Why I Can’t Afford an Economy Car (or Won’t)
I have really been feeling it at the pump over the last few weeks when getting gas. Just within the last 5 days I had to fill up 3 times for a grand total of $130 (my car twice and my wife’s once). Because of this absurd amount of money and frequency I went car shopping last week to look for a more fuel efficient car.
The Situation
I have a 2002 Nissan Xterra that has 95k miles on it. On the average it gets about 20 miles to the gallon with its 16 Gallon tank (it actually has more but that it the most I have ever put in when it was on empty). I drive 20 miles one way to work 
for a total of 200 miles a week which is 800 miles a month. The car is really driven a least 1000-1200 miles a month with weekends and such.
I like the car a lot other then the gas mileage. I especially like the fact that I own the car outright and do not have a payment on it. The current trade in value for it right now is $8k. If I could sell it personally (which I do not think it likely) I might be able to get $10k. I paid $14.5 for it 2 years ago with 56k miles on it.
The Possible Solution
A couple of years ago I had a Scion XB that was very frugal with gas. The Scion gets about 30 miles per gallon and has a 12 gallon tank (it is more… but you get the picture). The XB would not be that much of a trade off as the interior is pretty roomy and is almost as big as the 
Xterra. The only trade off with getting an XB would be that I would not be able to tow anything with it (which I have only done once with the Xterra).
My plan was to sell or trade in my Xterra for a Scion XB. I wanted to make sure that it I would really be saving money if I went through all the trouble of trading cars. Initially I was excited to find out how much money I would be saving by going to a more fuel efficient car. As the numbers unfolded my excitement faded as I found it would actually end up costing me money.
The Numbers
I had the luxury of having a record of every transaction that I had made via my debit card last year though a online check register that I setup for myself. With this information I was able to glean the total amount that I spent on gas last year via my debit card which was at least 95% of the money I sent on gas. So the total was pretty accurate.
I plugged these amounts into Excel and subtotal them out by total, count, and average for each month. From there I went to eia.doe.gov and got the average gas prices for my area by week. I then averaged these totals out by month and plugged them into my spreadsheet. From there I was able to calculate the following items by month for the Xterra to see my current state:
- Average Gallons Per Fill Up
- Total Gallons Per Month
- Average Miles Per tank of Gas
- Total Miles for the Month
From there I plugged in info on the Scion to compare. These are the items that I calculated by month:
- Scion Gallons of gas (total Monthly Miles / Scion MPG)
- Scion Gas Cost (Scion Gallons x Average cost per gallon)
- Gallons less then Xterra (Xterra gallons less Scion gallons)
- Savings - Scion over Xterra
From there I was able to look at the average saving per month and the whole year. This is what I got for 2006:
- Year savings: $1,116.12
- Average Monthly Savings: $93.01
While these figures look great it is the cost of a used XB verses what I can get for my Xterra that is causing issues. There is just no way that I can get an XB that is worth driving for what I can get for my Xterra.
What’s Out There
I have found several XB’s that are in the $8k range but they either have a salvaged or reconditioned title to them. That means that they have either been totaled or messed up pretty bad in an accident. If I look at an XB that does not fit into these categories they start at $11k.
That is only $3000 though you may say. Yeah but I am trying to save money. If I put $3k on top of the $8k I got for the Xterra it would take me 3 years before I would break even and start saving money. Even if I could sell the Xterra for $10K I wouldn’t break even for a year.
I considered getting a different brand of car but there really isn’t anything out there that is going to give me the room coupled with the fuel economy that the XB can. That is why I am stuck.
Conclusion
While I want to save money on gas and do my part for the environment it is just not cost effective to make the switch from my 6 cylinder car to a more economical 4 cylinder car. I just cannot justify paying more money in my mind when I can afford where I am at right now.
It is weird the way things work out sometimes. I am glad that I looked at the number before rushing off to the dealership.
June 26th, 2007 at 9:02 am
[...] know, I know. I just posted 2 weeks ago how I was not going to spend the money on an economy car. As a recap the main reason for not [...]