Is this worth it I cant make up my mind

I have a tacoma where i get 16 miles to the gallon. I drive 6hrs 1 way and back to work every week and drive around home on the weekends when im home.
Would it be worth it to get a car where i get about 32 miles to the gallon with and spend about $8000 on the car itself?
Thanks guys i appreciate it!

 

It's mainly about wat u think would be best. If ur main concern is gas mileage and u never haul anything then yea a car would be a good choice. IMO if it was me I wouldn't get rid of my Tacoma for tht one reason though, but in the end it's ur decision

 

I would keep the truck and get a cheap car.

 

I had pretty much this same situation back in '04. I ended up buying a car and it was the worst mistake I made. 20k later I had a worn out car and a pickup with low miles. If I had it to do over again I would just drive the Taco.

 

X2


get a beater

 

Here is some quick math 8,000 dollars / 2.65 dollars a gallon = 3,019 gallons of gas. 3,019 gallons x 16mpg (32 car -16 truck) = 48,302 miles.

So excluding all other cost, (tax, title, registration, maintenance etc....) and cost advantages, (less depreciation of truck) you would need to drive the car 48,302 miles to have it pay for itself in fuel alone.

 

x3...with the amount of gas you'll be saving the car will pay for itself in no time

 

If you go 12 hours round trip at 60mph, that would be 720 miles. 720 miles divided by 16mpg is 45 gallons, and at $3 a gallon that would be $135 in gas for the trip. If you did that trip once a week for a year (52 weeks), that would mean you spend $7,020 a year in gas for your trip to work. If you drove around town on the weekend for 50 miles, that would mean you'd use ~3 gallons at 16mpg. If you rode around every weekend of the year (for math purposes) that would mean you use 152 gallons a year riding around. At $3 a gallon, you'd be paying $468 for your weekend driving (50 miles approx.) So $7,020 + $468 is $7,488 a year you'd be paying for your gas for your trip to work and riding around on the weekends, not including how much you drive for other days. If you bought another car, you'd only pay about $3500 a year for gas, roughly $8000 for the car, and $243 for your weekend gas (50 miles) would make it $11,743 for the first year in total cost. The year after you'd only be paying $3,700 a year for gas if the circumstances were the same.

Good luck with the decision.

 

Listen here math whiz...

 

Kind of had a similar issue when I bought my 2010 DBL CAB 4x4 TRD Sport. Was driving a 2002 Honda Civic 5 speed which got awesome mileage. Hated to give up the great mileage - so I didn't. Bought the truck - kept the Civic. Let my high school age son drive the Civic mostly - but I'll drive it if I have to travel any distance - like to a major airport which is about 100+ miles from me. Realize this isn't an option (keeping two vehicles) for everyone. I only put about 8-9K miles on my primary vehicle in a year - so gas mileage wasn't the only reason I kept the Civic - it only had about 70K on it and they weren't going to give me what is was worth to me.

 

It's almost always cheaper to just keep one vehicle and drive it. Between initial purchase costs, fuel, maintenance, tires, oil, things that break, insurance, registration... it will almost never pay for itself in any near short term (say within at least one year). The best way to maximize efficiency from an investment (this case the taco) is to drive it as long as possible until it no longer becomes affordable to drive (which in our case is probably 300,000+ miles).

 

thanks for the help ill def considermy options im definetly not considering getting rid of my truck just considering wheather its worth to get a car or not.
Cuz i pay $500 a month right now for the truck and insurance and the car would prolly be about $315 a month with insurance.cuz i dont want a junk car after u consider how many miles ill be putting on it.

 

If you are going to sell the truck (and break even or near it) then you can save money by getting a cheaper more efficient car. Just remember used vehicles almost always have expensive little gremlins that will show up sooner than you'd like... it almost never fails.

 

this is the same mistake A TON of people made during the 2008 summer gas crunch, they quickly jumped from their paid off trucks/cars/suvs to "save" on gas into new prius's/insights, etc. spending 25k on the new car, w/out ever thinking about how much gas does 25k actually buy me? how many years do i actually need to keep the prius so that the gas savings actually will outbalance my current vehicles ownership cost?

 

Just wait until a Hybrid Tacoma comes out.

 

Plan b ... don't live 6hrs from primary source of income

I hate driving the 20 minutes it takes me to get to work just my 2¢

 

Yea, there is that lol. I presume it's contract work though that shifts around.

 

I don't think its affordable to buy a 2nd vehicle after you factor is INSURANCE & Registration. The extra hidden fees will add up. Did I not mention also Fix & Repair bills? ? ?

I'd stick with the Tacoma. Maybe lose the Lift, smaller tires, or any mods that will effect MPG.

You'll never know where 1 year or 2 years will take you. You might move, get a new job, or get laid off. . . etc.
​

 

well i did have a job like that but no good benefits.
I am now a NYS CO and u cannot beat the benefits. and it will be for prolly 3-4 yrs at the most and then my drive time will be down to about an hr for a few yrs then it will be about 20mins