[gurucat]

I've a gasoline car running since 1994 and today (2008) is still alive.

Which car do you recommend me to buy? I already have a bike but want a car as well, and I will use it for as long as possible.

Should I buy an hybrid car able to use ethanol or just a simple low consumption gasoline car?

thx survivors!

Moved to Open.Energy Technology forum is for "Discussion related to Technologies for discovering, developing, and utilizing sources of energy." Moved to Open. -FL

[HEADER_RACK]

Mines 23 years old runs like a champ I see no point in getting rid of it.

My Jeep is not an SUV and your SUV is not a Jeep

[RonMN]

Same sitch here, I bought my bronco in sept. '94 & it still runs fine, but it's getting old & worn out. I'm hoping it lasts until a direction/choice in car buying becomes clear.

I don't want to sink any more money into this vehicle...It's been fantastic to me & I wanna keep it that way

[cipi604]

Do you have LPG in Spain? If yes , buy a gasoline car and pay for the LPG instalation. You'll go much cheaper this way.

[Syeer]

15 years? That's it?

My car is 44 years old (64 VW Beetle)- daily driver. It does its job reliably and without using too much fuel, and that's really all that's needed.


As long as you car gets acceptable gas mileage and still gets you from point A to point B reliably, I see no reason in the world to get another car.

However, it's a different story if the car fails here on either of these two conditions.

[jlw61]

Simple calculation:

Current Car = Ave monthly repair bill + (Ave monthly miles / MPG * fuel cost)
Future Car = Monthly car payments + (Ave monthly miles / MPG * fuel cost)

If Current Car is less than Future Car, save your money and drive the old car as long as the formula says keep the current car. When it finally becomes too expensive or too unreliable, get a good USED car. I will never buy another new car again and a used car does not require extra energy to be used in manufacturing it.

[Revi]

Get yourself something like this: www.sunnev.com

I figure that I have bought my last gasoline car.

In about 5 years the amount of gasoline that the average person can buy will barely be enough to get around.

Gas cars are probably obsolete already, but most people don't know it yet.

We're going with something small like this.

[WisJim]

We bought a new car once, a 1971 Ford Econoline van. Since then, we like to get them already depreciated some. The last car I bought is a 1989 Honda Civic, $400 last fall, and it had a nice roof rack that I sold for $150. Should last a few years, and then we have a 2000 Chevy Metro that is almost like new, as our "good" car.

We do think about what we might buy in 5 years or more when we need to replace the Metro, and only hope that there are better choices out there than now. Now, I would probably look at a Toyota Yaris or similar sized car at least a few years old, if I was looking for a good used car. Demand seems to be up, so they are harder to find and pricier.

[joelcolorado]

My wife was in med school back in 2003 and we needed a car to USE UP as she was driving huge miles to clinics etc. We bought a Chevy Cavalier. Have put $0 in it, been hailed on and collected most of the money I had paid for it. You can get one for about 10k still and they get 35mpg. Compared to hybrid its way cheaper to buy those cars due to insurance, battery replcement and intitial cost. There was a table on Toyota which you plugged in the car cost and gas cost and it tells you which one pays for itself etc.

Hybrids are nice and get good mileage, but a VW Jetta diesel is a great car too. Great mileage.

KK

[kpeavey]

Revi has a fine vehicle, runs on the sun.
See also John Howe's solar golf cart.

[Revi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kpeavey', 'R')evi has a fine vehicle, runs on the sun.
See also John Howe's solar golf cart.

[BlisteredWhippet]

Get a bike, lardass.

[Serial_Worrier]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BlisteredWhippet', 'G')et a bike, lardass.

[dohboi]

Yes, bike riding represents an extremely bad attitude--it's only the most efficient way to move mass across space ever invented, outstripping even the natural world in its efficiency. No one should ever even suggest using such an efficient technology in our built-on-massive-waste-and-inefficiency economy.

[sarcasm off]

Serial, may I, with the kindest of attitude, make a humble suggestion: get a brain, get a conscience, introduce them to each other.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dohboi', '
')bike riding represents an extremely bad attitude--it's only the most efficient way to move mass across space ever invented

[dohboi]

"few of us are in a position to get by without driving a traditional car at least every once and a while." mos, I agree, but it's way past time to ge into a position to get by without driving, or at least watch your "once in a while" rapidly disperse to once an month, once a year, once a decade...

We have developed very bad settlement patterns and habits during the heyday of cheap and abundant oil, and our sense of what is a reasonable accomodation to the new paradigm is likely to get seriously and continuously altered.

Sorry.

[VMarcHart]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BlisteredWhippet', 'G')et a bike, lardass.

[Anjorni]

Gurucat,

I'm in the same situation... Ive got a 15 year old truck that's showing it's age. I'm not necessarily looking to replace it, because i figure between the $ going out for a replacement wont be offset by the savings in fuel, plus, i like my truck - so i'm weighing the possibility of simply spending that purchase money on 'improvements.'

On the other hand, I'm having a hard time weighing that against replacing it with a beater that has 4wd, even though i'm in the city. At least if shtf, i'd be able to traverse a helluva lot more terrain than i can now. Also would it be an older model vehicle than what i have now - where the technology is simpler vs. purchaings a newer vechile where parts are more readily available. Which would be easier to keep up in an environment where everything is getting scarcer? I dont really know.

In any case, in comparison to the masses - bravo in keeping your car on the road so long. Just by that mere feat you were able to save hundreds of barrels of oil in production costs which would have gone into your previous 'replacements'.


Lots of options there G, make a game of weighing em, and Have fun!

[timmac]

Bill Heard Cheverlet that has 13 dealerships around America has shut down all 13 stores today,, 2 of them where located here in Las Vegas and local news says because of economy and no loans they had to shut doors and lay off about 2700 workers,, this is about as bad as I have seen things how much worse is this going to get,, casino's are really starting to see the economy problems here in Vegas,, gambling profits are really starting to dip, forclosures are the highest here than any where and unemployment has shot up here in Nevada in the past month.



Hows main street where you live, who has shut there doors ??