New auto and gas prices

Tying this into the gas price conversation. We currently have a Chrysler 300 and a Chevy 1500 HD. We are looking at getting rid of the Chrysler 300 and getting an SUV (Expedition or Tahoe/Suburban). It’s pretty much a “city” car. Can’t road trip with it, unless you don’t bring any gear.

Here is my question. While I understand we all want the most fuel efficient vehicle, how do people travel and live their lives when they have all their gear and a family? Or in our case, 2 dogs.

I realize “city folks” don’t do anything and don’t have a life as far as I’m concerned. So they can drive a Prius. But those of us that do things outside the home, how do you guys do it?

Not to mention a car won’t handle a couple sleds/wheelers, fish house, boat, camper, etc.

I would kill myself sitting around the house on a weekend vs. getting out and playing. So for me, it’s a gas guzzler with a full tank and off I go.

Good question! I drive a ’98 Ford Taurus back and forth to work everyday. I paid cash for it while I was in college and it is still running strong (knock on wood). I get about 22 mpg on my 28 mile one way commute to work. The gas guzzling Yukon Denali only comes out on the weekend. I do put 200+ miles on it every weekend, so it does get a little spendy. My fiance drives a Pontiac G6 that gets somewhere in the high 20s for gas mileage. Its not a big car, but still big enough to put 4 people in. As far as dogs go, I’ve had 3 in the backseat of my Taurus on a hunting trip. Usually its just my one lab in a kennel though.

I guess it all depends on how the second vehicle is used. I have an F150 that I/we use for fishing, hunting, snowmobiling and that I use as a daily driver. My wife has a Ford Fusion for her daily driver & grocer getter. It works great for that. We don’t need two vehicles capable of towing and hauling all our play gear. It works just fine for us.

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I guess it all depends on how the second vehicle is used. I have an F150 that I/we use for fishing, hunting, snowmobiling and that I use as a daily driver. My wife has a Ford Fusion for her daily driver & grocer getter. It works great for that. We don’t need two vehicles capable of towing and hauling all our play gear. It works just fine for us.

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I really think I NEED a pickup as I HATE throwing a gas leaking ice auger/chainsaw, etc in the back of an SUV. However the box usually gets too messy and needs good cleaning when I’m throwing suitcases and whatnot back there for road trips.

I “think” most people do it the way you have been…. car and a truck/SUV. Sounds like your getting 2 “out of town rigs”….??? Do you take the puker on vacation !!! Just kidding !! Of course you do

All that being said.. the wife has a Durango (have never put a receiver in the hitch and it’s an 04), I have an older 2000 Durango and I get a New Truck to drive from my employer (with gas) …. my wife does not work out of the house, so it works good for us

big G

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I “think” most people do it the way you have been…. car and a truck/SUV. Sounds like your getting 2 “out of town rigs”….??? Do you take the puker on vacation !!! Just kidding !! Of course you do

big G

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The puker can ride in the box!

Problem is my truck is the only out of town rig as of now. Unless we plan on doing nothing while out of town.

Did I miss somthing, when are the prices predicted to skyrocket??? I need to start filling the barrel now!!

We own an F150 and Expedition. With 3 daughters, especially when they were all 3 in car seats, we couldn’t find a vehicle that would fit 3 cars seats in the back seat. Now that they are grown a bit and the car seats are getting smaller, I wish we could trade down to something like an Edge or Exploder for our day to day around the city stuff for the wife.

Since we bought, the large SUV market as dropped like rocks. Unfortunately we can’t make payments fast enough to stay ahead of depreciation on this vehicle. Oh well, it’s a solid runner and other than feeling like you are driving a bus when in downtown ramps, it’s a good “car”.

We have 3 Vehicles.
Wife has a CRV, and I have a 99 Escort, and a ’01 F150. Really wanted to get rid of the Escort, since we currently are in a town home, and switching p the vechle choice now involves 10 minutes of musical vehicles, this spring when I picked up the F150, but it had too much going for it.. Paid off, and 35mpg. F150 is for hunting, fishing, and vacations. Escort is for paying for the F150.

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Did I miss somthing, when are the prices predicted to skyrocket??? I need to start filling the barrel now!!

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In St Cloud, it was $2.99 yesterday… $3.08 this AM…

big G

LOL, I always laugh when we have the Sequoia packed to the gills for a trip. A guess a great dane will do that. But we don’t even have kids yet! I think the next vehicle will be a ‘burban!

We have two vehicles and I drive a ford focus for my commuter and wife drives our Silverado (previously SUV) to the park and ride and then on the weekends and for towing. I like the 4 door pick-up over the SUV just for the access to the bed and the once in awhile gas leak out of the auger.

3 vehicles…
05′ used Honda Civic for my everyday car…
03′ F-150 for my hunting/fishing…
10′ Subaru Outback for the wife…

The Outback is interesting…This thing has plenty O’ room for our runs to the cabin with the 2 kids and dog and the kicker is that it gets 28-30mpg which is nice! …RR

around $3.15 here in Menomonie.

thanks again Dean for steering us towards that Chevy Prism years ago-gets honest 40 mpg!!!!

