content deleted

Back on topic, my family drove around POS small used cars and we rented minivans for road trips.

Getting back towards the topic:

As a sign of times, recently every car advertisement is about how fantastic of gas mileage the car gets (even if it's mediocre). It wasn't that long ago that car adds always touted the new bigger engine with more HP.

Salanis wrote: Getting back towards the topic: As a sign of times, recently every car advertisement is about how fantastic of gas mileage the car gets (even if it's mediocre). It wasn't that long ago that car adds always touted the new bigger engine with more HP.

I noticed that as well, they all make me laugh and groan, but the one that stuck with me is the new Honda Pilot.

23MPG HIGHWAY. AAAACKKKK!! That's not something to advertise, that's something to hide in tiny print in the back of the technical manual in Japanese! My AE92 gets 25MPG flat out around a small track!

In response to this info, the driver of an F150 monster truck in the ad asks "But does it crush cars?" to which the Pilot owner kind of rolls his eyes. A PERFECTLY RATIONAL QUESTION AT 23MPG HIGHWAY!

My parents friends bought a Fusion AWD. They didn't like the 4cylinder, it didn't have any pickup, but were surprised that the AWD v6 got such great HWY fuel economy @ 21MPG..

Hahahahahahahha

The big sign will be when they start advertising the RANGE of the vehicle. I do barely remember (late 70's maybe) an advertisement from Porsche that touted its 400 mile range (or something like that). I think it may have been the 944, probably put a bigger tank in it so they could advertise that.

The other funny ones are the monster truck (Yukon etc.) hybrids. Oh boy! Insane 23 mph city mileage! (or whatever it is)

Wife has a 2002 Montero Sport. To my ongoing amazement/consternation, it's been a good car. Gas mileage? Somewhere between awful and sucky. But it's within a couple checks of being paid for. Not having a car note will pay for a lot of gas, and the thing's not near worn out. I think we'll probably have it for YEARS past when SUVs become completely passe.

aircooled wrote: The big sign will be when they start advertising the RANGE of the vehicle.

Already happening...saw an ad for a Saturn crossover advertising the range. Of course your subconscious has already done the math:

lowsy mileage * gargantuan fuel tank = impressive range!

The big tank in a small car gives you a good shock when you go for gas. I just went 4 weeks on a tank with the Cavalier, and the price rose almost $.30/gal. At the $50 mark I had to look and see if it was coming out the bottom.

Chris_V wrote:

Jensenman wrote: Having said that, if I can score a $4000 Accord or similar for a DD I'll probably do that and keep the Trooper to pull the race car. Over that same 5 year period, the car would ccost me $800 a year for the purchase, $200 a year for insurance (multi car discount), $60 a year taxes, figure it gets double the Trooper's mileage cutting my fuel cost in half is $1690, or $2750 a year, times 5 is $13,750 or a fuel cost savings of $3150.00. That makes some sense.

So, you spend $4k up front to save $3100 at the back end. No, I know what you mean. I've thought of that, too, but for a number of people, spending $3-4k in one lump sum right now is a stumbling block no matter how much it saves on the back end. And that's not including the costs of maintenance or repairs on a possibly beat on cheap used car.

I'm looking at it from the standpoint of comparing keeping my Trooper and buying a used commuter gas mileage car still being less expensive overall than buying a new Smart or etc. Some changes coming on in my life may involve me making a lot of highway trips unloaded, so it would make sense to leave the Trooper at home for those.

I could always sell the J-H, the Abomination, the Trooper, the trailer etc and buy an Elise. That should get pretty decent mileage.

My wife and I drive car that are good on gas (civic: 38mpg and echo: 35mpg) but having just had our first kid we are finding out real fast that the Echo is kind of small to carry all the kid stuff (the stroller fills the trunk).

I'm hoping to tough it out until we have the second one but it looks like we're going to have to take a step back in the MPG department at some point.

Maybe by the time I buy a minivan they'll be real cheap.

jwdmotorsports wrote: My wife and I drive car that are good on gas (civic: 38mpg and echo: 35mpg) but having just had our first kid we are finding out real fast that the Echo is kind of small to carry all the kid stuff (the stroller fills the trunk).

How come there isn't a more compact stroller out there? I remember those umbrella strollers from back in the day that barely took up any space.

I'm guessing that if Europeans drive smaller cars, they probably have smaller strollers, too. Otherwise, I have a billion dollar idea.