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Are you happy you didn't sell your SUV?
Last summer when gas was $4 a gallon in many areas, people were going to extremes to park their SUVs and get into fuel efficient cars.
If you sold or parked your SUV because of high gas prices, so you now regret it, since gas is hovering around $2?
If you sold or parked your SUV because of high gas prices, so you now regret it, since gas is hovering around $2?
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When this was proposed in the $4 gas thread. I thought the title should read "Do you feel like a sardine or just stupid for trading in your SUV on an econobox"?
I think it is the combined stupidity of over-paying on one vehicle while getting clubbed like a baby seal on the other that would really fill people with remorse.
BTW,not everyone has got the message. I recently saw a Craigslist ad where someone was asking $18,000 for a 2007 Prius with 104,000 miles on it.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
You see that a lot with used Prius. People bought into the high resale myth on hybrids. Truth is you go to trade it in and the dealer will give you ZIPPO in trade. It is no better than any other car with 100k plus miles. It is near worthless. The dealer probably offered about $12k with those miles if it was in real nice condition. They probably still owe near $15k or more.
I'm guessing "no one" did THAT.
I bet no one who posts here traded a $30,000 SUV for a $12,000 car.
The larger compacts are the cars which got traded into mostly - not the "tiniest econoboxes."
Truth is there is more to life than saving a few pennies on gas.
But VERY few people who needed the ROOM of a large SUV would have been able to rationalize moving into a car that small.
Those sales were mostly people out of other larger cars and pickups, not out of large SUVs.
One of my friends at work traded a Civic for a Yaris and they love the Yaris more than they liked the Civic.
Just depends on what level of luxury you are accustomed to.
That is absolutely true. When you are used to riding high in a PU truck, down grading to any sedan is not great. I just do not like sedans. I do not like my wife's LS400. It strains my back getting out of it every time. So for me the only upgrade from a PU truck is a large SUV. I have sat in a few small vehicles that I could justify owning. the Old style xB from Scion had a good entry and exit feel with plenty of head room. A Civic to me is no better than a Yaris. My head hits on the headliner of the modern Civics unless I tilt the seat back in a lying position.
For me as I get older and can afford it the comfort of a luxury SUV, will continue to be my choice. I can also have the satisfaction of supporting the US worker. Most subcompact cars are not even assembled in the USA. Any SUV I would consider today is assembled somewhere in the USA.
The larger compacts are the cars which got traded into mostly - not the "tiniest econoboxes."
The only example I can think of is a guy I know who's yo-yo'ed around when he couldn't figure out what he really wanted. He started 2008 with a paid-for 2004 Tundra. Once fuel prices shot up, he traded it on an '09 Corolla S. He kept it about 3 weeks, hated being in something that small, and traded for an '08 Tundra 4wd extended cab 5.7 V-8. Then when gas went over $4.00 per gallon, he traded for an '08 Accord LX. Last time I saw him, he had traded that one in an an '09 Accord EX-L V-6!
Back in 2002, my uncle, who had been driving a 1997 Silverado 4.3 V-6, bought an '03 Corolla. While gasoline was still pretty cheap back then, his commute was about to shoot from a 45 or so mile trip to more like 65-70. The truck was also starting to get up there in miles. He uses the Corolla for most of his longer distance driving, and the truck only when he really needs it, or just to give it an occasional run.
You must be pretty tall. I rode in a current model Civic last year and at 6' 2" I had no trouble with headroom. The driver was 6' 5" and he fit too. Getting in was a little tight with the steep rake of the windshield.
If gas prices stay low this summer it will be a good time to step into a smaller car. the car makers always over-shoot on demand and will probably have a nice supply.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
I think the next 12 months will be a good time to step into ANY model of car or truck, REGARDLESS of what the gas prices do. Just look at the economy....automakers will be BEGGING people on hands and knees to buy cars when the typical summer purchasing upswing doesn't materialize.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
The big reason is gas is near $1.60. The Prius is simply another small car right now. I wouldn't mind owning one myself since my commute is about 33 miles. I really don't believe gas will stay this low after the winter months. One bombing in the wrong country could oil up again. Not to $150 a barrel but definitely around $75 a barrel.
We traded our Explorer for a minivan 5 years ago (just made the last payment on the van yesterday). With 3 kids, minivans are golden. Way more space than the Explorer. No need for AWD.
