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94 Toyota Tercel as a daily commuter. Friend is selling one for $1000. With the gas prices they way they are in cali I need something with better gas milage than the minivan i drive everyday. All I care about is gas milage, AC and reliabe. Dont care much for anything else.
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From: Niantic, CT
Well...
Consider the factors of cost. Take the $1k price, the cost of registration, tax, and insurance. The estimated fuel economy, (maybe 35 MPG or so?), and chart that against your minivan's fuel economy. Using an avg gas price, find out how many miles you'll need to drive before you break even. If it's more than 1 years commuting miles, remember property tax and another insurance year.
You'll probably find it will take many many thousands of miles before you break even, much less start saving.
Not to say it's not worth it, but gas mileage savings often isn't worth the hassle of another vehicle.
I'm of the opinion that life's too short to drive a sh!tty car just to skimp on gas mileage. If you're scraping to make ends meet, that's a different story. But you have to decide if it's worth it to put up with that to save a few bucks.
You'll probably find it will take many many thousands of miles before you break even, much less start saving.
Not to say it's not worth it, but gas mileage savings often isn't worth the hassle of another vehicle.
I'm of the opinion that life's too short to drive a sh!tty car just to skimp on gas mileage. If you're scraping to make ends meet, that's a different story. But you have to decide if it's worth it to put up with that to save a few bucks.
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From: Niantic, CT
Hehe, thanks. I just added a paragraph to it, too.
I've had this discussion with a few people who say "ooh, gas is getting pricey" and want to buy something different to save on gas money. You really have to run the numbers out to see if it's worth the initial investment.
Something like a Civic Hybrid, at $3k more than a regular Civic, gets better gas mileage. But it takes you well over 100k miles before you save that $3k on gas vs. the regular Civic. Then it becomes a savings.
Something like a Civic Hybrid, at $3k more than a regular Civic, gets better gas mileage. But it takes you well over 100k miles before you save that $3k on gas vs. the regular Civic. Then it becomes a savings.
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Re: Well...
Lets say 35MPG vs 12MPG for the minivan(328K on the van so its not running all that great). Not sure how long it would take to make up the differnce. I need to replace the van sooner or later anyways. The van is a pretty ****ty car, and thats why I love it, I can park it anywhere and not have to worry. So replacing it with a ****ty Tercel might be an improvement.
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What is your commute like? I once got 40+ MPG in my Celica, and it had a bigger engine than a Tercel
I had the ST with the 1.6L 4AFE. The Tercel is a 1.5 something or other AFAIK. So if you're commute is mostly highway, you could get over 35 I would guess.