I didn’t say I wanted 4 doors. I had a 84 Toyota xtra cab and that was great. If I take the dogs along I don’t put them in the bed. Not that it’s a deal killer either. So you can Keep the station wagon.
With gas prices currently on the rise, it got me wondering at what point buying that additional 32 mpg fully-depreciated and unmaintained (POS) commuter even begin to actually make financial sense for that 'average' modern truck driver. It turns out that point isn't reached until gas exceeds $5.78/gal sustained over the full ownership life of the truck.The average worker drives 12k-15k mi/yr. Let's call 12k of that 'non-truck' use that could reasonably be done by a more efficient vehicle. With at 20mpg (combined) truck and $3/gal (current US average is less than that) for gas, that's $1800/yr in gas. Figure insurance alone probably costs around $1200/yr, and take out another $100 for average annual registration. With the remaining $500/yr difference used exclusively on fuel to actually drive the commuter car, it would need to get 72mpg(combined) fuel economy. If the commuter vehicle were a sedan getting only 32 mpg (combined), it would have to replace >23k mi/yr of driving to do the same.
And I didn’t either.
