Author Topic: Advice about car and credit cards please!  (Read 5943 times)

req897

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Advice about car and credit cards please!
« on: July 22, 2014, 09:33:29 AM »
I have about $16k in credit card debt atm. I drive about 600 miles a month(520 miles for work commute and about 80 miles for going out once each weekend). I'm working on getting a bicycle and biking to work, but haven't figured out logistics of dealing with being extremely sweaty yet for a corp environment, so for now I do need to drive.

I currently have a 2006 Scion tC that has never been in any major accidents, has no major problems, and drives extremely well. It was a gift from my parents new and the car is in my name owned fully. It's worth about $8k atm with 60k miles on it, it is a manual, I can get 30-31mpg when I drive 55 mph on the highway and accel lightly as well as cut the engine at lights. Fuel cost is about $67.5/month or $809/yr.

I'm considering selling it for something like a manual Civic with 150k miles on it in hopes of getting closer to 40 mpg(with same driving tactics) that I could get for around $3k hopefully leaving me with $5k left over from selling my tC. I would be able to use that $5k to pay off a credit card and a half. Fuel cost would be about $50.5/month or $607/yr. Savings from $5k in CCs @ 12% is $600 in interest/yr.

TLDR: In the end trading my tC for a Civic I'd save about $200/yr on gas costs while reducing my debt burden by about $5k saving me $600/yr in interest. On the downside, I'd have a less reliable car since it would likely be older and double the miles on it possibly requiring more maintenance eliminating the yearly savings.  Is this risk worth it?

Thanks for reading, I value your input!

Edit: I can get a 2000 Civic for $3k, recalculated savings
« Last Edit: July 22, 2014, 10:24:47 AM by req897 »

frugaliknowit

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2014, 10:58:07 AM »
Selling an 8 year old car and buying a 14 year old car and assuming the increased gas mileage won't be offset by increased repairs sounds better than the likely outcome. 

rtrnow

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2014, 11:03:06 AM »
I would agree with the previous poster. You have a reliable, paid for car that is pretty practical. If it was worth >10K or a gas hog, I would probably say sell, but it's a toyota and gets decent mileage. You can easily expect 5 more (probably even more) mostly trouble free years.

neo von retorch

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2014, 11:07:12 AM »
I read somewhere that MMM assigns "used car miles" a value of about $0.10 / mile. Using that as a calculation, to sell your 90,000 miles for less than $9000 would be a bad idea.

(I traded from a 2013 w/ 36,000 to a 2008 w/ 56,600 miles and got $5950, or $0.29 / mile - so I'm pretty happy about that!)

req897

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2014, 01:23:57 PM »
I would agree with the previous poster. You have a reliable, paid for car that is pretty practical. If it was worth >10K or a gas hog, I would probably say sell, but it's a toyota and gets decent mileage. You can easily expect 5 more (probably even more) mostly trouble free years.

I do think it would pretty easily last me till it hit 160k miles which would be in a very long time lol. At 7200 miles a year it takes me almost 14 years to put on 100k miles. It does get decent mpg, but the fact that I can possibly get a 20-30% mpg increase by getting a civic or the like is what makes me really consider doing this.

I read somewhere that MMM assigns "used car miles" a value of about $0.10 / mile. Using that as a calculation, to sell your 90,000 miles for less than $9000 would be a bad idea.

(I traded from a 2013 w/ 36,000 to a 2008 w/ 56,600 miles and got $5950, or $0.29 / mile - so I'm pretty happy about that!)

That is a very interesting way to look at it. So if I get $5000 out of it I would need to get a car with no more than 110k miles on it. Seems difficult but doable.

okashira

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2014, 02:07:15 PM »
I have about $16k in credit card debt atm. I drive about 600 miles a month(520 miles for work commute and about 80 miles for going out once each weekend). I'm working on getting a bicycle and biking to work, but haven't figured out logistics of dealing with being extremely sweaty yet for a corp environment, so for now I do need to drive.

I currently have a 2006 Scion tC that has never been in any major accidents, has no major problems, and drives extremely well. It was a gift from my parents new and the car is in my name owned fully. It's worth about $8k atm with 60k miles on it, it is a manual, I can get 30-31mpg when I drive 55 mph on the highway and accel lightly as well as cut the engine at lights. Fuel cost is about $67.5/month or $809/yr.

I'm considering selling it for something like a manual Civic with 150k miles on it in hopes of getting closer to 40 mpg(with same driving tactics) that I could get for around $3k hopefully leaving me with $5k left over from selling my tC. I would be able to use that $5k to pay off a credit card and a half. Fuel cost would be about $50.5/month or $607/yr. Savings from $5k in CCs @ 12% is $600 in interest/yr.

TLDR: In the end trading my tC for a Civic I'd save about $200/yr on gas costs while reducing my debt burden by about $5k saving me $600/yr in interest. On the downside, I'd have a less reliable car since it would likely be older and double the miles on it possibly requiring more maintenance eliminating the yearly savings.  Is this risk worth it?

Thanks for reading, I value your input!

