[greenworm]

No car for the simple reason that they are not cost advantageous and are usually a depreciating asset.(not always)
Total amount spent on tune-ups/gas/insurance per year: $0.
I would hate to hear what people actually spend on these ridiculous things.

[jsb1969]

Dead dinosaur fueled...


Not dead yet human fueled...

[arocoun]

I've always disliked cars. Never wanted a car, never got one. I don't think I ever will. I get around by bike and foot.

I'm a tad disappointed that so many people who even KNOW we're having serious problems with sustainability and resources have cars. Even high mpg cars take a lot of energy and resources just to make.

[drew]

i would never buy a car with a big engine again. I have owned 3 different T birds all with eights and all of them really sucked back the juice.

My last car was a fwd subaru wagon that was quite good on gas and my present car is a dodge avenger with a 2.5 litre six. The only reason I bought it was because it was made by mitsubishi, and was way cheaper than other japanese cars because it says 'DODGE' on it. It is not great on gas but not bad either, except in the winter. I get almost 500 kms on 55 litres in the summer and am very lucky to break 400 in the winter.

I like the economy of vw diesels but can't justify the excessive price for high mileage used examples which are very costly to buy parts for. Gas would need to be really really expensive to out weigh the price difference between my car and a vw. I spend about 100~120 a month on fuel.

Drew

[perdition79]

2004 chrysler sebring convertible. 2.7 liter V6, gets 32 mpg.

I got the car knowing about PO, specifically because around 30 mpg, I can afford to drive it until gas hits around $9 a gallon. As well as I maintain cars, and as close as we are to the inevitable, this will probably be my last car. I wanted something big, heavy, comfortable, covered in leather, and with enough cojones to outpace most other vehicles on the road, before I was forced onto a scooter by issues of fuel scarcity.

It's a vehicle that will make me smile and remember the good times whenever young people in the future ask me what it was like to actually drive a car. I know damn well that some little 4-cylinder economy car wouldn't cut it -- I'd rather boast about luxury, wretched excess, and performance than brag about owning a boring-to-drive Prius that got over 50 mpg and had to be driven at a snail's pace to do so.

[drew]

Come on Perdition, it's not that heavy or that fast..lol. My dodge avenger is very similar size wise. Avenger/Sebring coupes are six inches shorter, and a little lighter because they are coupes. What does your 2.7 have ponies wise? My 2.5 has 150, and the newer ones 165.

As for pigs, I rented an 8 passenger trailblazer this weekend to run my kids and their friends to Toronto for an Anime convention. It gets 18 mpg or about 16 litres per 100 km. I can't believe how many people actually own vehicles like this. How the hell do they afford to drive? Being my young'uns are teens I want them to have fun, but not too much fun, so I have been making multiple trips to TO and back every day. I will have driven 1100 kms by the end of today, and will have spent 160 bucks on fuel since Friday afternoon. That is ridiculous.

Drew

[Denny]

Three vehicles:

1 - old collector - 1941 Chev. - ? mpg, probably 18 when tuned up

2- 2001 Pontiac Montana minivan - about 13 L/100 km

3 - 2002 Olds Intrigue - about 13 L/100 km

[perdition79]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('drew', 'C')ome on Perdition, it's not that heavy or that fast..lol. My dodge avenger is very similar size wise. Avenger/Sebring coupes are six inches shorter, and a little lighter because they are coupes. What does your 2.7 have ponies wise? My 2.5 has 150, and the newer ones 165.

[clover]

I have an '86 Mazda 626- it just turned 200k. Brought me here to Indiana (poor thing, no one here knows what it is) and I'll have to find it a new home in about a month, when we get back to Seattle and I get to go car-free again! It's been good to me though; $3 or even $4 gas doesn't matter when I get 35 mpg and drive maybe 100 miles a week..

[drew]

That sounds sweet, Perdition! Obviously, I stand corrected on the slow comments. )-; I would love to turbo my venge, but can't justify the cost. Exile racing makes a kit for the sebring/venge, but it costs half of what my venge is worth. What did it cost to boost your car?

