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Save Your Money! Buy an SUV…
Tagged Under : advice, environment, Ford, fuel, fuel efficient car, gas prices, money, Saving Money, SUV, Toyota, toyota prius
Gas prices have come down a little bit in the last week, but they are still at record levels. While many people may be trading in their old gas guzzler, I’m going to offer a bit of crazy advice…
If you want to save money… Buy an SUV.
Before you yell at me and tell me how stupid I am, let me explain:
Right now a Toyota Prius Hybrid, new or less than a year old is selling for around $25,000 and that’s if you can even find one! High gas prices have put everyone owning an SUV or large truck into a selling frenzy. Owners and dealers are making huge price cuts just to get rid of them. For example, you can currently find a one year old Ford Explorer for around $15,000… that’s a $10,000 difference!
Still, you will be saving money on gas with the Prius so let’s see how the cost differs over 5 years.
So even after 5 years of driving, you will have spent approximately $9,200 more on fuel for the SUV that you spent $10,000 less on in the first place! Does that sound like saving money to you?
Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t buy a hybrid. There are a lot of great reasons to buy a hybrid or a more fuel efficient car beyond the financial aspects, namely the fact that using less gas is better for the environment. What I am saying is that you should actually think things through from every angle before making a decision as big as buying a car. Selling your one year old SUV and spending $10,000 more on a hybrid is probably not a good financial decision. Think rationally and do the math, chances are that no matter what kind of car you are driving right now, keeping it will be cheaper than buy a new one.
Edit:
Some readers have pointed out that there are more factors to be included instead of just price and fuel cost. If we wanted to be really thorough we could get into depreciation, resale, maintenance cost, insurance, and even the present value of money versus the future value. Also the fact that if gas prices climb above $4.50 the SUV becomes much more expensive. The point I am trying to make is not neccessarily to go buy an SUV.
I believe that the current fuel prices, whether short or long term, have caused many people to irrationally freak out and think that they need to sell their new SUV they just purchased a year ago for a substantial loss and buy spend thousands of dollars more on a car that may only save $1,000 a year on fuel. This in turn has caused the market to get flooded with dirt cheap SUVs that are selling for a fraction of what they went for a year ago, and possibly even less than they cost to make. Many people will tell you that fuel prices are heading to $8.00/gallon or even $15.00/gallon. If this is the case, then I guarantee that even the 45 Mpg that a hybrid gets won’t be good enough. Others will tell you that speculators have driven up the cost of oil and once they leave the market, it will settle at around $2-3/gallon. I personally believe it will be somewhere in between, that high gas prices are here to stay but that they probably won’t make it to $8/gallon anytime soon. If they do get that high, then people will be trading in their hybrids for electric and hydrogen cars and at another huge loss.
Once again, the point I am trying to make is not neccessarily to go buy an SUV. What I am saying is that if you have an SUV, think about all of the financial aspects before you sell it at a huge loss, and if you have always wanted an SUV but couldn’t afford it… Now may actually be a decent time to think about it.
Feel free to disagree with anything I say, I know some of you will.
Stumble it!
That is an interesting perspective! If you are thinking about buying another vehicle, this post may make you think twice.
Dustys last blog post..Live Life No One Else So Later You Can Live Like No One Else
I have figured this out for awhile…You would only save money if after 5 years the hybrid was still doing good, but you’d have to drive that car a lot longer than most people to do to make it worthwhile.
Cheaper yet would be to buy a 2001 Saturn SL1 for $4000 that gets 30 mpg
(that’s one of the cars i have that we keep just because we own it and it’s so fuel efficient!
Chelles last blog post..This Week On Ebay 8.12
This is all well and good but what do you do when gas goes to 8 buck a gallon? If the trend in gas keeps going 4.50 will be eclipsed by this time next year. Buying a truck or SUV is probably not a sound financial idea either when you have no idea what your cost of operation will be even 2 years from now. Not to mention that when a vehicle gets older and or isn’t in ideal operating condition mpg can go down and if your already only gettting 18 mpg that can go even lower. Your probably better off buying a used fuel saver car than buying ANY SUV or truck.
You fail to account for significant Inflation and depreciation of the vehicle and vehicle cost of Ownership, this is hardly a fair and legitimate mathematical comparison.
I LOVE this post!! That is awesome. It really gets people thinking. I would have never thought about that until reading this.
MrsMoneys last blog post..How To Can Tomatoes
great point dude! It’s like pouring cold water to awaken people
Right now, I’m thinking of buying one.
Dumbest thing i have ever heard. buy a 90’s honda civic for less than 5000 and get 30-40mpg
Or a Toyota Corolla, or any of the other imports that get better gas millage than even some of the new cars.
Really no point in buying a Hybrid since there are new full electrics coming out soon with a good range and great power. On top of that the new Diesel Golf coming out gets 62 mpg……quite a bit higher than these horrid hybrids that are out.
Really sad when a diesel can get 50% MORE mpg than a hybrid.