Something is awry with that comment. Maybe feet and not miles?
Asking for advice
- Thread starter mrjlube
- Start date
Something is awry with that comment. Maybe feet and not miles?
Many Crown Vics ran 150,000 plus as State Police cars, then auctioned off to taxi outfits and run to 400,000 with original drivetrain. Highly recommended. Also consider your potential to get in a wreck driving that many miles a year. I'd vote for some bulk around me instead of a roller skate.
It is miles, sir. She lives in Kenedy, Texas but took a job in Houston which around is around 190 - 200 miles one trip. She does not want to sell her estate in Kenedy because she had a farm & livestock there. She finally got a carpool which is the same path of where she's going saving her almost half of the mileage every day.
Get something more modern and fuel efficient than that old dinosaur, and that has seats with decent lumbar back support. My Gen 1 Tundra someone drove his to one million miles with the original 2UZ-FE engine and all internal parts, and original transmission. That does not make mine a vehicle you would want to drive 70,000 miles a year though. I don’t know what it is with this place and these Crown Vics.
Drive that 18 MPG Grand Marquis 70,000 miles a year and your five fuel costs are $20,750. Change to a 31 MPG Subaru Impreza hatchback, a much safer car with better handling and you save $5,250 in fuel costs alone. Change to a Toyota Camry hybrid, 46 MPG, and you save $17,000 in fuel costs over 5 years.
Drive that 18 MPG Grand Marquis 70,000 miles a year and your five fuel costs are $20,750. Change to a 31 MPG Subaru Impreza hatchback, a much safer car with better handling and you save $5,250 in fuel costs alone. Change to a Toyota Camry hybrid, 46 MPG, and you save $17,000 in fuel costs over 5 years.
If you are really getting $0.98/mile then drive what you like. Figure out what you are spending for the MGM and save the rest for another car or replacement.
Figure 20 MPG for mixed driving for the initial estimate, and at $3/gallon for gas you are looking at $0.15/mile for fuel at that price.
Add half that again for maintenance and repair.
Just looking at my $10k 2012 Mazda3 I bought 4 years ago, and the purchase of my car is still the biggest cost at $10k, fuel has been $5680 and repairs and maintenance have been $1812. My total cost per mile over 70k+ miles has been $0.24/mile (Purchases at 68,8xx and today it has 141,0xx miles on it.
If you are really getting $0.98/mile, you should be able save half or more of that even at $0.20/mile as your operating costs will be on the order of $0.22/mile not counting the cost of the car or your insurance.
You are talking about close to $70k in reimbursements over that 70k miles, like $68k plus. You are going to spend about a quarter of that in operating costs, leaving you around $50k in your car kitty to get something.
If it were me, I'd have a car account where all the mileage reimbursement goes and the operating costs come out of it. At the end of a year, I'd evaluate and see what I could do with the money I'd accumulated.
You could probably buy one nice new car, or a fleet of dream hoopties. Or buy some $20k run-about and bank the other $30k for some other purpose, etc.
The $0.98/mile seems high, unless that's both your wage AND your mileage. If it's both, then taxes come out and it's a very different ball game here. If that's the case, you keep records and deduct your work mileage.
That's nice. The 2004 Grand Marquis is only rated 23 MPG highway per EPA and you seem to be beating it by 17% with an 18 year old car. Remarkable. The Impreza is EPA rated 36 MPG highway, and the Camry Hybrid is 47 MPG highway. There's probably a guy who gets 42 MPG with an Impreza and 55 MPG with the Camry, too. You might become that guy by switching cars.
If you want to shift the cost model to 2/3 highway driving, the Impreza saves $7,500 in fuel cost over 5 years, and the Camry save $17,000 in 5 years.
No doubt as my way of thinking I'd drive what I have for awhile to be sure the job pans out and I could continue functioning well enough to do it. Sure wouldn't just jump to anything else and have a payment attached.
I'd suggest looking at the million mile cars (or even 500,000 mile cars). That mileage means that the vehicle can go that far and (just as important) that someone liked it well enough to drive it that far.
An older Honda Accord come to mind. My 7th generation Accord would probably go 500,000 miles but I'd suggest going for an I4 (rather than a V6) with a manual transmission. In a million miles you might need a clutch or two.
An older Honda Accord come to mind. My 7th generation Accord would probably go 500,000 miles but I'd suggest going for an I4 (rather than a V6) with a manual transmission. In a million miles you might need a clutch or two.
7th gen Buick Regal? 30 mpg highway and pillowy seats. Could be a compromise between fuel economy and comfort.
I rented a GM for a trip to NJ many years ago and I avereaged 29MPG 90% Highway. Car runs at about 1400 rpm.
If you ar spending a ton of time in a vehice, I'd want a comfortable one. The GM is one of the best ever made along with the Buick
LeSabre.
If the OP is delivering he will have more mixed driving and his MPG ave will go down. I would never do long trips in an Impreza.
NO way.
How did you come up with 70K miles a year?
That is in the car 50 weeks a Year, 8 hours a day, with mixed driving.
Man I could never hack that; I would be crosseyed dizzy.
Plus insurance will skyrocket.
Not that hard to do really. If he drives five days a week that would be 270 miles a day.
I agree on the comfort angle. Spending that much time in a vehicle, you would want it to be comfortable. I would sacrifice a couple or so mpg for that.
