Day 701 of 365 More.
21.5 cents per gallon! That’s more like it!
Jameel and I drove out to the middle of nowhere Pennsyltucky this week to buy a Ford Escape Hyrbid that I saw advertised on the net.
A few hours later and I own a new car. Kinda crazy feeling weird about that. It’s exactly what I wanted, but it’s the newest car I’ve ever owned and whew, that ain’t cheap.
Now to figure out how to sell my old Blazer.
damn, if only…
Truck looks great Mav. I see it parked across from your house.
Sell off inside parts, engine components, glass, etc., then auction off chances to whack the crap out of it with a baseball bat. Have an anti-OPEC party! Turn it into an art-car and video/still-shoot the whole thing. Go nuts!
If all else fails, we Louisianians could use it offshore to help rebuild our barrier reefs. Drive down and we’ll roll it off a bridge somewhere!
Dude! go you with your hybrid owning coolness. I love my Subaru and I’m hoping she’ll have a long and happy life with me for many more years… but I’m still a bit jealous of the new car goodness.
Or maybe thats a little bit of my "I’m gonna pay HOW MUCH for gas driving across the country?" showing too. *sigh*
Ok, so I remember those prices! If I send you a big tank, could you fill it for me?
SELL the Blazer?!? With a dead engine? In this gashog market? Hahahahahaha!
I don’t really want to be so negative, but — strip for parts; crush as scrap.
Donate it if some organization will take it. Write it off on your taxes.
Congrats on the Escape hybrid! I wish someone made a hybrid minivan.
Woohoo, 21.5¢! That’s probably at least $1.50 in today’s dollars.
In 1996, Susan and I thought the $2.04 price in Death Valley, CA was so outrageous that I used TWO precious frames of film to take photos of the Chevron sign.
@Mikey aka DaSkinnyBlackMan: exactly.
@navigator23: yeah, I’m loving it.
@M Styborski: too lazy for all that. I’ll just be selling it whole.
@mickeysacks: yeah, even with a hyrbid that’s expensive.
@lrayholly: heh… sadly that well is dry.
@phlewght: umm, it doesn’t have a dead engine. The engine is fine actually. It’s a V6-Vortec. They run forever. That’s why I bought it in the first place. I actually have some interest already. It’s not even THAT bad on gas mileage. It get’s like 15-18 in the city, which is on par with other non-economy cars. As for a hybrid mini-van, it depends on what you’re looking for and what you count as a mini-van vs. an SUV. Despite SUVs getting bad press, minivans are usually even worse on things like fuel economy and power such. So you’re likely not going to get as good as the Escape anyway. If you’re looking to haul around a bunch of kids and get pretty good gas mileage, you might check the Chevy Tahoe hybrid. Seats 7-8, and at 21mpg is comparable to the non-hybrid versions of the Camry or an Accord.
Oh, I thought you said the engine died. I remembered wrong.
Yeah, but SUVs are not nearly as cavernous inside as our Toyota Sienna minivan (2004) for carrying stuff as well as for passenger roominess — high floors inside an SUV. I think our minivan is roomier inside than our neighbors’ Suburban, useable room.
We get 29-30mpg on the highway — @ 70mph!! (We just averaged 28.2 on our 1700-mile trip to NE Ohio and Chicago, mostly highway.) But for short trips around town it’s about 14-15 in the dead of Winter, and 17-18 in the summer. Winter, ugh! — just when the engine is almost fully warmed up, you’ve reached your in-town destination and shut off the car! Cold engine + cold air + low speeds = atrocious mileage.
But it’s not bad economy really, for a minivan, which as you say is not a frugal beast in general. My father-in-law only gets about 23 mpg on the highway with his Ford Freestar: worse mileage than the Windstar he replaced with it, which got about 27 hwy. I think he said. Probably underpowered for its weight compared to the old one.
We bought the Sienna just before H was born, when we were about to need 3 car seats. There are almost no sedans out there that can properly and safely accomodate 3 car seats across the rear seat, esp. when at least one is for infants. An 8-passenger Sienna’s middle row of seats can, but it’s so difficult to reach seat belt clasps that we opted for the 7 passenger arrangement. My eldest rides in the smaller part of the back row (a 35/65 split bench that folds into the floor). We love the room for carrying stuff, too, even though she is big enough for no booster seat now.
Geez, yet another tome from George….
@phlewght: yeah… it’s tough. The thing with the hybrid is it’s all about the tradeoff. You’d be getting much better in the city at 21mpg, but it’s only rated for 22 on the highway. Anyway, like I said it’s pretty roomy for an SUV (and in fact bigger than I wanted, which is why I went for the smaller but better fuel efficieny Escape) so you might want to take a look at it. And if not, you could wait a year or two and get the Toyota van hybrid they just released over in Japan (no word on when it’s hitting the States, but I imagine it won’t be too long).
Hey now. You can’t call Erie Pennsyltucky.
They are just as crazy liberal as they are here.
Its those crazies in the middle of the state.
@spresogna: hehehe… yeah, on the other hand, the number of pickup trucks per capita is pretty high. 🙂