I watched the TV news last night and saw people frantically trying to buy fuel at 75c/ litre.  It was a special promo.  Fuel here is now between $1.20 - $1.30 a litre (US$3.95 gall).  While they waited in the queue a reporter interviewed some people and one man said it normally cost him around $370 a week to fill his SUV!  A woman said it cost her $250 a week for her 6 cyl. family sedan.

The reporter asked the man if he would consider downsizing his car due to the price of fuel. He said he wouldn't - it took him 20 years to get to the level of car he was driving and he wouldn't think of going backwards. 

I was amazed that anyone would think like that.  Why would anyone be prepared to pay that much for fuel?  I don't get it.  I drive a 4 cyl. station wagon.  I can fill up, even now, for less than $30.  That tank will keep me going for 500 kms (310 miles).

Would you consider downsizing your car if the fuel prices stay high?

I think in the short-run, no we won't downsize. But if these prices become constant, I think we will definitely consider it.

We live 35 km from where Dh works so it really affects our fuel budget. The only good thing is that he does carpool so the car stays stationary when the other person is driving.

Being in a small town, I walk the kids to school and all their activities. The benefits of walking are endless and then we are also conserving fuel.

I guess we will see what happens in the next little while.

Funny you should ask, because with baby #3 on the way, we actually have to go bigger with dh's car because you can't fit 3 carseats in his truck. We will be going used and as cheap as possible, but can't go smaller.

Luckily for us, I teach and the children's daycares are all within 5 miles of our home, so not much gas is used there. Rob works approximately 25 miles away from home, so he's really the only gas guzzler. My impending maternity leave will also be beneficial with regards to gas usage in our family, at least for a few months.

Honestly, no. I bought my first car (a Honda) in 1989 and kept it until I got this minivan in 2003. I really enjoy the benefits of a minivan, even though it gets half the mileage my Honda got. I also financed my van brand new, so I'm not sure it would be economically sound to get rid of it. My part here will be to reduce my gasoline usage with fewer and fewer trips. I plan to keep this vehicle about as long as I kept the last one (14yrs). At that time, the kids will be nearly grown and I'll downsize again. So I guess I'm thinking more of long term conservation. If I get rid of this van for a smaller car, would I be contributing to vehicles sitting around taking up precious land? I don't know. But no, I'm just going to REALLY restrict my driving.

Good thread! :)

Well, we just DID buy a small car and one of the primary reasons was because of the fuel economy of the car. Would we sell the other car and replace it with a smaller car? I don't know. The fuel efficiency is about 7 MPG less than the smaller car, and the bigger car is the top-rated for safety in its category by Consumer Reports, which is why we bought that one. It is the car that DD is primarily in, and I don't really feel safe with her in a smaller car given that I have to take her in the car 40 miles 3 days a week.... But we do try to only drive it when we have her in it now.

I already have a small car. A 92 Mazda Protege. It gets about 35 mpg. I used to own a Ford Festiva (ever seen one), and it used to get 40 or more. LOL. I can't go any smaller.

I was going to look into getting a bigger car,, but I think I'll stay with what I have for now.

I'm with Amy. We need a minivan soon with the fig coming into the world. We're fortunate that Gabe's job is 2 miles away and everything we need is within a mile or two. Gas prices rising is still an increased expense for us, but not bad since our required driving isn't far from home. Can't do a smaller car though.

nope, we couldn't even consider it...we have only 1 vehicle(12 passenger van) and every seat is filled...except for one..........hehe

I cant go smaller because the minivan fits all of us.Steve drives a 99 toyota 4x4 and Ashley has a 98 Honda Civic...She doesnt have her license yet so Steve is driving her car to save on gas for now.
We cant downsize my vehicle and there is noway Steve will sell his truck (it's not too too bad on gas,and he doesnt work to far from home but he wont sell it lol),but he doesnt mind driving hers for now.

There's a guy he works with that lives on our road. I have said sooo many times they should carpool,but so far,they're not. I dont see why.....It's stupid not to.The guy lives maybe a mile from us,they work in the same dept,the same hours....It's really bugging me that he wont ask Dewayne to carpool.They'd both be saving money :bang:

YES!!! We have a toyota echo now and are a one car family but will drop down to a prius or a hybrid honda civic when the time come to buy a newer car. I my view it is the only responsible thing to do if you can managew a smaller vehicle. Oil is finite...of course I will drop our fuel uses frist and formost for frugal reasons.