Yep, same guy. He ended up selling that Ford, too. He lucked out and got about what he paid for it. Which, considering how the economy has tanked in recent months, is pretty good!
As for fuel economy, probably not very good. The engine wasn't very big, just a 292-2bbl V-8. However, it just had a 2-speed automatic, so they probably threw a shorter axle ratio in to partially compensate. Might not be too horrible in local driving, but out on the highway I'm sure it would drain your wallet pretty quickly.
most minivans are about the same size as an expedition, too big for me for everyday driving.
The minivan is quite long (204 inches) but we love the space inside! With 2 very active children and one in a car seat, even a three row SUV wouldn't give us the same flexibility. Also the minivan is cheaper.
I've tried out SUVs either just for a demo or renting one and I just don't see the appeal. Obviously other folks do.
the original intent of this thread to get people to post about swapping there suv for something they now regret.
for me there are times when i don't care what the cost of gas is or how much i use, i just want to get home.
usually getting to work is not a problem.
It's been odd to see what kind of decisions people are making. I can't think of many scenarios where even at $4 gas that swapping out vehicles for better mileage made any sense.
By my nature I've always hunted cars that got at least decent mileage (which used to mean at least 20 mpg years ago and is now in the low 30s...) but whatever I land on that's what it will be. The thought of losing thousands of bucks to improve economy is pretty odd.
I don't think we've had a single poster stating that they dumped their SUV for a more economical ride.
Maybe we should rename it "Are you happy you didn't sell your SUV?"
However, I do wonder if there were any that KEPT their SUV but bought something cheap and easy on gas to run their errands in while gas prices were so high.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
To tell the truth when I bought my Celica part of what made it seem almost logical is how much cheaper it is to run than my van. That's not why I bought it though. I bought it because the top goes down. Right now that's not much of concern here but better days are ahead.
not only did i keep my suv(v8 with trailer towing package), i swapped out my 4cyl stick car for a 6cyl auto, last spring. :surprise:
According to Bradsher, internal industry market research concluded that S.U.V.s tend to be bought by people who are insecure, vain, self-centered, and self-absorbed, who are frequently nervous about their marriages, and who lack confidence in their driving skills. Ford's S.U.V. designers took their cues from seeing "fashionably dressed women wearing hiking boots or even work boots while walking through expensive malls. " Toyota's top marketing executive in the United States, Bradsher writes, loves to tell the story of how at a focus group in Los Angeles "an elegant woman in the group said that she needed her full-sized Lexus LX 470 to drive up over the curb and onto lawns to park at large parties in Beverly Hills. " One of Ford's senior marketing executives was even blunter: "The only time those S.U.V.s are going to be off-road is when they miss the driveway at 3 a. m. "
n a thirty-five m.p.h. crash test, for instance, the driver of a Cadillac Escalade—the G.M. counterpart to the Lincoln Navigator—has a sixteen-per-cent chance of a life-threatening head injury, a twenty-per-cent chance of a life-threatening chest injury, and a thirty-five-per-cent chance of a leg injury. The same numbers in a Ford Windstar minivan—a vehicle engineered from the ground up, as opposed to simply being bolted onto a pickup-truck frame—are, respectively, two per cent, four per cent, and one per cent. ) But this desire for safety wasn't a rational calculation. It was a feeling. Over the past decade, a number of major automakers in America have relied on the services of a French-born cultural anthropologist, G. Clotaire Rapaille, whose speciality is getting beyond the rational—what he calls "cortex"—impressions of consumers and tapping into their deeper, "reptilian" responses. And what Rapaille concluded from countless, intensive sessions with car buyers was that when S.U.V. buyers thought about safety they were thinking about something that reached into their deepest unconscious. "The No. 1 feeling is that everything surrounding you should be round and soft, and should give," Rapaille told me. "There should be air bags everywhere. Then there's this notion that you need to be up high. That's a contradiction, because the people who buy these S.U.V.s know at the cortex level that if you are high there is more chance of a rollover. But at the reptilian level they think that if I am bigger and taller I'm safer. You feel secure because you are higher and dominate and look down. That you can look down is psychologically a very powerful notion. And what was the key element of safety when you were a child? It was that your mother fed you, and there was warm liquid. That's why cupholders are absolutely crucial for safety. If there is a car that has no cupholder, it is not safe. If I can put my coffee there, if I can have my food, if everything is round, if it's soft, and if I'm high, then I feel safe. It's amazing that intelligent, educated women will look at a car and the first thing they will look at is how many cupholders it has. " During the design of Chrysler's PT Cruiser, one of the things Rapaille learned was that car buyers felt unsafe when they thought that an outsider could easily see inside their vehicles. So Chrysler made the back window of the PT Cruiser smaller. Of course, making windows smaller—and thereby reducing visibility—makes driving more dangerous, not less so. But that's the puzzle of what has happened to the automobile world: feeling safe has become more important than actually being safe.
