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My husband and I have a very long commute into town, we end up putting about 70 miles on a vehicle just about every day. Add this in with weekend trips, driving to and back from church, and almost an extra 200 miles a week to pick up and drop my son from his Dad's, and we were spending about $400, sometimes more, per month on gas.
We looked into getting a new(used) car after a deer accident with our other car, and discovered the VW TDI, which is basically a diesel car designed to get very high mileage. We did our research and discovered that the amount we would be saving on gas by buying this vehicle would PAY our car payment every month-about $200-
I've noticed lately that the new hybrid commercials are now advertising how much money you can save on gas over the course of a few years. This sounds like a good idea, but the cars seem prohibitively expensive. We purchased our VW Passat in very good condition for about 7,500....and it gets an average of 50 MPG.
Wondering how many of you have done something similar to save money on gas? I'm sure the environmental benefits are also pretty big.
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For gas reasons we have considered doing the same thing. DH drives 160 mi (round trip) to work and back everyday, and the cost of gas lately is killing us . I know that he looked into getting a diesel car but for now is holding off. We are hoping that he will be able to work from home by the fall, so that will change what kind of car we buy.
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My dh also has a long commute (about 130 miles a day). Right now he has a 2002 cavilier that we got new (it has 200,000 miles already!) We bought it because of the good gas mileage. But if we were to buy another car (which I hope not to do soon) it would be a car that uses E85!!! I use this in my van and it is environmentally friendly, produced from corn grown right here in the mid west and costs less than gas!
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My husband is in the process of selling his 92 Jeep Wrangler and planning to buy a VW car to commute. He says it will save us $300 a month. Hopefully we will be able to find something in the same price range as the Jeep. I'm thinking these cars are hot on the market right now.
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We just got rid of my dh's 1996 Nissan pickup that, IMO, should have gotten better gas mileage (21 - 22 mpg for a 4 cylinder -- awful). My dh is now driving my 2000 Saturn LS1 that averages about 30 mpg. I just bought a Toyota Corolla with high hopes that it gets the gas mileage that it advertises (30 mpg in the city, 38 mpg on the highway). I haven't checked the mileage yet since I haven't had to fill it up.
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Originally Posted by Happymom
But if we were to buy another car (which I hope not to do soon) it would be a car that uses E85!!! I use this in my van and it is environmentally friendly, produced from corn grown right here in the mid west and costs less than gas!
Is E85 readily available to all of you? We would have to go at least 20 miles just to buy it! (maybe not such a big deal, but it's just too out of the way here) I am just curious, and hoping it becomes more readily available everywhere--soon!
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I got rid of my Nissan Murano and am buying a Toyota Prius. (We ordered it factory and it just got to the dealership this week.) The Murano could actually get 30 mpg hwy when I really babied it, but more often it was 17mpg, which was annoying. It went through about $60 a week in gas and I'm expecting it to be about $20 every week/week and a half for gas in the Prius. I'm thinking that, as a conservative estimate, we'll save $160 a month in gas.
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Originally Posted by JessicaM
Is E85 readily available to all of you? We would have to go at least 20 miles just to buy it! (maybe not such a big deal, but it's just too out of the way here) I am just curious, and hoping it becomes more readily available everywhere--soon!
Yeah, I know it really depends on the state you live in. Here in MN we have 2 stations in the small town I live in that sell it. Almost all the Kwik Trips always have it. Heck we had it at the gas station in the town of 1200 that I used to live in!!! I hope it becomes more available everywhere soon!!
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i simply don't drive anywhere but once a week. dh drives 67 miles round trip everyday to work he drives a 2000 saturn ls 4 door and he has been averaging 36 miles to the gallon highway(almost his entire commute is highway). so really we are getting great milage out of that car and it only cost us 600 bucks at the auto auction so it has already paid for itself.