Ok. Let me re-phrase what I originally wrote about the car. I
could afford to drive it, but I didnt want to have to. I found it ridiculous to spend 24 dollars
per day to drive to work and back. Now I spend 12 dollars a day (because of the increase in the price of gas.) Had I not fixed the problems, I would be spending 29-30 dollars
a day on gas because of this rise in gas prices. Had prices not shot up, I would be spending $10.50 per day now, as opposed to the then, 24 dollars a day. But lets see what Im saving now, in reality.
$24-$12=$12. $12 per day saved...and thats just driving to work. I also drive 20-60 miles on the weekend, but I wont even count that. We'll say I only drive 5 days a week. $12 saved per day. 5 days=$60 saved. 52, 5 day work weeks per year (I dont take vacations)= $3120 saved. This is based on a 70 mile route, but for 8 months the road leading to the freeway was blocked and I had to take a 6 mile detour. I was actually driving 76 miles a day. If you add the 60 miles on the weekends, thats 440 miles a week as opposed to my numbers based on the 350 mile route. We're looking closer to $4000 saved a year.
recouping what you spent would be hard
What I spent? It wasnt alot. The rear end cost me $1300 installed with boxed LCA's, a new driveshaft and new bearings and a new axle....and the rear end did nothing to improve mileage. I wanted the original rear end in it. Thats all. I was going to do it regardless of whether I was getting 1mpg or 90. Everything else was very cheap and I did all the labor myself. We'll say all that **** cost me $700 at the most, on things that I did to improve mileage...probablky closer to $400.
Had I sat on my ass and enjoyed the ****ty running car, I'd have $2000 less in my pocket last year, and 4000 less this year.
So it'll take me 10-20 years to get my money back?
Now that Ive made you nauseous with my OCD, I know for the average joe who drives a GN on the weekends, it wouldnt be like this. But since when is having a good running, fast, gas efficient car, a bad thing? Even if I drove 20 miles a week, I would still want the car to run right and be efficient. Part of the allure of having a GN is that its not only fast, but it gets good mileage. If I wanted an 8mpg car, I would have bought a 64 Nova with 4.56 gears and a 6-71 blower sticking out of the hood. But you would probably think that the nova gets ****ty mileage and is a poor choice for a daily driver, while if the GN gets 8mpg, you think its ok for some reason...."8mpg?...eh, why bother fixing it....itll take you a century to make your money back if you buy a new O2 sensor to fix it" :biggrin: