bigqueue (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} bigqueue) wrote,@ 2008-04-27 23:58:00 |
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| Current mood: |  happy |
I'm now a three-honda household!
The photo on the left isn't my car, but one that looks a lot like it.
I just bought a 2003 Honda Civic tonight, and this makes me a tree-Honda Family!
I have a 2000 Honda Odyssey, a 2005 Honda Civic and now a 2003 Honda Civic.
I guess I think a lot of Honda, and quite frankly, they have been good to me.
I mean for one thing, they had issues with their vans, and when our transmission went south, Honday stepped up and paid for the replacement. (we paid only labor...and this was with our van having about 130,000 miles on it.....they had extended the recall to 100,000 miles, so ours was clearly over the limit....but they covered turning a $3200 repair into about a $700 hit)
So I have nothing but good to say about Honda, and even about Autofair Honda in Manchester.
I traded in the 1998 Jeep Cherokee, which Kristen will miss a lot....but it was reaching the end of life, and needing a bit of repair soon. (brakes soon, and certainly a couple of universal joints right now...and the body was showing signs of rusting up a bit more)
| U.S. Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Prices, 04/21/08 | |||||||
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| Gasoline (Cents per Gallon) | Diesel Fuel (Cents per Gallon) | ||||||
| 04/21/08 | Change from | 04/21/08 | Change from | ||||
| Price | Week Ago | Year Ago | Price | Week Ago | Year Ago | ||
| U.S. | 350.8 |  11.9 | 63.9 | U.S. | 414.3 | 8.4 | 129.2 |
| East Coast | 348.4 | 14.9 | 64.9 | East Coast | 420.7 | 9.0 | 137.0 |
| New England | 348.9 | 20.0 | 66.4 | New England | 434.6 | 10.7 | 148.2 |
| Central Atlantic | 348.2 | 15.5 | 63.3 | Central Atlantic | 437.0 | 10.4 | 149.3 |
| Lower Atlantic | 348.3 | 12.9 | 65.6 | Lower Atlantic | 412.6 | 8.3 | 130.9 |
| Midwest | 347.0 | 11.2 | 69.5 | Midwest | 409.8 | 8.5 | 126.7 |
| Gulf Coast | 341.1 | 12.6 | 65.6 | Gulf Coast | 407.7 | 7.7 | 126.2 |
| Rocky Mountain | 341.6 | 9.2 | 57.2 | Rocky Mountain | 411.1 | 7.2 | 113.3 |
| West Coast | 373.4 | 7.2 | 51.6 | West Coast | 425.5 | 7.9 | 130.2 |
| California | 384.6 | 7.2 | 53.0 | California | 431.7 | 8.3 | 131.3 |
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But the big things was that I needed a car that gets slightly better fuel economy. The van is actually pretty good at about 22MPG.....but I would also like to keep the van around for a few years, and being of 2000 vintage, it too is going to reach end of life soon if I keep using it as a daily driver.
If I go to this EPA website and "do the math", if the Honda gets 33 MPG, and with fuel at todays prices, it will save me about $1300 per year.....and then if fuel goes up to $4.00 per gallon, those savings go up to over $1500 a year. It will only take a few years to pay off the cost of the car, and I'm also saving wear and tear on the van. (keeping it around longer too)
So I will now be able to store it in the garage, to be used for moments when we need maximum cargo or people hauling. (as when I go to Tennessee to move Kristen at some point.)
BTW: Believe it or not, this was my first big purchase decision made since Cheryl's passing. When I had finally finished my negotiation with the dealership, and had decided to take the deal, I sort of sat there for a moment because this is the time I would be calling Cheryl to run it all past her to make sure she was in the loop, and also that I hadn't either missed something or was perhaps doing something stupid. So it was sort of a sad moment....and I called called Kristen (because it was her Jeep I was trading away) and Doreen (because she has a good head on her shoulders, and has been a great support person for me)
They both helped me feel OK about what I was doing, and so I went ahead. Thank-you Kristen and Doreen for being there to talk and listen. (I did call Kimberly right after I bought the car, and she was very supportive of the whole thing too)
PS: Here is my "fleet" comparison of fuel economy....
Compare Side-by-Side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| | 2000 Honda Odyssey | 2003 Honda Civic | 1998 Jeep Cherokee 4WD | 2005 Honda Civic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Use Your Gas Prices & Annual Miles Switch to Metric units |  |  |  |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| | Estimated New EPA MPG  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| MPG Estimates from Drivers Like You | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| | Fuel Economics  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cost to drive 25 Miles | $4.62 | | $3.03 | | $5.48 | $3.03 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fuel to Drive 25 Miles | 1.32 gal | | 0.86 gal | | 1.56 gal | 0.86 gal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cost of a Fill-up | - | | - | | - | $41.70 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Miles on a Tank | - | | - | | - | 345 miles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tank Size | - | | - | | - | 13.2 gal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Annual Fuel Cost* | $2769 | | $1816 | | $3291 | $1816 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Based on 45% highway, 55% city driving, 15000 annual miles and Reg. Gas: $3.51 per gallon You may customize these values to reflect the price of fuel in your area and your own driving patterns. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
