Well, that would solve the "where to park a fire truck" issue!

 

With the price of gas today both of my trucks sit unless that is it's raining,
going to rain or I have to take the trash to work.

My wife's Triumph came with probably 3K in Triumph goodies,
windshield, saddlebags, Corbin seat, backrest/luggage rack and 294miles.
Mine had 2638 miles, Cobra baffled exhaust, jet kit and a little cam work
and it is a v-twin. Wish we had audio. My dogs just love it.

 

kool, mines coming along fine,getting all the little things fixed on it left harley shop alittle poorer and thank god for eb-y,see we have rain forcasted all week here ,another week of no fun,anyway you guys have a great weekend

 

Happy Monday, Nebraska!

 

Good Monday Morning Nebraska!
Only one more week left in June! Year is going fast!

 

Good Morning all. I have a ton of stuff to do today. Have to get ready for our vacation. mow. Get the Mustang back into storage. Get the dvd players mounted in Black. So much for having a day off today!! I'll catch up with you guys later!!

 

Good morning guys!

 

Happy Monday Nebraska...how is everyone this fine day???

 

just wonderful Ken...
got any deals on some fuel efficient cars? Damn SUV is getting pretty expensive to drive. $100 a shot in the tank.. only last for 350 miles. oh.. and can you deliver?

 

I'm getting 28 - 29 mpg with my Five Hundred... it's got the 3.0, I think when they renamed the Five Hundred back to Taurus they put the 3.5 under the hood.

I tried to get my wife to trade her SUV for a Fusion, but she's not ready to conceed to the gas prices just yet... 'course I get stuck driving the stupid SUV since my commute is only 10 miles compared to her 70 mile drive!

 

Yep, gas really takes a toll on the monthly budget, that's for sure. I have 2 SUVs (wifes 06 Envoy and my 03 Explorer). Both will get 17-20 MPG and the explorer will get less when I run on E85. We both commute around 150-200 miles per week so it isn't that bad, YET. We like the SUVs for space and 4x4 during the winters and pulling our oversize Pop-up camper. I have the explorer paid off next year so one less payment and I wouldn't get Jack for trading it in for a smaller car, so I figure saving the monthly payment alone, I would be better off. If prices get to $4.50-$5.00 per gallon though, I think we will all be forced to go smaller. Sad thing is, a small car will cost just as much as an SUV or pickup.

 

This is what I figured. My monthly payment for my Explorer is $394/month. If I traded it off at $5000 (KBB price right now) for a Fusion or another car and the final purchase price came out to be $12000 (off a $17000 car), my current payment would be $230/month. And with figuring 17 MPG vs 28 MPG and the same amount of miles driven, I'd fill up once more with the explorer vs the Fusion. Both vehicles take roughly the same amount to fill up 17-19 gallons if empty, I think. So, a tank of fuel is $65-75 at $4.00 per gallon. When I have my explorer paid off, I save $394/month. If I'd go trade it in, I would have another $230 payment which comes out to be $164/month less than $394. Plus saving an extra tank of fuel at (lets say $70). So, I save another $70 per month and my final calculation comes out to be I'd still be paying an extra $94 per month to have the Fusion vs just keeping my explorer and getting it paid off. Granted, my calculations are based off my local market value for a used low mileage Fusion which ranges from $15000-17000. But, even if I never had a monthly payment for nothing, I'd only be saving less than $100 per month on fuel based on my current driving habits. I'd be giving up 4x4, a way to pull my camper and some space.

 

i was thinking about just buying a car to drive to work and parking the SUV.. not getting rid of it. but then again, i would take on an additional car payment and saving about half the money i now spend in gas.. Which would pay for an additional car payment as I'm spending over $500-$600 month for just gas.

 

And I think that's the kicker. When you have to drive many miles per week or month. The more miles driven, the higher the savings. For me, I just don't drive the amount of miles per month to make up the savings. Like I said, the amount of my driving per month only comes out to be 1 more tank of fuel with a vehicle that gets 17 vs something that would get 28 MPG. Between my wife and I, we spend less than $400 per month on fuel. Our commutes together are 50 miles 4 times per week. So roughly 800 miles a month for the both of us. The long trips are what hurts in our situation. When we visit family down there, it takes a total of 5 tanks of fuel to just drive down there. That's around $300 just to drive to NE from here. OUCH.

As much as you are spending for gas, a more fuel efficient car would benefit. I do kick myself for not jumping on my brothers older Tempo. He was going to give it to me if I fixed the pwr steering. That thing got over 35MPG. He ended up selling it for about $200 to a 15 year old of his buddy. That was a couple years ago. Now that would have been a deal.

I do think there will come a point that we will all be forced to get something more fuel efficient.

 

Those are some pretty good math arguments, Buck! I guess I should seriously figure it out... we initially were looking at swapping the SUV for a F150 Supercrew (the SUV - Lexus RX300 - gets about 23 on the highway, and 18 around town). The payment would be about the same, but we'd definitely be using more gas in a truck than in the Lexus.

The value on trading the Lexus stinks, however. The dealers we've talked to are offering $1500 UNDER book trade in. For that reason alone, we've decided not to do anything just yet.