SUV Trade-ins not welcome

I really wanted to take names from a couple of years ago of the people in cyberspace screaming: "I NEED THIS SUV" and "I DON'T CARE IF IT'S $10 A GALLON!!!" ... would love to greet some of the at the car dealer about how they "won" their arguement.

 

Who would take any notice of those clowns? Although they may well be right on the money this time.

 

No worries, they'll just torch their gas-guzzling SUVs and collect the insurance money. It's already happening.

 

This is why my Ford Explorer sits in the driveway. Its part of the Sequestered SUVâ„¢ program. And the trade in value is approximately nil.

 

Just wait a month. If McCain and Clinton have their way, you might be able to sell it during the summer gas tax holiday to someone too stupid to figure out how much it will cost them after Labor Day.

 

Good idea, but if I sold it, the next owner might drive it more than I do.

I actually used it two weeks ago to pull a small trailer to move some furniture from my dad's house. I drove it about 220 miles and used $50 in gas. That's enough gas for about 700 miles in the Prius.

 

Godiva, the fed tax is really not much at all. It's not going to affect consumer decisions. You last paid $3.84/gal. If the fed tax was waived you'd be paying $3.66/gal and that's right now! By the summer gas will probably be higher than we're paying right now with or without this idiotic holiday. So if that holds true, I don't see how consumer buying habits are going to be reversed.

 

You mean, someone else isn't going to pickup the tab for our road repairs while we're all on gas tax holiday?

Rob

 

I saw this article, they printed it in our local paper on Monday. I am SOOO glad I unloaded my SUV 11 days ago,,, it was only 3yrs old, and now I feel great about my decision to do this now and not wait till next year..

I truly think this period is the slow death of the SUVs....

My husband is not giving up his 2002 Chevy S-10 pickup though, he is now waiting four our stimulus rebate check and then will go out and pick up an older Honda or Toyota for cash and use that as his work car and keep the truck park for pleasure driving, which won't be very much.

I'm happy sitting in my new Prius and gloating

 

We just traded in our Tacoma this weekend on a Scion xB. We had wanted a second Prius, but they just didn't have any.

One of our biggest concerns was that eventually we wouldn't be able to sell/trade the truck due to rising fuel costs. So we got out while the getting was good. It wasn't an SUV, but I figured that people who really need a work truck would probably go for the Tundra, so the Tacoma wouldn't be an easy sell later down the road.

We did OK, ended up owning the Scion free and clear and getting back $3500 cash. Now I can pay off the last remaining bit on my 07 Prius and we'll be happy to not have a truck sitting in the driveway, rarely driven due to high fuel costs!

 

well, it looks like our asking price can go up a little for that camry wagon. [shrug] works for me!

 

But the new Scions with the big 2.4l engine don't get very good gas mileage. The xB at 24mpg combined it's still going to be a decent amount better than a V6 Tacoma, but really - 24mpg still sucks - that's nearly twice the fuel consumption of the Prius! A Corolla would have been a more economical choice with similar interior room.

 

How much pleasure would you get driving a truck?
Remember when truck driving was a job you got paid to do?
Anyone want to whitewash a bit of fence? I only charge you a little to do a paling or two. It gives so much pleasure.

 

Pat, you just don't understand. Its the birthright of every US citizen to drive a truck if they want to. If they are a NBA player (pro basketball) they are required to drive an Escalade with 22" rims that cost as much as a Prius.

 

He was getting 19mpg on the truck. The Scion may not get Prius-type mileage, but real-world estimates are actually closer to 27-28mpg, which is still an improvement over the truck.

We looked at the Corolla - too small for all of us to ride comfortably. It does not really have the same room as the xB, and with one car seat and two additional kids, it was going to be a tight squeeze.
We looked at the Matrix - too small.

He tried the xB and loved it. It's got room in the back for dog, kayak, etc. It may not get 50 mpg like the Prius, but it's an improvement over the truck. He doesn't feel guilty driving it, I don't mind driving it (I hated driving the truck, way too big for me), and with the money we got back the Prius will be paid off. Everyone's happy all the way around, and mpg wasn't the ONLY consideration for us. We really would have bought another Prius for several reasons (room in hatchback, room in back seat, good mileage), but since they didn't have it, we found something else that worked.

 

I considered the Scion xB as well...and would have gotten it had this advertisement for the Prius fallen through. The xB actually feels like a much bigger car than it is, entry and exit is similar to that of a truck and rear room is amazing.

 

Oh yes, I understand the power of marketing.

pyccku isn't a real US citizen, she wrote this,
"I hated driving the truck, way too big for me" Shame on your unpatriotic self pyccku.

Have you even white-washed a fence paling? Awesome fun. You would have to pay a substantial fee for me to let you do a couple of palings. In fact I'm having such fun doing it myself I don't know I want to let you.

 

Yeah, I'm one of those fake Americans, cause I hate driving anything large! I should probably move to Canada.

So far we're getting 27-28 mpg on the xB. From what I hear it has a break-in period similar to the Prius, so we anticipate getting a little better than that once we've driven it. Of course, I've got those mad Prius-driving skillz that I put to use in the Scion, so I fully intend to beat those EPA estimates. I won't be driving it most of the time, though.

The man is also quite happy with his new toy. He loves driving it and doesn't feel guilty when he does drive it. He even took the kids to the zoo yesterday - a good 40 miles one way, and not an easy feat to do on his own. I think he must be crazy to actually come up with a plan like that, usually he's trying to avoid going anywhere with the little ones! But maybe he just wanted to drive.

 

While I'm happy he's driving something that consumes significantly less fuel than his old pickup, there's still no denying that he probably should have driven your Prius when taking the kids to the zoo:

xB: ~28mpg, 80 miles: ~2.9 gallons of fuel, $4/gal = ~$11.42
Prius ~46mpg, 80 miles: ~1.7 gallons of fuel, $4/gal = ~$6.80

In our two car family, we try to always have the person driving the longest distance for the day take the most fuel efficient vehicle. Sure, this means that you don't get to drive your favorite vehicle or in our case we have to move the kid's car seat fairly frequently, but those couple bucks saved for every trip add up - not to mention the effect on the environment.