IS there a ...4-Banger in your Future$$$

[fordy]

..............With the price of gas\Diesel just climbing every day it seems , I've concluded , that I've got to Purchase a 4 Cylinder something that gets atleast 30 to 35 mpg. Financially , I won't be ready to do this until later on in the year but it just seems Inevitable we are all being being forced into smaller vehicles by outrageous fuel prices. Are others feeling this necessity as i am??? fordy..

[Bruce in NE]

"but it just seeks Inevitable we are all being being forced into smaller vehicles by outrageous fuel prices. Are others feeling this necessity as i am??? fordy."

Outrageous? Gas has been $5-6 in UK and Europe for some time. Many Canadians have been driving small cars for several years. It's about time we got off our wasteful energy pedastal. Gas is going nowhere but up and we'd better get used to it.

[tyusclan]

We have a 93 Corsica that we use for little short runs when only one or two of us is going somewhere, but with 12 of us we have to have a big van. We also have a lawn business and have to have a 3/4 ton to pull the equipment trailer. I'm all for economy but you have to use a vehicle to meet your needs.

We have worked hard to limit trips to town to no more than 1 per week, except in an emergency.

[WisJim]

We've always had a 4 cylinder vehicle, and never had a new one, since my 58 MGA and our 71 Beetle. Now drive a 1993 Geo Prizm (like a Toyota Corolla) and average 33+ mpg, get 42+ on trips. Also have a Honda Civic (1984 or so) and a couple of Toyotas from the mid-90s around. If they get less than 25 mpg in town or 35-40 on the hiway, something is wrong. We always figured to live where we want to be, so we don't drive to go away for the weekend or on vacations, and we can walk to work. We decided long ago that we didn't want to get in the rut of having to have a car to get to work, and having to work to afford the car. When we had city jobs, we lived in the city, and did a lot of research and reading and gardened in pots and small plots to learn what we could.
When our 3 sons were growing up we had a VW Rabbit. Sure, things were snug, but why in the world do people think that they have to be driving places all the time, and usually with just one person in the car.
I think that the sooner people started being concerned about fuel efficiency and energy and resource efficiency, the better.

Jim

[snoozy]

Golly...you mean there are engines that have more than 4 cylinders?! I've never owned one. Don't think I've ever driven one. Whatever would you want more than 4 for?

[Little Quacker in OR]

I own two SUVs. I drive both of them. I count myself lucky that I live in a country where gas is a perk available to everyone for very little cost.

I travel when the mood strikes me and don't worry about it. I'm not crowded when I go somewhere, it's comfortable with two dogs and my luggage...and theirs! LOL

Life is too short to drive a little bitty car or drink the house wine.

LQ

Gas is now $2. a gallon around here where I live. They mentioned on the world news this evening that with the demand for gas growing bigger and bigger in China and India that we could expect see $3. a gallon in the future. With that in mind I think we are going to have to start looking at a small 4 banger. My wife has to drive about a 54 mile round trip everyday to work and back. Actually I told her this evening that we may have to buy her a bicycle with a basket on the back for groceries.

[Blu3duk]

the problen i personally see with down sizing just for fuel economy is the capital outlay to get that increased economy, when a person pushes a pencil to the paper and figures the savings out over different periods of time, the economy alone just dont cut it. And parts for some of those rice burners are outrageously high, sure a toyota can be on theroad for 200-400K miles, but replacement parts for even minor parts are sometimes nearly double that of other vehicles, and wear factor is about the same.

Ive been delving into the H2 side of things since my neighbor told me of a fella in Iowa that years ago had his V-8 totally running off H2 .... ok so far i am still in research stage on this, and everything i find is towards the end of high dollar it wont work on a small scale, or the idiot stuff that ust dumps H2 and O2 back down the carb and is an accident waiting to happen kind of thing.... however since he witnessed it in person, and has photographs of the whole operation and is a reputable person who i would trust beyond 99.99% above other people, I know it can be done and i will have something similar installed on my vehicles sooner or later this year.... at a significant less cost than purchasin a newer vehicle too.

It isnt just about horsepower, or fuel savings, I just couldnt buy a coffin and sleep in it every night, so i just dont see how i should buy a coffin car and drive one of them every day either.

William

[Texas Al]

My wife drives a GMC Yukon XL and I drive a full-size GMC pickup. Hers gets about 15 and mine gets about 18mpg. I drive 120 miles round trip to work in my pickup and fuel is about $325 a month or so. If I down-sized to a little bitty car that got 30 mpg, it would save about $130 a month in fuel.

After having driven a 1989 Toyota Corolla for 240,000 miles and then driving Suburbans and full-size trucks since, I have to say fuel is going to have to get a lot more expensive before I go back to looking up into other drivers' wheel wells in Dallas traffic. The $130 a month savings ain't worth it. When you consider how a truck holds it value more, its probably not a real savings anyway.

[longshadowfarms]

We have a LARGE van and are working on having it seat more so that when more kids come, we can still take a few friends when we choose. It also fits the 3 dogs and I hauled home 3/4 ton of feed for the farm yesterday. We would not fit in a 4 banger if we tried! That said, I drive so few miles per year that I probably use as little (or less) fuel per year as the average 4 banger

[WanderingOak]

My Hyundai is a decent commuter car. She gets 30 MPG no matter how fast I drive her, although she is way too complex for the average shadetree to do more than tune-ups. I do get tired of seeing the lugnuts of an 18 wheeler right at eye level on the freeway though. When I'm on a road trip, I usually take my truck, if only to have more steel around me in case anything goes wrong. She truck gets about 20MPG, loaded or empty.

