Four years ago i downsized from my "midsized" pickup truck to a Jeep Grand cherokee with a 6 cyl motor that gets me about 18-21 mpg during the week, and maybe 28 on hiway trips. It has a 19 gallon tank. But with every week costing me around $50 to fill up, I was looking into either a diesel or hybrid. Since diesel in my area is now around $3.85 a gallon, even with better fuel economy, I would be spending a lot on fuel. I filled up last weekend, and it was a little over $60 for 18 gallons, or around $3.35 per gallon. this morning its at $3.51 in my neighborhood, so if I need half a tank, 9 gallons, it will be about $32.
OK, so you see the problem is I commute not very far to work, about 11 miles each way, 22 miles a day times 5 days=110 miles and then there is the other driving. i have really scaled back to maybe 100 miles during the week and weekend, most in the local area, in as few trips as possible, 210 miles a week, or about 10-11 gallons fuel. I know this don't seem like a big deal to most peopl, but we almost always use our gas card to pay, so we can track fuel costs for our vehicles, for tax purposes (I have a side business as a technology consultant). I used to pay that off in full every month, but if I charge 40-50 a week, and honey about $35 a week, thats $85 a week, or $4420 a year!!! So when fuel finally hits $4 a gallon this spring, and stays there, I am definitely changing to another vehicle. I am thinking of a 15 year old Geo, which got 60 mpg....whatever vehicle, it will have to get over 30 mpg............
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