Majority of my spending money this year is going into the truck and boat—rest most likely to Dean’s bait shop.

I have to retitle my past walleye tourney post to: “Is $4.00 gas the death of walleye tournaments?”—don’t think I have to worry about livebait and trolling anymore.

I have about 67K on my Dodge 1500 that I have driven for about 4 or 5 years now. It is a used 2002 and I got it with 18K-23K on it I think. My commutes are short, so I really don’t have to worry to much about gas prices. But boy it is painful filling up on trips to Grand Rapids.

I would kill myself sitting around the house on a weekend vs. getting out and playing. So for me, it’s a gas guzzler with a full tank and off I go. That is well said This is why i drive a Tahoe

We have 2 labs and a kid and have 3 vehicles. The truck is used for hunting and fishing trips and we do whatever we can to keep the miles down on it, hopefully it will last 15-20 years before needing to be replaced. We also have a mini-van which works good when going on trips to the cabin and such when I don’t need a ton of gear but I do have the option of hooking up my small trailer to bring a wheeler or something with. And like most a cheaper commuter car that I don’t care how many miles I put on it. The commuter was upgraded once we had the little guy to something bigger for safety reasons, 2000 Cadillac DeVille (safe, cheap, and fuel mileage in the mid-20’s).

I remember the last time gas went up around the $4.00 mark I went and traded my truck for an all-wheel drive car. All I can say is I will NEVER do that again. Call me a gas-guzzling petro-pig all ya want, but the advantages of owning a truck will always outweigh the cost to drive it for me…not to mention I couldn’t oogle all the pretty girls on my commute when I sat so low in the car.

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Did I miss somthing, when are the prices predicted to skyrocket??? I need to start filling the barrel now!!

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Speculators are estimating the gas prices to be near $4.00 a gallon by summer and as high as $5.00 by 2012. Again this is speculations from speculators (how do you get 1 of those jobs?) According to a source I hear there is plenty of oil and fuel in the U.S., so much in fact the refineries can’t keep up with it so the prices of fuel are just going up cause they can, I thank our current presidential administration

As far as a rig if you can afford it, the new car and truck market has a lot to offer such as the flex fuel vehicles or even hybrid SUV’s.

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Did I miss somthing, when are the prices predicted to skyrocket??? I need to start filling the barrel now!!

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Speculators are estimating the gas prices to be near $4.00 a gallon by summer and as high as $5.00 by 2012.

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That’s just silly talk. We all know the world will end in 2012 so who cares what gas is?

you know I learned this from a smart blonde gal, “doesn’t matter how high the price of gas goes, I just put 20 bucks in anyways!”

Ok, scratch my question.

On my way home I saw a 14′ moving truck had read ended a Chevy 2500 HD. The moving truck’s front end was pretty wasted. The 2500HD’s read bumper was pushed in with little discernible damage to the tailgate and box.

Drill baby drill !!! or is it spill baby spill … !!!

Obama (current president you reference) opend up more deep water drilling, about 3 days before the gulf incident… it was put on hold again… I blame the lackidazial drillers

big G

I may only drive a 2wd S-10, but I wouldn’t trade my truck for the world.

I also picked up a Ford Escort ZX2 for $400 did a ton of maintenance on it myself. Cost me about $300 but was worth about $1000+. Tires, timing belt, plugs/wires, replaced all fluids. The thing gets 38mpg regularly! I use it hunting and fishing all the time! It’s amazing how much crap I can pile into that turd!

Now, with that being said, I don’t have any kids. I HAVE to have a truck in my life. I’ve been made fun of for saying “I don’t know what I’d do without a truck in my life.”

yeah we are sittin on a surplus and they r still pumpin it faster than we can use it. maybe the de-regulation of the oil industry by the bush administration has something to do with it?? we will never run out of oil, global warmings a scam, more carbon is emitted into the atmosphere everytime a volcano blows its top than all automobiles EVER have, EVER.

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Did I miss somthing, when are the prices predicted to skyrocket??? I need to start filling the barrel now!!

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In St Cloud, it was $2.99 yesterday… $3.08 this AM…

big G

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Diesel 3.49 in Hastings this morning.. son of a

I have a 05 duramax this is my commuter toy hauler, trailering vehicle. gets 17 mpg has 169k on it and hopefully I can get another 100k out of it. We have 2 kids and a lab so my we upgraded wifes Kia Optima to a Saturn Outlook. This Outlook is a great vehicle, its the FWD version not AWD, but handles well in the snow. Down fall is the 6 gears GM put into these vehicles as this vehicle cannot make up its mind at around 45-50mph. Other than that its a great vehicle 23-25mpg, great for hauling the kiddos to Grandparents for the weekend and the Lab has her own back seat.

I bought the diesel to pull my boat, however sold the boat when kid was born and now I personally cannot justify spending the money on a different gas truck. I don’t think I can beat the 17mpg I get with the diesel, plus if I ever need to pull anything I have plenty of power to do so.

So we have a smaller suv and a diesel it works for our family.