Carburetors and conscience
I filled my gas guzzling Durango up tonight after going to the gym and winced at the $75 price tag. We've once again reached that point where the pump shuts off because it's reached the credit card transaction limit rather than because it filled the tank.
Regular unleaded was $3.31 at the particular station I visited. Rumors are on the wind that we may see $4.00 per gallon this summer. While we've been told that this is a positive when it comes to minimizing the chances that interest rates will rise prior to us finalizing our loan financing, it's certainly not a positive for any other reason.
Buying a new car isn't a front burner issue for us currently, but Lori's car (my old Pathfinder) is now eleven years old. My Durango is seven years old. Lori's car has only 10,000 more miles than mine. We've talked for a year or so about trading in the Pathfinder toward a new car. If I do it through the business, our accountant's continuing advice is to buy a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of 6,000 pounds or greater. There's still an incentive that rewards you via tax write-offs for purchasing a company car of that magnitude.
But not long after I bought the Durango in 2000 and started coping with the sobering reality of a 12 mpg lifestyle, I questioned the big SUV mindset. It's clear that we're heading into an era of exorbitant fuel costs and a return to value being placed upon fuel economy ratings. And like I wrote about last year, I generally encourage this trend and feel it's the only way for true change in foreign oil dependence to occur. Let's face it, tree huggers won't change the American car-loving pathos, but $100 and $125 fillups will. And I don't think they're far away.
Neither is the decision whether to buy my next car guided by either tax codes or moral codes.
Regular unleaded was $3.31 at the particular station I visited. Rumors are on the wind that we may see $4.00 per gallon this summer. While we've been told that this is a positive when it comes to minimizing the chances that interest rates will rise prior to us finalizing our loan financing, it's certainly not a positive for any other reason.
Buying a new car isn't a front burner issue for us currently, but Lori's car (my old Pathfinder) is now eleven years old. My Durango is seven years old. Lori's car has only 10,000 more miles than mine. We've talked for a year or so about trading in the Pathfinder toward a new car. If I do it through the business, our accountant's continuing advice is to buy a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of 6,000 pounds or greater. There's still an incentive that rewards you via tax write-offs for purchasing a company car of that magnitude.
But not long after I bought the Durango in 2000 and started coping with the sobering reality of a 12 mpg lifestyle, I questioned the big SUV mindset. It's clear that we're heading into an era of exorbitant fuel costs and a return to value being placed upon fuel economy ratings. And like I wrote about last year, I generally encourage this trend and feel it's the only way for true change in foreign oil dependence to occur. Let's face it, tree huggers won't change the American car-loving pathos, but $100 and $125 fillups will. And I don't think they're far away.
Neither is the decision whether to buy my next car guided by either tax codes or moral codes.
posted by JabberDrew at 10:05 PM
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