No we won't even consider it. With 2 guys over 6'2" tall, a smaller car just isn't feasible. Maybe once the kids are gone then we will think about it.

We have a 7 passenger van and many times its been full.

We're thinking of getting a Toyota Echo or Prius. Not sure, yet.

No. We have a mid-sized SUV that rarely gets driven. Our main vehicle is a minivan. With hurricane season taking up 6 months of the year here and thus presenting us with the possibility of having to evacuate, something smaller would not do for loading up 3 people, soon to be 4, 3 large dogs, and a cat.

I can't speak for Melody, but she and I each just got vans because of our #3 kiddos needing room for carseats. I know we won't be downsizing cars, there wouldnt be any room for anything or anyone in a smaller vehicle. Dh was teasing me saying he might get me a vespa with a trailer hitch (for the kids to hitch up a cart to, LOL). I can see me now....

Yes! In fact today, my husband knocked on a door to see if the person wanted to sell their car. He said he was going to put it out for sale tomorrow. It's an older used car, but it does get better gas mileage. We'll get it in a few days.

We've been talking about itand my car died the other day & is at the shop to see if it's fixable or junkable.:( Dh wants a five speed, I've never driven a standard and not sure how well I could do driving it.:dis:

Not at the moment. I would definitely consider it right now, but dh says to wait and see. Imo, I don't think it will get much better.

LAST NIGHT WE BOUGHT A 1990 TOYOTA CORROLLA FROM OUR NEIGHBORS....IT LOOKS LIKE ITS BEEN THROUGH THE CRASH UP DERBY....BUT HUBBY DRIVES 60 MILES A DAY FOR WORK SO THIS WILL BE MORE ECONOMICAL THAT HIS BIG OL TRUCK THAT GUZZLES.......

MICHELLE

I already drive a '95 Geo Prism, so I'm in the compact world. I too had a Ford Festiva and I wouldn't want to go that small again, unless everyone else was driving a car just as small. I felt like I was driving a lawn mower on the expressway. It was a little scary at times. I don't mind driving a smaller car, but I don't plan on buying a different one for a long time. My dh has a Jeep, and I like having a larger car to haul things with, plus he uses it for work.

I'd like to have one of the mini SUV's though; still thinking about it for the future.

Nope, I don't care how much gas goes up not going smaller. We need a bigger "van" anyway with the kids.
We did have a "smaller" car but, then someone was not paying attention and slammed 8000lbs. directly on me(as in dead on the left side of my body). So no more cars.
I know some people are ok with cars and that is fine but, we won't go that way ever again!

At one time we were talking about trading my car in on a Hyundai Tucson, now Joe is saying that the first of next year he may trade his truck in on one.

We have a small car now, but are saving to buy a new one in two years. We are thinking about buying an LPG car (or having the car converted to LPG) as currently the fuel is 1/3 the price of unleaded petrol.

my silly car broke down again (3rd time in 4 months) im hoping it is something to do with the battery even tho we couldnt jump it with cables. so it's sitting an hour away at my job--thankfully i had already scheduled today off.

but even tho im going to be looking around for another vehicle (the one i have now is my 3rd pontiac grand am & i would like to get another one) im still going to get a comparable size. it may be paranoid but the road i travel has its share of semi trucks and crazy drivers having to pass everyone. i figure if (God forbid) i was in a wreck i wouldnt want to be in a smaller car than the one i have now. and from what i can figure i get 28-30 miles to the gallon--not great but not that bad (well i reckon anything wouldnt be that great with the gas prices now)

DH bought a 1997 Ford Escort to drive back and forth to work. Saving us a ton on gas costs over driving his big ole truck. It has no frills but is doing the job so thats all that counts

We are a family of 5 and with 3 car seats to fit in, I don't see squeezing into anything other than our Dodge Van. We have a small car that we can take if the kids aren't with us, however. I don't have to commute too far to work. I really am just making sure I don't drive circles getting to the places I need to go.

Dh drives a 5 speed Kia Rio so thats small. I drive a taurus which burns alot more gas! I have seeting for six which is very frequently necessary. If I had the cash to buy outright and could find a 4 cylinder that fit six I would definately consider it as we both commute long distance.
Dh's last car ( b4 apr when he got the rio) was a 95 metro. Oh did the guys razz Dh at work. All 6 ft 4 inches of him comming out of that banged up metro. Dh drove it until it was not worth fixing anymore. Then they razzed him over the kia. No razzing lately! Imagine that!?!