Edit: I can get a 2000 Civic for $3k, recalculated savings

Your fuel mileage is low.
A critique of your technique, with basic fuel sensitive driving, you should do 37+mpg in that vehicle, esp when you are doing a measly 55 on the freeway.
Accelerating slow does not help. In fact, accelerating quickly will improve fuel mileage, as ICE are more efficient at high loads.
The key to hypermiling is NOT BRAKING. Get off the gas early and cost down any time you need to stop. Avoid braking.

I would probably keep the car. 8k is also a bit optimistic for selling that vehicle, IMHO.

req897

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2014, 02:36:17 PM »
Your fuel mileage is low.
A critique of your technique, with basic fuel sensitive driving, you should do 37+mpg in that vehicle, esp when you are doing a measly 55 on the freeway.
Accelerating slow does not help. In fact, accelerating quickly will improve fuel mileage, as ICE are more efficient at high loads.
The key to hypermiling is NOT BRAKING. Get off the gas early and cost down any time you need to stop. Avoid braking.

I would probably keep the car. 8k is also a bit optimistic for selling that vehicle, IMHO.

I have been learning to cruise red lights instead of coming to complete stops in hopes that they turn green before I need to completely stop. I do also keep several car lengths in front of me to help minimize braking.

37 mpg in the tC would be amazing, but I'm pretty skeptical it can be done. This is a 2.4L engine after all.

I have heard that accelerating quickly will improve fuel mileage before, but I have also been told to sip gas when accelerating also. As you mentioned, ICE performs more efficiently at high loads, but I haven't been able to find much information about this in regards to the tC.

At what RPM do you think I should be shifting at? Should I be giving it max gas or how much should I give it while accelerating? Typically I shift at 2.5k.

frugaliknowit

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2014, 02:57:20 PM »
Hard to say what the optimal rpm shift is.  In general, you want to get into high gear as quickly as possible without "over-revving" the engine.  See if your owners manual has any insights.  2500 does not sound very high, but every car is different.

req897

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2014, 08:46:46 AM »
Hard to say what the optimal rpm shift is.  In general, you want to get into high gear as quickly as possible without "over-revving" the engine.  See if your owners manual has any insights.  2500 does not sound very high, but every car is different.

iirc the manual says to shift somewhere between 2.5k and 3k.

Is it good to floor the gas but keep the RPMs low while accelerating?

okashira

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2014, 12:58:32 PM »
Hard to say what the optimal rpm shift is.  In general, you want to get into high gear as quickly as possible without "over-revving" the engine.  See if your owners manual has any insights.  2500 does not sound very high, but every car is different.

iirc the manual says to shift somewhere between 2.5k and 3k.

Is it good to floor the gas but keep the RPMs low while accelerating?

Depends on the ECU programming. To be safe, I'd keep to 60% - 75% throttle, and shift at `2600 rpm. That should give you some pretty fast acceleration.
WOT is theoretically best for efficiency (because it removed the pumping losses past the throttle plate) but many car's ECU's are programmed to dump a bunch of rich fuel at WOT.
If you can't accelerate fast, indeed it is best to use a lower gear and more throttle then a higher gear and less throttle. So shift early if you're held up.

req897

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #10 on: July 24, 2014, 04:32:16 PM »
Depends on the ECU programming. To be safe, I'd keep to 60% - 75% throttle, and shift at `2600 rpm. That should give you some pretty fast acceleration.
WOT is theoretically best for efficiency (because it removed the pumping losses past the throttle plate) but many car's ECU's are programmed to dump a bunch of rich fuel at WOT.
If you can't accelerate fast, indeed it is best to use a lower gear and more throttle then a higher gear and less throttle. So shift early if you're held up.

Do you think doing this combined with what I'm doing already is enough to get to 40 mpg? After more research, I do see that some people achieve this, but I'm having trouble finding out how they do it exactly. The idea of turning off my engine on the highway is...less than safe feeling lol.

req897

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #11 on: August 27, 2014, 01:35:05 PM »
I learned how to pulse and glide and coast with the engine off, been practicing since the end of July. Just hit 480 miles on this 12gal tank of gas as the gas light came on...40mpg from a 2.4L engine! Yay!!

I press the gas about 10-20% in when accelerating up to 35mph, keeping the RPMs between 1200 and 2000. When I hit 35mph, I'm in 5th gear, and I give it about 80% gas to get up to 45-60mph depending on the road/traffic. Once I'm in 5th, it's p&g and eoc as much as safely possible. Honestly thought it would be much harder, I don't even have a ScanGauge yet!

I'll be keeping the car for sure, it's so much fun
« Last Edit: August 27, 2014, 01:37:05 PM by req897 »

usmarine1975

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Re: Advice about car and credit cards please!
« Reply #12 on: August 27, 2014, 03:27:19 PM »
My wife drove a Toyota Corolla a 1996 if I am not mistaken until a car rear ended her car totaling it.  The odometer was in the 240,000 mile range.  She was hoping to get to 250,000.  The only reason we didn't was the other driver.  Come to find out it was a rented car that the renter reported stolen 5 hours after the accident.  Sucks to be us no collision on the car so we lose.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!