Best big vehicle?
Created March 26, 2008, at 7:49 pm by Fastskiguy
OK, I'm braced for the flaming but he're goes...
My wife says "no stinkin' little cars in this family, full sized SUV or big cars ONLY!"
so what's my best option? I'm driving a 98 dodge ram 1500 2wd extended cab, getting about 14mpg on average, probably 1/2 highway, 1/2 city, 15,000 miles per year, pretty average. I drive 5 miles to work, home for lunch and to run the dog, then back, then home again. I live NW of Chicago. I plan on biking to and from work 3-4 days per week (I work 4 1/2 days/wk) when the snow finally melts, have biked a few times already-today I ran errands on the bike and saved 15 miles in the truck (video store, supermarket, tile place, and bank). The truck is paid for, runs well, has 157K miles on it. Maybe I should just keep it and use the bike as much as possible? Or switch to a big car, drive carefully, and try to average 20mpg? Cost of vehicle is not too much of an object.
Opinions please! Thanks :)
PS, try to limit the "who wears the pants in your family?" comments....thanks :)
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Suggestions:
1. Soon you can buy a Yukon Hybrid or a Silverado Hybrid. These actually get EPA 22 mpg. Better mpg than most mini-vans.
2. Keep you eyes out for the Phoenix SUT (www.phoenixmotorcars.com). They plan to come out with a pure electric pickup and an SUV. Eventually, they may come out with a plug-in hybrid option for these as well.
3. Look at the Camry Hybrid, Altima Hybrid, Ford Escape Hybrid, or Toyota Highlander Hybrid. They aren't huge but they definitely aren't little either and get 30 mpg or better.
What's driving the big cars only attitude? Is it fears over safety? If so, statistics don't actually demonstrate that SUVs and trucks are better because of their terrible rollover records. Big cars definitely are safer than little ones though. That I've got to agree with. Of course, none of that will matter when we can't afford to fuel them.
If money is no object, you should live a little and buy a Tesla Roadster. Sure it's tiny but it is way too cool to discount if you can afford it.
Diesel SUV.
I regularly get 21 mpg mixed (20%city/80%hwy) with my 2001 diesel excursion limited. I've checked the trip computer reported numbers against fillups and it actually is correct. The previous owner put a reporgramming module on it which helped 2 mpg.
If I had street tires i could get 23 mpg (Big cooper Offroad tires are not fuel efficient)
My other car is getting replaced this month with a Prius or a Yaris, depending on what makes more economic sense for the next 5 years for me.
Also on the horizon are 1/2 ton pickups from GM and Ford with new diesel engines (please keep in mind that a diesel is both more powerful AND more fuel efficient than a similar sized gasoline engine). And most of the larger pickups are also available with diesel engines. You could trade up your Ram to a 2500 with the Cummins engine... you'd get a bigger truck with better fuel economy, as Rob_in_Bama indicated. VW will have their new line of TDIs coming late summer.
Who listens to their wife?
Grow some...
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