Re: Update Re: Carfax, Buying Used, & Craigslist.org

On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:51:06 -0500, Pszemol <Pszemol@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>"AZ Nomad" <aznomad.3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:slrng7mst1.ejm.aznomad.3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:28:41 -0700, Elle <honda.lioness@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>>>"Pszemol" <Pszemol@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
>>>> Lets say you compare a car making 30mpg to a car making 
>>>> 35mpg.
>>>> 12000/30 is 400 gallons. 12000/35 is 343 gallons. 
>>>> Difference
>>>> is 57 gallons. With todays price less than $5 per gallons 
>>>> it
>>>> is 57*5 = 285 dollars PER YEAR. 23 dollars per month...
>> 
>>>~$20/month is something a lot of people do mind. That's a 
>>>nice lunch somewhere once a month. There's no point in 
>>>paying it, if it can be avoided. Twenty bucks here, twenty 
>>>there each month adds up. 
>> 
>> Save it all up and you might be able to afford a new battery when the
time
>> comes.  The payback period for most hybrids is greater than the life of
the
>> car.  You'll have more money in your pocket if you simply get a
standard
>> car.  Better yet, get a one year old standard engine car.  The
difference
>> in cost will be more like $150/month.

>And when buying an old car you really does not have a way testing
>how good is this particular car on mpg. It might require some
>money spent to get to the desired target mpg values - if it costs
>couple hundreds to replace sensors or make some tuning up than
>it again defeats the purpose of saving these 5-10 bucks a month
>which the mileage improvement can save you. Tricky subject... :-)

>Also - with an old car, a single expensive unexpected repair can
>kill all your pre-calculated "profits" you expect, so choosing
>right car is extra tricky and is more in the hands of luck/fate.

I was talking about a year old car, not a twenty old junker.