I am looking for ways to decrease my spending on transportation. I know there was a recent blog post slamming on long daily commutes - but it is part of my job. I am an electrical apprentice, and have no intention of switching job paths at-least until I achieve licensure. As an apprentice I work where I am told which sometimes is a nice drive of say 5-10 miles, but currently my site is over 80 miles round-trip. Previously I was working a bit closer to home and Transportation was the second largest part of my budget behind Retirement, however I am saving more for upkeep and spending more on fuel now pushing it past my ROTH savings.
My vehicle is an old small pickup which averages about 17mpg if I drive with discipline for economy. I would be fine driving a 4cyl commuter car, but my truck doesn't suggest it is going to have a catastrophic failure anytime soon. I do repair work on it which makes it cheap to keep running ( water pump, fenders, headlamp assembly, steering rack and pinion , control arms, balljoints, AC clutch, thermostat, etc. ) . The saying is that the cheapest car to operate is the one you already own - and I don't know what kind of commute I will have in the future ( I could end up being lucky and working close to home, or sharing a ride in a company vehicle).
The liability policy for it is cheap, and many of the repairs I made were for parts damaged in a collision - so it hasn't been inherently troublesome mechanically. The vehicle would not sell for much because of it's age and condition, trying to decide if I should save aggressively for a Honda etc instead of my current focus of maxing my ROTH this year.
Edit;
Also I would not be opposed to a motorcycle, but I have to be able to carry a toolbag, lunchbox, hardhat, rain gear, etc - and we have some highways with 75MPH limits so it needs to be able to cruise efficiently near that speed for safety. I think this might be a loosing proposition considering we have very frigid winters - and outfitting a motorcycle with heated grips and getting all the luggage racks and riding gear would add up fast.