Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What car would you buy if gas was $8 per gallon?

neiltc13 said:
I do agree though, it is not easy to compare especially as the tests used by the manufacturers to provide the figures will also differ between countries.
Click to expand...

What would make things a LOT easier for us Brits to understand fuel efficiency would be to quote petrol cost in £s per gallon, efficiency in litres per mile, or fully switch to km and metric (I'd prefer the latter).

While our roads are denoted in miles, our car magazines quote mpg but our petrol pumps sell by the litre - it's a mess that means we're never clear exactly how far we'll be able to travel for our £.
 
Mousse said:
Smart move. Diesel MIGHT still be $4 a gallon.;) Doubtful though. As for me, I'd go all electric. Nissan Leaf.
Click to expand...

I did the calculation, and for the difference in cost between a leaf and a similar petrol Nissan you save enough money to pay for 100 thousand miles worth of fuel (and that's at $8/US gallon)

Leafs are fine if you want to make a political statement, but they're not cost effective.
 
firestarter said:
I did the calculation, and for the difference in cost between a leaf and a similar petrol Nissan you save enough money to pay for 100 thousand miles worth of fuel (and that's at $8/US gallon)

Leafs are fine if you want to make a political statement, but they're not cost effective.
Click to expand...

Political statement? Phfffbbttt. The Leaf is technologically superior to the petro powered Versa. I think of it akin to using a calculator verse an abacus.
 
Thetonyk123 said:
I don't own a car. But I know gas over here right now is $3.24 for regular
Click to expand...

Dang that is pretty cheap. We are hovering around $3.69-$3.99.

I would keep my honda accord. I fill up about every other week. I work four days a week and drive about 26 miles one way. What sucks is with my job I can work anywhere within the County of Los Angeles. My favorite assignment was only .75 miles away. Oh the joys of being able to walk or ride my bike to work.

The wife works 6 miles away and she drives the truck which we fill up every three weeks or so. So that isn't to bad. We have cut down on driving also. Less trips out and cutting down how many times we do go out.
 
Mousse said:
Political statement? Phfffbbttt. The Leaf is technologically superior to the petro powered Versa. I think of it akin to using a calculator verse an abacus.
Click to expand...

Ha!

Personally, I prefer electric to gas (I'm just more comfortable with the technology!) but sadly they're going to remain niche vehicles for a good few years.

Why technologically superior? It's just different.
 
I spend about a $150/month on gas (it's just shy of $4/gal here). An increase to $300/month isn't going to get me to change my purchasing decisions. That said, I'm a bigger fan of smaller cars anyway, so it's kind of a moot point.
 
I'd be in big trouble if gas prices here were that high. I'd probably have to buy a Schwinn. :eek:

Seriously, the part of Texas I live in makes it very difficult to live without a motor vehicle. Arlington has no public transportation. I do get to work from home two days a week, but otherwise my work commute is a total of 60 miles a day for the other three work days. I understand people who say try to cut down on your driving, but that is a total lifestyle change and you have to weigh the pros and cons, especially when you have a family. It's hard to cut out things that benefit your children like sports and other "growth activities". Both my wife's family and mine are 11-12 hours drives away from us and we try to visit them once or twice a year. The miles really add up fast. I'd say we easily put 15,000 to 20,000 miles on our primary car each year.
 
firestarter said:
Personally, I prefer electric to gas (I'm just more comfortable with the technology!) but sadly they're going to remain niche vehicles for a good few years.
Click to expand...

The price is what keeps me from getting one. They're too expensive. Living in the big city and tearing up the highway at 15mph in rush hour makes an electric car very attractive.

firestarter said:
Why technologically superior? It's just different.
Click to expand...

Nav system (not a big selling point for me, seeing how GPS units are dirt cheap), LED headlights, HomeLink system (you know, turn the light in your home on and off from you car and stuff like that:rolleyes:), a geewhiz computer system that handles mundane tasks like monitoring and charging battery and managing A/C. That kind of stuff just isn't available in the budget price Versa.
 
Just paid 1,59 Euro/litre - that is about $8,10 per US Gallon. Don't you love europe :rolleyes:

I drive a 1.6 Golf Mk IV btw. - can't go much more economical than that.
 
Last edited:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Keep on drivin my 1989 dodge 2.2L turbo 30-32 highway 25 city. Then my dodge ram in snow
 
Some numbers:
I get about 27.5 mpg. At $3.50/gal and 25k miles per year, that's $3181 per year I'm paying.
At $8/gal, that would be $7272 per year, a $4090 increase. Ouch. That's a lot of iPads.

Let's assume I look at a VW Jetta TDI, at 42 mpg. That makes the cost of gas $4761 per year if diesel is $8/gal. That would be $2510 per year cheaper than my current car.

At an MSRP of $22,525, and if I sell my current car for an estimated $9k, it would take 5.3 years just to break even. If I drove a more sane 12k miles per year, break-even would happen at 11.2 years.

So basically, I wouldn't do anything with my car if gas went to $8/gal. If my current one burned to the ground and I was forced to buy something new, I'd probably just get another Honda S2000. Specifically, a CR.
 
macquariumguy said:
I would keep my NSX and enjoy the deserted roads a lot more!
Click to expand...

I can't share that feeling with you. I'd definitely get rid of my gas-guzzling SUV. I will be upgrading this thing to something more economically efficient in the next year or so. 19 mph is not okay.
 
comfort-walking-footwear.jpg
 
if I absolutely had to, probably a Toyota Corolla or something of the like. But man, I like having a small truck. Not horrible gas mileage for its age, (98 Ford Ranger, about 20 MPG more or less) Not a huge beast, I can throw anything in the back if need be, and hardly anybody wants to ride in a fold out jump seat so I don't get asked for those very often. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back