http://www.iihs.org/research/hldi/fact_sheets/personal_injury_coverage_05to07.pd- f
An what about Prius drivers? I understand that they tend to be anal-retentive control freaks who want to feel superior to others and dictate what others are allowed to drive.
See I can make up stuff too. :P
I never saw much use for an SUV, they are a bad compromise between a car and a truck and don't do the job of either very well. That said, it's not my business to tell others how to spend their money.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Their thinking is that a full-sized sedan gives you the best combination of maneuverability - to help you avoid an accident in the 1st place - & crashworthiness - to help you survive the accident that you can't avoid.
I'm a sedan/sport coupe guy myself, but I believe that if you came by your money honestly, you should drive whatever you want to drive as long as you can afford it. If I don't like your choice, that's my tough luck.
See I can make up stuff too.
They're also very smug, to the point of sniffing their own farts. At least, they were on "South Park"
They got that data from interviewing REAL people as professional psychologists.
You can also get the same kind of information about Hybrid drivers. It is the same old SUV haters vs hybrid haters. It has nothing to do with those that foolishly sell an SUV at a big loss when gas prices are high.
I’ve always made cracks at the Prius and Prius owners, never really addressing the topic head on because I figured everyone knew that the car was a joke and it’s drivers were stupid *&^*^% (continued)
http://www.misanthropytoday.com/2008/04/29/misanthropy-today-hates-the-prius/
I'll take Smug over Dead any time........
I'll take Smug over Dead any time.
Not sure your point. You are not going to suggest that a Prius is as safe as a Large SUV? IF so you are all wet and have no legitimate data to back that up.
Actually, I do. You did not read my whole story as posted as a link in my earlier post. From that story:
Are the best performers the biggest and heaviest vehicles on the road? Not at all. Among the safest cars are the midsize imports, like the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord. Or consider the extraordinary performance of some subcompacts, like the Volkswagen Jetta. Drivers of the tiny Jetta die at a rate of just forty-seven per million, which is in the same range as drivers of the five-thousand-pound Chevrolet Suburban and almost half that of popular S.U.V. models like the Ford Explorer or the GMC Jimmy. In a head-on crash, an Explorer or a Suburban would crush a Jetta or a Camry. But, clearly, the drivers of Camrys and Jettas are finding a way to avoid head-on crashes with Explorers and Suburbans. The benefits of being nimble—of being in an automobile that's capable of staying out of trouble—are in many cases greater than the benefits of being big.
there is always the snow tires option if it snows a lot where your live. But if you encounter 6+ inches of unplowed streets all the time, then suv's/cuv's will be the only option for you
I would argue that point. My wife's grandson has a near new Odyssey and it is not nearly as nice to drive as our Sequoia. It does have more usable space and much better for hauling children. Plus mileage is about 25% better with the Honda. It feels squashy going down the freeway to me.
I'm down by the Jersey shore and in almost three decades have never needed as much as snow tires let alone 4WD. Now I guess if I moved back to where I grew up - in the hills in northwest Jersey maybe 4WD would make more sense and back then I did get snow tires.
I never really tow so I don't worry about that either.
To each his own.
You are correct. It made MY point.....:)
Gary says, "There is no substitute for a Large Heavy SUV..."
and the rest of that sentence should read:
"...in making a driver feel a false sense of security."
Jettas and Accords and Camrys are safe because they make their drivers feel unsafe. S.U.V.s are unsafe because they make their drivers feel safe. That feeling of safety isn't the solution; it's the problem.