[Gary in ohio]

Untill I see the $3/gall prices, I am sticking with my big comfortable V8.
For the last 3 years we have been hearing about this $3/gall gas comming in the summer. Its never happended yet. Prices peak up just over $2. then the american public yells and screams and the price slowly slides back down.

I drive to many miles each day to be stuck in some little econobox vehicle regardless of the gas millage it may have. I drive to many miles with huge SUV's around me to want to be in some little econo crushable box.

[mpillow]

Hubby is thinking about using his old Honda 125 motorcycle...needs a little work about $200 and at 90mpg it will save a lot compared to his f-250 truck....but it gets cold fast and then he'll have to use truck again. His drive is only 16 miles roundtrip and mine is about 10m but every little bit helps!

We wanted to move before gas went up but the commute is 45 mile and just too much time/money wise for our small budget....so we are left feeling a little cramped on our 6 acres.

I am very concerned about my taxes going up to offset extra money needed to support bussing and heating schools in our area. Heating assistance is being cut while prices increase....old folks on SS are going to really feel the pinch and I'm anxious for their sake. A majority of Maine's population is older....

[jgbndaudio]

Hello,

This topic just proves how lame Americans are.

"I'm not giving up my gas guzzler, I don't care how much gas cost or how many soldiers are in Iraq dying for my low MPG vehicle - It's my right as an American to be wasteful!"

Yeah for us.


Fordy - Not sure where you live but you should strongly consider buying a diesel. A diesel vehicle will get between 15-40% better mileage than the same exact gas version. It will also last twice as long if properly maintained. Also with a small modification to the fuel system (not the engine) you can run it on used vegetable oil (wvo). WVO is free at most restaurants or worst-case scenario you can buy it for about $.50-1.00 a gallon delivered.

Scotty

PS - Start here:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/best/bestworstNF.shtml

[milkstoolcowboy]

Scotty,

Both our pickup and our car are V8s. Why does owning a V8 make an American lame? Isn't it driving that uses fuel? Some of us actually need pickups with large engines for pulling loads and other farm work.

It kind of rubs me the wrong way to get bawled out for having a V8. I have a 14-year old one-ton pickup that has 37,000 miles on it. Our car is 5 years old and has 6500 miles on it. The pickup gets around 12 MPG, depending on what we're pulling/hauling and the car gets aroud 21 MPG. Total gas consumption on average is 280 gallons/year.

Now I realize many of you guys have to drive long distances to work, I just walk out of the house about 150 yards to the barn. I reckon if you drive 250-300 miles a week to work, you'll move toward buying a more fuel efficient vehicle as fuel prices rise.

Seems kind of presumptuous to call someone wreckless simply for owning a V8.

[marvella]

jgbndaudio
Registered User

Joined: Jan 2005
Location: New York - Thankfully a Blue state!
Hello,

This topic just proves how lame Americans are.

"I'm not giving up my gas guzzler, I don't care how much gas cost or how many soldiers are in Iraq dying for my low MPG vehicle - It's my right as an American to be wasteful!"

Yeah for us.

:worship: :worship: :worship: thanks you for saying it.

[Jan Doling]

I have a v6 mini van that is used like an estate car....we haul everything from hay & feed to fire wood and construction items (which reminds me: I need to load up a new water heater on the way home). We have used it to sleep in when camping and moved everything from the old house to the new through 3 counties. A small car would not hold up on our 2 miles of dirt road. The van is a Toyota Sienna with 173,000+ miles on it....I would pop a new motor in it when needed rather than buy another...it has been a loyal friend!

[Ross]

Gas is the cheapest thing you'll put in your car. My 93 Crown Vic gets 25-30 mpg, and hasn't cost $2000 in repairs in 12 years. My 91 Plymouth 4 silly-ender costs me half that every year. The repairs would buy a lot of gas and is just as wasteful of energy/material or more so. If I had to go to a 4cyl it's be a turbo diesel jetta or similar. There may be good 4cyl (Toyota?) but after hearing how poorly these little cars do in a side impact tests at 30mph I'll keep my large vehicle thanks.

[wy0mn]

What I really want is a Chevy Luv pickup with an electric motor, bed full of batteries, and covered with (PV) solar panels.
Found a site that sells adaptor kits for existing trannies.

[Matt Black]

Originally Posted by marvella

jgbndaudio
Registered User

Joined: Jan 2005
Location: New York - Thankfully a Blue state!
Hello,

This topic just proves how lame Americans are.

"I'm not giving up my gas guzzler, I don't care how much gas cost or how many soldiers are in Iraq dying for my low MPG vehicle - It's my right as an American to be wasteful!"

Yeah for us.

:worship: :worship: :worship: thanks you for saying it.

Just curious, what do you guys drive?

BTW, I drive a Hyundai and a Ford Taurus and a Chevy S-10 when I need a truck. All of them get right around 30mpg or so. I wish I had an 3/4 or better yet 1 ton for those times I need it. The S-10 cant tow or haul very much and I'm tired of asking the nieghbors to use thier truck and trailer when I need a real truck. The S-10 was free though so there it is.

PS. I seriously thought about changing my name to Lame American in honor of your post! It made me LOL! It must really suck to live in a country you seem to hate. I like it here. I think I'll stay for a while...