As for 200 ponies, most people with the 2.5 swap it for the mitsubishi 3.0 which is almost a direct swap. The 2.7 in your car is a completely different engine I think, but I may be wrong.

Are you still able to run regular?

Drew

[PhebaAndThePilgrim]

Good day from Pheba from the farm:
We have a lot of gas guzzlers on our farm.
First, my car is a Buick Regal, 1996, and gets about 25 mpg.
We have a farm pick-up truck; a Ford F250 that is only used for farm work and gets about 12 city and 15 Hwy. When used for hauling hay or cattle the mileage is a lot less.
My husband used to drive the F250 back and forth to work, 26 miles away. The cost for filling the double tank truck is upwards of 100.00 so we purchased him a car a few years ago. He stashes all of his tools in the trunk of his Saturn SL1 (discontinued by Saturn) and still 40 Mpg. Hwy. and 37 city. The Saturn is a manual transmission vehicle.
Next is our large International Harvester 686 model farm tractor. One of the last gasoline engine tractors made by Ih in this size. Gets about 2-1/2 gallons per hour. (farm equipment is measured in miles per hour, not miles per gallon).
Next is an old 1947 International Harvester model H tractor. You can run the tractor for 12 hours or longer and still have plentyof gas left over from a 12-1/2 gallon tank.
Finally, there is the boondoggle I purchased a few years ago; a Case IH DX25 large lawn tractor. Do not know mileage but is probably similar to the IH Model H. I say boondoggle because we can brush hog with the big 686 more efficiently, and I have planted so many roses the large mower won't get around all of the shrubbery I have planted.
Pheba.

[oddone]

Gave up my Volvo 240 in '99, now I rent if I really need one.
For commuting /recrational travel I use a mc, se avatar. BMW K1200R, 163 hp, 0-100 in 2.8 sec, and 5l/100km = 55/46miles pr. Imp/US gallon. Lots of fun!!! And "kind" to the environment compared to a car.

[EndOfSewers]

1989 Honda Civic Si, 240,000km. When the weather's good I use it to get groceries and bike everywhere else. I'll keep driving it to work during winter until gas gets expensive enough to make taking the bus cheaper. That'll be when gas hits $4-$5/litre.

[jesus_of_suburbia_old]

2002 Toyota Echo
-38k mi
-32 mpg city/ 39 mpg highway

I bought after I totaled my 98 Ford Taurus in an accident around Easter of this year. Current gas prices have me spending about $15 per week on gasoline. I usually don't let the tank go more than half-empty before filling up. A full tank lasts me about 2-3 weeks.

[jmacdaddio]

I've got a 2003 Subaru Impreza WRX sedan. It gets 20 mpg around town and 28 on the highway. Most tanks I get 23-24 mpg. My commute is just under 3 miles and I rarely fill my tank more than twice a month. High gas prices don't affect me in the least, since now instead of spending $50 a month I'm spending $80 - no biggie. I've opted for the sporty model but I've also chosen to have a short commute --- Prius owners who are commuting 75 miles each way aren't helping the situation.

[Syeer]

I've been driving my parent's car which is a 1998 Buick Century Limited V6. It gets ~30MPG.

I own, and hopefully will be driving ASAP, a 1964 VW Beetle with a 1600 engine in it. I just finished the rebuilding work to the engine a little over a week ago, but I'm too broke to afford registration and insurance, lol.

Its current configuration with an aftermarket Bosch 009 distributor will get low 20s MPG because the carb has to be tuned rich to run right with that dist.

All in all, very inexpensive car, parts are cheap, and I can go to pretty much any large car junkyard and find alot of the replacement parts no matter what year (as long as I'm not pulling something off of one of the modernized Beetles) the car I'm pullin' the part from is. Also, it's very light, which makes it very easy to push -- just in case....