LOL I saw that episode . It was posted on YouTube. Very funny.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
When I was getting my psychology degree I read a study where psychologists conducted "personality assessments" with student volunteers. After the interview the subjects were given "individualized" personality profiles and were asked to rate their accuracy. All the subjects reported that the profiles were "very accurate" or "spot on" as to their personalities. Some were shocked that the psychologists could "see into my soul" and be so accurate.
The only trouble was that the profiles which were given to each subject were IDENTICAL. They were made up of general personality traits mixed with concerns that are almost universal in the general population. Yet the subjects felt that these traits were deeply personal to them only.
So you see SUV drivers may be insecure but so is the rest of the world. Except for farming professionals who drive red sports cars, they are well adjusted.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Actually, research has shown that drivers of light trucks are less likely to wear safety belts than drivers of other vehicles. That undoubtedly influences fatality rates.
So, perhaps instead of worrying about SUVs, you'd be better off convincing everyone to wear safety belts.
Also note that SUVs and pickups, with their heavier construction, are more likely to stay on the road longer than cars...so, there will still be older Silverados and Explorers on the road, without the latest-and-greatest safety equipment, long after comparable Camrys, Accords and Jettas went to the boneyard.
Come to rural Pennsylvania - it is not uncommon to see 20-year-old Chevy and Ford trucks and SUVs in regular service. Air bags and the latest safety gizmos were only available in the most expensive cars at that time. I'm sure their use is even more common in the South and West, where the use of road salt isn't nearly as widespread.
No one wants to be in an accident. Everyone wants to avoid an accident but the fact that they are called accidents indicates chances are you can't avoid them all the time. Given that a truck or Suv can tow. Given that a SUV or truck has more ground clearance for light off road work and given that most accidents I have seen are car on car I would rather be in a Suv or Truck rather than a small car in a conflict between the two.
I have noticed when the weather gets bad in most northern states the rescue people tend to drive SUVs with 4wd. Not many leave their patrol cars and opt for a Prius in those conditions. There must be a reason. When I lived in the mountains the CHP and Sheriff tended to drive Suvs for some reason as well.
Until I get too old to tow a trailer, 5th wheel, jet skis, boat or even a utility trailer I will try to keep my Suv thank you very much. I am down to two of those by the way. In fact there were times when I used to commute to LA that if they had sold a Abrums tank that got 12 MPG I would have driven that.
the kid hits a curb in your little car, 500-1000 to fix.
same in an suv, don't tell dad, he will never notice. :P
i am the dad. i notice, but the repair bill is zero.
Thank you for pointing out one of the major reasons for owning a PU truck or SUV. Cost of repair for cars today is atrocious. I looked at a dented car the other day and the whole back end was one piece. Many of these relatively small accidents will total a car because they cost more to repair than they are worth. It is part of the planned obsolescent society we live in. Cost of repair is the reason a $25k car costs a lot more to insure than a $50k Sequoia.
Anyway, here's a pic of my truck, taken a day or two later, before I got it fixed...
My repair bill? A whopping $350. I don't think the bumper itself got damaged, but the brackets holding it got bent. They replaced the bumper, brackets, and I think even the license plate lights. And the best part is, I no longer have that danged Crimesolvers sticker that my stepdad put on the truck!
If I had been in the Intrepid, I wouldn't be too surprised if it got totaled from a hit like that.
The next two hits were much more minor. In one of them, a Hyundai Elantra wedged itself under my bumper when the driver tried to cut around behind me too close when I was stopped at a traffic light. I didn't even feel the hit, but happened to look back and see it wedged under there. It was just enough to bend the bumper, so I got it fixed (on their dime). The third time was a parking lot hit and run I'm presuming. Just one day I happened to walk around behind the truck and saw the bumper was bent again. So this time I just left it alone.
Oh, and I have hopped curbs in that truck, too. Even though it has rally wheels with chrome rings, it's still no big deal.
He will be getting a small electric vehicle ( like a ZAP ) or else riding the bus.
We live in Phoenix, so Mass Transit can get him just about everywhere he wants to be if I decide he doesn't need a car before graduation.
The longer you can dissuade him from getting a car the better for both of you. That is the word of experience. Most people get their kids a car out of peer pressure. I can tell you that it is expensive. Probably not as expensive as sending them to Harvard. But costly none the less. The bike and bus is a good way to go if you live in a city. Most buses around here have a bike rack.