karman

I already saved my gas money 2 years ago.
I got rid of my "12 MPG in the city" car for my gas sipping MUSTANG !!!!
It's all relative.

Got Oatz

LOL....I guess I just screwed up big time......

We just traded the V6 Escape for a Bullitt...................Now feeding to GT's....and lovin life.....

MTAS

Exactly - this knee-jerk reaction to gas prices cracks me up..."I finally got rid of my Expedition that only got 15MPG and got a [insert emasculating wimp car here] that gets 30+MPG!!!!!" The part they won't tell you is that they were upside down like a **** on the Expedition which was added to the price of the baby car

StangMahn

prius' are crap as far as Im concerned. they've got people really jaded, and the people that buy them for the most part have no clue how awful the car they're buying really is. I can go on a rant for a month!

As far as Im concerned, once I buy my 07, its never leaving. I would like to get a VW Jetta TDI, get one from Europe that gets 50+mpg

slipnotovk

my job.....dep of san!tation for ny (i had to use the "!" because they do searches on google for keywords to see what people are saying about the dept!), uses prius' for the supervisors cars. a year back i had to pick up a brand new one from the main office and bring it back to my garage. let me tell you......what a piece of CR@P! every time it goes from the electric motor to the engine it bucks like its about to stall out. the interior is made of 95% plastic, the seats are uncomfortable, the ride blows, and it just looks terrible. i felt like i was driving a car from the jetsons minus the flying lol. and when these cars start breaking down after their precious warantee has expired, do you think the 25 year veteran mechanics at joe blows garage will be able to fix them? NOPE! itll have to be taken back to the local stealership and the people who bought these cars will wish they never did when their bill is sky high. all in all i HATE the prius.

and sorry for hijacking the thread......i just had to vent

jedikd

Does anyone really think driving a certain kind of car makes you more or less manly/wimpy? If you were only driving that Expedition because it made you feel like a man you have much more serious issues than gas mileage.

2k7gtcs

I'm pretty sure MTAS never said he was driving the Expedition. It is a hypothetical. Touchy aren't we.

codeman94

I think of it as paying off dept....By Having a "gass guzzler"...you have gotten yourself into Gas debt. Getting a high MPG car helps you pay down the debt, but depending on how deep in you are, it could take a while, and then you eventually get to keep more of your money when its payed off....I wonder if that makes sense to anyone else but me?

2k7gtcs

If you have a paid for car that gets 30 mpg and a paid for car that gets 15 mpg then as long as both serves your needs the 30 mpg car is saving you money on gas. But if you have a paid for car that gets 15 mpg and you sell it or trade it in for a car with a net price difference of $20,000. How many miles must you drive to make up the $20,000 dollars you just spent in gas alone? At $4/gallon, you'll drive 75,000 miles before you break even and begin to save money.

The best thing anyone can have is a paid for car. Without a car payment you can buy alot more gas.

jedikd

Right on the money, I've told people for years that complain about gas mileage that a used civic would save them many thousands of dollars over buying a new Prius. And you can actually find a mechanic to work on the civic!

MTAS

Sarcasm is so hard to get across correctly on the 'net but you got my drift I did drive my daughter's Expedition once and it may as well have been a school bus That Expedition was shortly traded for a Mercury Milano, way before the raping at the gas pump started

metroplex

It makes sense to go to a fuel efficient car when you're ready to get rid of an older car. I'm ready to retire the 00 Crown Vic as a winter daily driver so I'm looking at the Mazda3 with the 2.5L DOHC I4. I looked at the Prius, Nissan Altima Hybrid, and Malibu Hybrid but the Mazda3 is much better equipped at $5k less. The fuel economy delta is 5-15 MPG and hardly worth it to bother with a cheaply made Prius. The Mazda3 S GT gets 30+ MPG on the highway and has LED tail lamps with projector Xenon HID headlamps.

jpro

I have a 2000 Civic, paid it off years ago (bought it new). I never put gas in the thing and maintenance is relatively cheap. By having a paid for gas-sipper you can save tons of money, even before gas was $4/gallon.

codeman94

my taurus is payed of, and I get 27 mph average per tank...wish it was better, but its way cheaper than buying another car.

Arrow

If anyone feels they need to complain about Mustangs being "gas guzzlers" they need to be pointed towards an H2 to get straightened out on what "gas guzzler" really is.

metroplex

8.xL V8 in a Suburban is a gas guzzler. Then again, my 2000 Crown Vic gets 2-3 MPG at WOT.

EastCoast07GtCs

I have no problems with anyone wanting to move to a Prius, as a matter of fact, for those on the fence, I say go for it... cause I need your gas for my Stang!!!!

newdy22

It's all relative. I think buying small fuel efficient cars is a fad of today. However it is beneficial to all of us that this trend has become so popular. The technology is developing and getting better each day because there is a demand therefore car companies are willing to invest time and money in it to make it better.

Think about it. It took us 100 years to make gasoline engines tire scorching, pavement pounding, and clean running from wimpy 12 hp power sources back in the early 1900's. Steam engines were king, gasoline engines were crap.

With the technology of today, we will be able to make much more progress in a much shorter period of time to produce hydro cars or electric cars that are not only fuel efficient and affordable but can scorch pavement and pound pavement while blazing the quarter mile at 11-13 seconds at an affordable price. That day will come. It happened with wimpy gasoline motors with poor technology 100 years ago. It will happen again, even more quickly, with a different energy source and better, more advanced technology and many more players such as Japan, China, Korea, Europe and the US working on it to support the revolution.

I'm not willing to sacrifice performance for an affordable alternative fuel efficient vehicle but I, and you should too, am glad there is a market to support alternative fuel vehicles. Eventually you and I will not have to sacrifice performance for affordable alternative fuel transportation. Alternative fuel performance vehicles will eventually be here. Alternative fuel vehicles of the future will outperform our beloved gasoline powered cars of today. Imagine that. You won't have to imagine it though.

Arrow

I think the fundamental point is that cars like the Prius and Atom aren't meant to be replacements for cars like Mustangs and Camaros. They're meant to be replacements for less efficient commuter cars with the sole purpose of being a commute and errand runner. If I could swing having two cars right now, I sure as hell wouldn't be driving my 'Stang every day to work, through terrible DC roads, traffic, etc. I'd definitely look into something way fuel efficient for a second car..........just wouldn't be caught dead in a Prius.

wjones14

*IF* I was going to get something more fuel-efficient and practical, it would be something like the Cobalt SS or Mini Cooper S. Both get something like 36 mpg highway, and are a lot of fun at the same time.

But speaking of gas guzzlers, I was at the BMW lot the other night looking at the new 135 coupes (300 hp; 0-60 in 4.8, 1/4 mile in 13.4 @ 104 mph), and I saw an M3 coupe. The window sticker on the M3 shows it gets hit with a $1500 "gas guzzler" tax! The EPA mileage is 14/20 on the M3. But that wasn't the worst one. There was also an M5 on the lot with a $3000 gas guzzler tax surcharge! EPA of 11/17. But that boy has the V10 engine with 500hp, so it ain't all bad news.