People with gas guzzlers are tempted to do trade-in’s which would be the logical choice so many consider exchanging theirs for a newer, more efficient and environmentally friendly hybrid. The move will indeed lessen your carbon footprint but will not necessarily get you savings financially, except for gas that is. Old cars have been known to be notoriously more muscle than efficiency and more and more people are finding out the hard way that power isn’t everything; for all that power comes a high price tag to fill up the tank at the pumps. Gas is now running over $4.00/gal and it does not show any signs of slowing for the price pf crude are still quite unstable.
To get the facts straight, you will get savings in fuels but considering the high prices of taxes, vehicle cost and other contributory factors are up against a move, financially. The savings at the pump would take years for them to make a difference for the payments you have to make for the car and the low price a gas guzzler would surely get (even a half-year old gas guzzler has a trade in value of less than half the price for which it was brought). Gas savings should not be the only basis for selecting a better vehicles for at a normal 60 month payments term would have you paying for more than half of the actual sticker price when you bought the car. Adding to that the taxes and other out of pocket fees, less the very low trade in value of the old vehicle and you end up with a lot more financial liabilities than you think you’d have to pay for.
The bottom line, if you are simply concerned with the high price of gas and don’t have much cash to spare getting a new car, even the most efficient ones ca set you back in debt. It takes years for the actual impact in terms of savings to be actually realized (by your pocket or checkbook) and it is not the only solution. Try easing on the gas pedal and keeping your engine as efficient as it can be with regular maintenance. Try adopting hypermiling techniques which have claims of getting 100 miles of more to the gallon (with hybrids a little less for regular engines) and you might just save enough gas and cash to keep that old gas guzzler in your garage for a bit longer while maintaining your sanity at those high prices.