We have fuel efficient cars, in fact we based our purchase on the amount of mile per gallon they would achieve, this was a year ago and we are happy with our Kia Picanto ( a shopping cart with a roof,) that is so small the passengers in the back seat would have to have Ally Mcbeal legs or no legs at all:D

We also have a Citroen Berlingo whcih is more Van-like than car although it is classed as a car.
It takes me & dh & Dog plus My parents........we bought it with my parents in mind as when they no longer have a car we will be taking them shopping and we take them on Holiday with us too.

Both cars do about 50 miles to the gallon and have no street cred or kudos, which is the way we like it;) we want transport not a status symbol that some low life might want to nick/trash/scratch out of jealousy!

Originally posted by Englishlady
we want transport not a status symbol that some low life might want to nick/trash/scratch out of jealousy!

Exactly why we ended up with a ford ka. DH hates it but it's really cheap to run and will do the job for the next couple of years.

I don't think we could afford to trade in our minivan for a smaller car. I mean financially speaking...it wouldn't be worth much (if anything) in trade, and we don't have the money for a downpayment on a new one right now.

No, I have a Ford Ranger 150 and it only has 4 cylinder, and I only use it sparingly. If I can walk or ride my bicycle, I wll do that.

nope. like michelle we really can't afford to. we have 3 years left on the loan for the van. and just 1 year on the loan for the neon.
what we did instead was switch vechicles. the van is dh's and the car is mine, but since i can walk to work, he takes teh neon and the van sits in the parking lot( we live in a complex). when it gets really cold, or if it's really raining hard, i'll drive to work, but it's just barely 3 tenths of a mile so that's a lot less driving than dh's 20 minute ride to work.
most of my errands can be done on the weekend if we get up early, so i shouldn't even need to drive the van for those.

anyone know how long you can let a vechile sit without driving it? should i drive it to work once every couple of weeks to get all the fluids flowing or does it matter?

Originally posted by pita1213


anyone know how long you can let a vechile sit without driving it? should i drive it to work once every couple of weeks to get all the fluids flowing or does it matter?

I'm not sure.DH is driving Ashleys car,but will drive his once a week.Not sure because he should,or just because he misses HIS truck lol I wouldn't think it would hurt,but I wouldn't leave it sitting for like months.

We won't be downsizing or taking any of them off the roads. DH has a double cab pick-up and DS#1 and I have full size cars.

The two cars are paid for and I don't plan on making any payments. DH uses his truck for hauling items at times so he needs it. We all three go in different directions every day so we can't carpool.

we always look at fuel consumption when buying a car and it's one of the things that either makes or breaks a sale. We haven't gone for the absolute least in gas consumption always-- never a guzzler though. With the next car it will be the best gas miser we can get.

We are looking ahead and thinking about that little half car that gets 60 mpg. Called a Smart Car. Sold in Canada by a European car company in tandem with an American. You can park it sideways because it's lenght is the width of a normal car. It only fits 2 in the front, nothing in back--groceries, or golf clubs or minimal luggage but not people. It wouldn't do for families, but for us it would be fine.

Here is a picture. http://www.smart.com/-snm-0142354908-1125590422-0000001274-0000000450-1125699956-enm-is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/mpc-ca-content-Site/en_CA/-/-/SVCPresentationPipeline-Start?Page=issite%3a%2f%2fsmart-Site%2fsmart%2ecom%2fRootFolder%2fsmart%2fhome%2epage

We run one vehicle only, and on my "car day" I have a list of places so I try not to backtrack.

We purposefully bought a house nearer to dh's work to reduce gas costs as well as time and frazzled nerves. That was 6 years ago and it's one of the best decisions we ever made.

Originally posted by canadian gardener


Here is a picture. http://www.smart.com/-snm-0142354908-1125590422-0000001274-0000000450-1125699956-enm-is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/mpc-ca-content-Site/en_CA/-/-/SVCPresentationPipeline-Start?Page=issite%3a%2f%2fsmart-Site%2fsmart%2ecom%2fRootFolder%2fsmart%2fhome%2epage



Now that's a small car..I like it though. Whats the gas mileage? Do you know?


I should've added above, another reason we wont downsize is 2 of our vehicles are paid for. We couldnt afford to trade one in and have a payment.

It's getting the equivalent of 60 mpg. But the fuel is diesel, and it's only in Canada and Europe so far, but demand is getting higher in the states for them.

Yup, it's tiny and cute.

Crash rating is supposed to be great, it acts like a beach ball. The cage or frame is built to basically roll away from a crash.

I don't think we'll be trading cars but Gripey has an old diesel that we may equip with a conversion kit so that he can run it on filtered, used cooking oil.

I don't think I can go much smaller than I already am with my old 4-cylinder Sundance. They laughed when I sold my Jeep and bought it ... but guess who's laughing now? $30 fills it up, even with high gas prices now.

Yes, but only because we're already planning a car purchase. Both of our cars are paid off, and I want to replace one of them before they both die and we're stuck with two payments at the same time. We're going to trade in DH's Chevy Blazer, since its had a boatload of electrical problems, but probably not until next spring. He has been looking at the Honda Civic hybrid and a few of the other hybrids, and we're also considering just getting a beater. Since we're also planning on starting a family next year, it also has to have 4 doors (unlike the 2 door Blazer).

In the short term, as soon as DH replaces the battery in his Blazer (again - this thing lost electrical twice in the parking lot tonight, may need a new alternator) we'll be swapping cars. I have Nissan Sentra that gets around 30-32MPG (and my new job is a 5 mile commute) while the Blazer get 18-320MPG (and DH has a 30 mile commute).

May I suggest the Honda Civic hybrid?! LOL!!!!!! :D

Yes. We have a Toyota Corolla stationwagon right now. We'll hang onto it until the bitter end...another 8 years probably. But we've already been looking at hybrids and have started saving money for one.

We've also been looking at the little Metro's we've seen on the road. They look enticing for in town travel. Not sure how they'd do on the highway though.

Definitely! Well, after one or two kids move out (about two years). I would really like to get a hybrid, not just for the fuel mileage but for the environment too. Maybe by then they'll have some of the bugs worked out and prices will be a little better.

Peanut~ Dh finally relinquished our 95 metro in apr.for a kia rio.
Dh isn't a mechanic and we don't have the equipment. That metro was the best car we ever owned. It took 2 bad deer hits, looked like crud. Obne door and the trunk wouldnt open due to the two deer hits. 30 below zero that car started! Dh finally bought the kia because the car was at 200,000 and starting to get a balky transmission and with the age and body shape it wasn't fesible to fix it. As soon as our 18 yr old neighbor saw dh bought the kia he asked what we were doing with the metro DH told him the dealers refused it and told him to go get his 100$ from the scrap yard for it. The kid asked dh if he could have it for 100$. Dh told him what was wrong with it and talked to his Dad. The kid had a buddy whos folks have a scrap yard and found what he needed. For a bit of $ and lots of time the kids got a car getting 40mpg to commute the 35 miles to his job ( he had a 70-2 buick tank before buying ours). Makes me smile every time I see him!!
I wouldn't hesitate to buy one again. Too bad they quit making them.

I'm not planning on it in the immediate future. My 2000 Buick Century gets 28 mpg and it's paid for. I know I'll have to replace it at some point, that's when I'll decide. In the meantime I'm putting a small amount away regularly for my next vehicle.

Well thankfully I've never "upsized" But the minute they come out with a hybrid Jeep Wrangler -- I may consider switching over to the hybrid!

Had to add that I can still fill up for under $30.

We have:

DH's work van (diesel) gets 27 miles to the gallon. He told me this weekend that he would sell it for a small pickup truck if it too were diesel to save on fuel.

Two motorcycles that use very little fuel and get over 60 miles to the gallon. One of them we ride tandum on and it's not only fun, but a cheap way to travel. DH is looking into a side car for his one bike, for us to travel more comfortably.

A diesel VW golf TDI. Over 50 miles to the gallon. We bought last year at a salvage dealer. DH did most of the mechanical work and we had a friend who owns a body shop help us paint it. We had a feeling that something was going to be happening soon with the economy so we did something sooner.

We currently have DH's work van (diesel) gets 27 miles to the gallon. He told me this weekend that he would sell it for a small pickup truck if it too were diesel to save on fuel. Two motorcycles that use very little fuel and get over 60 miles to the gallon. One of them we ride tandum on and it's not only fun, but a cheap way to travel. DH is looking into a side car for his one bike, for us to travel more comfortably.A diesel VW golf TDI. Over 50 miles to the gallon. We bought last year at a salvage dealer. DH did most of the mechanical work and we had a friend who owns a body shop help us paint it. We have always wanted efficient vehicles.