[Liamj]

I share in a 5y.o toyota camry wagon with three others, which has meant its been unavailable twice in last 12 months when i wanted to use it. Anyone who gives Hubbert any credibility and hasn't radically downsized their car/oil consumption is either a moron, a hypocrite, or both.
Try this: you're burning your grandkids pharmaceuticals. When they die in agony of tetnus, remember to give yourself a pat on the back and revel in memories of your penile substitute.
This is not directed at anyone in particular; if you have a reaction, reflect on why.

[lowem]

Mine is a 1997 Honda Civic VTi. Model code EK3, D15Z 3-stage VTEC 1.5L engine with CVT transmission. We bought this car second-hand back in 2001. First and only car.

Recorded mileage so far for this year is 13.4 km/l [31.5 mpg]. Daily commute is a bit over 22 km [14 miles] each way - which includes dropping off my wife, and *then* turning around to go to my office, and in the evening, vice versa, picking her up again, and doubling back to go home.

No idea about peak oil back in 2001. That came later, maybe around 2003 or so. All I wanted was a Honda Civic (I kinda liked my father's 160hp 1993 EG6 at the time), my wife wanted dark blue, and we both wanted an auto. The salesman pointed "there!" to 3 all of our queries, and he got the sale more or less right there.

I'm reasonably happy with it. If I were to make a buying decision today, it'd be the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid. But the money that was to go into a downpayment for that has gone into our energy and resource portfolio instead - which would need to *double* a couple of times or so before I'd feel comfortable plonking down for a new car - in cash. We've got this debt aversion thing going on nowadays. And Singapore is where cars are most expensive in the world - no contest - so that's quite a bit of money.

We're talking SGD $80,500 over here for a new 2006 Civic Hybrid. That's USD $50,800 - for a Civic (!!). Okay, so pick yourself off the floor already

[Roy]

2005 VW Jetta Wagon TDI 5 m/t -- 40-50 mpg depending on load and speed

2003 Nissan Altima SE 3.5 5 m/t -- averages 29 mpg but can get as low as 20 with A/C running and a heavy foot. 0-60 in 5.8 sec and was purchased prior to PO awareness -- had I known it would've been a Civic 4 dr. (14.16@99.45mph -- not bad for a family car). For sale soon.

1993 Honda XR250L dual purpose -- 65 mpg. Used in good weather for errands mainly-- used to commute to work on it too.

1982 Ford F-100 -- 351 W V8 a/t. 12-16 mpg. "work truck". Only used for hauling large items and moving stuff around the place here. pictured in my avatar. ($1000)

1988 (?) Yanmar F22 -- 27HP diesel tractor. Used for bushhogging, leveling, and plans for future use in food production as required.
Outstanding fuel economy. 2 hours pulling a bushhog yesterday used less than a gallon of off-road diesel.

Once I became PO aware, I sold my '67 Chevy Camaro RS/SS 350 (13.46@104.8mph) that I'd owned for 20 years. Basically, the truck, XR250, and tractor were purchased with the proceeds from that car so in my mind it was a good trade.

I do miss that badass big-cammed V8 Idle through free flowing exhaust and aluminum heads... Not to mention the neck snapping acceleration. But the Nissan Altima is very close to that car in terms of acceleration believe it or not, while obtaining 2x the gas mileage and offering much better passenger comfort.

As a lifelong "gearhead", go-fast stuff is something I'll always miss, even though I now know that it was not good for the planet.

Eventually as fuel gets more expensive, I see myself with a tractor, a diesel wagon, and a motorcycle. Then finally relying on the old Trek mtb.

Roy

[Declan]

2002 Ford Focus ZX5 and 1983 GMC Grand Sierra,half ton pick up truck.

Don't know what either gets for gas/milage and don't care. I know that the wife's car is cheap on gas and my truck is not terrible either.

I don't think our salvation hangs on whether or not we each cut back 10 liters of gasoline/diesel per month.

As a matter of fact, the sooner we reach gasoline shortage the better so everyone should do their part and buy Hummer.