Or you could go to your local UHaul and rent a truck for the day.
Oh for sure, I was just going by the first ‘average’ I found on Google and noting that the average savings isn’t all that much. Obviously if you drive more than most you’ll save move and if you drive less you’ll save less. I have two kids about to drive. Been looking for a cheap early 2000’s truck for them to drive to school (prob 10 miles round trip) and have to haul kayaks/bikes/whatever. But I wouldn’t want to use it to drive to work daily since it’s an 80 mile round trip for me.
Clearly, these poor people need tax breaks!
I like that you can rent a pickup at Home Depot for $19 for the first hour. Usually when I need a truck, I don’t need it for that long, so it’s nice to have that option available.
Yeah, my point was that the presence on that list of, say, an AMG S65 means something very different than the presence of a, say, an Equinox. A $230,000 uber-car vs. a relatively basic SUV…
Is that average per American driver/car owner or just per American? There are a lot of non-drivers out there (heck, maybe they counted kids and older seniors). $1500 on gas, per year, sounds really, really low for the typical actual driver.
I’d be amazed if I spend more than about $1300/year in my gas guzzling POS, but again, tiny daily commute. But I do about a dozen major 300+ mile trips a year, and even then it barely gets that high.
I think it always comes down to the commute, because the infrequent trips usually won’t tip the scales. 500 gallons, at 20 MPG, comes to 10K miles. That admittedly doesn’t sound too far off from the average miles driven on a car per year.
Just found another one that averages only the 214 million drivers (2015 total) into the gallons used and ends up with 646 gallons per driver, but is using 2016’s price of a little over $2/gallon so says that the cost per year is $1400. Still not a huge outlay, or at least not what I would have thought.
My Crosstrek got like 27-30mpg generally, but I’d take it over my finance’s Altima just for space and comfort even though the Altma gets around 30-32 usually. But I do hate when I have to drive my mini-van (with 5 kids between us I had to trade in my crosstrek) since I get at best 22 or so on the highway. But then I can haul 7 of us in comfort when needed. Along with a buttload of groceries.
Bah. I hate Uhaul. Someone didn’t read all the posts! ;-)
Heh.
Apologies. It was the first big brown GMC that turned up on YouTube. I thought it might be of a similar vintage to the one your dad had. Obviously, the one I linked was probably in worse condition. I guess my point was that listening to the audio there, you can almost hear the gasoline being poured through the carburetor. Anyway, it was obviously poor humor.
I was amused. My dad’s truck was in better shape, but yeah these work vehicles, the ones the family uses for limited uses or one person uses just because… well they’re not always in top shape so the MPG on the books not always… right. On the positive side though we could hurl things in that trailer like there was no tomorrow. Some people i know with “work” trucks seem way too considered with the status of that bed. If you’re loading a yard of rock in there… probably going to get a ding or… two.
Trucks are great when you need them. But for most people those times are like… once or twice a year tops.
And most of the time a mini-van would do the job better since you can also haul people around it in easier.
I moved back from Japan last year and had 30 large cardboard boxes of stuff shipped (packed on a pallet at least 8 feet high) . We took my Dad’s Honda van with the middle and back seats out and fit the whole 30 boxes in with room to spare. I never would have thought it would all fit in one go. Plus, as we don’t have a car, my parents often drive down to Toronto, spend the night and then take the four of us back to their place for holidays (Christmas, Easter, March Break, summer vacation, etc). Minivans are amazing.
Yeah, I agree with that. I had no idea mini-vans had that much room until my sister-in-law helped me buy furniture from Nebraska Furniture Mart and take it to my place in the Hyundai Entourage. I was so skeptical. All that is going to fit in here? Shouldn’t we take my brother’s Yukon? Nope, it all fit in the Entourage.
The cheaper option I was referring to was actually Lowe’s or Home Depot. They are MUCH cheaper for a short term pickup rental if all you need is a pickup. But they are limited in vehicle inventory. UHaul and similar are better for moving or all day use.
I still would prefer my own truck but don’t know if I’ll ever get one.
I know it’s pretty popular to moan about the growing SUV market, but I appreciate them. I’m 6’3 and rather overweight and feel pretty cramped climbing into smaller fuel-efficient cars (eg golf and below category), so having a vehicle I can get in comfortably and have space in is nice.
This weekend I drove a Volvo XC60 rental car and it was pretty comfy cruising along at 125mph (though I have to confess I’m not sure what the fuel consumption is…)
Where were you cruising at that speed?
That was between Hannover and Düsseldorf.