Squamish to Vancouver, Anyone commute every day?

^^^^^^i think some of the reasoning with LNG conversions to the big blocks was extended engine life/mileage as well. I dont know how the hybrids hold up under extreme mileage use. Chances are they just flog em before they get as hi as the older LNG V8 conversions.

The way i see it NG was way cheaper 1/2 the price of RUG back in the day but you lose power so a bigger american engine was a good thing and they could just thro cheap used parts at old junkers

They are now using hybrids because it makes business sense I took a ride with a cabbie who told me he expected to keep his Prius for 6 years/600,000 kms

I would get a cheap beater, like a Civic or Corolla. Cheap gas, cheap to repair and you won't feel bad putting miles on your cheap car.

Exactly. I have an old Civic with about 240,000 on it and when it dies I can get a replacement for a couple grand. If I drove anything decent watching those km's add up would kill me. As it is now I have to get an oil change about once a month. That is no way to treat a nice vehicle.

Carpooling? I know someone who carpools from Brackendale to Vancouver (City Hall area) daily and has been doing it for awhile so it must work decently. Not sure on the details though. I think they trade who drives? Not sure if its a service to sign up to or if its simply finding other people privately: I can ask if you'd like more info.

I have done this as well. I need my car to get to job sites but my hours are pretty regular so I would pick up passengers. With a little car one passenger can pay half the gas or more.

Move to Squamish?

I agree with this. Yes I read the whole thread.

Exactly. I have an old Civic with about 240,000 on it and when it dies I can get a replacement for a couple grand. If I drove anything decent watching those km's add up would kill me. As it is now I have to get an oil change about once a month. That is no way to treat a nice vehicle.

when I was doing 70-90k kms a year I found the bills added up to where it paid to get a new car

also you spend a lot of time in that car so there is the quality of life issue

know when to dump a high milage car

Exactly. I have an old Civic with about 240,000 on it and when it dies I can get a replacement for a couple grand.

This. Cost per year is less than a new car.

And do your own maintenance as it's pretty easy to do.

Meh. I have 290k on my Jetta TDI and I'm planning on driving it to 500k before I even think about getting something new. Keeping it running is much (much) cheaper than new car payments.

I'm keen to see Mistubishi's new hybrid getting released next year in Europe; it's reporting 130mpg. The new RVR from Mitsubishi is giving almost 40mpg - pretty damn good for a gas SUV.

I wouldn't buy a new small truck or SUV to replace your Xterra SC. Buy some grannies Civic and throw a set of proper winters on it.

Those 4.0L Tacos, Frontiers, and Xterras are close to being as hard on fuel. Plus a 4spd auto w/OD is a joke.

I started looking for an old beater.
You can find some late 90 early 2000 VW TDI with ~200km for a few grands.
seems like you can expect 800km for 60$ gas, which is half of my truck.
As of of civic goes any best year of production or best type for reliability/longevity? Lots of them under 2k…
I am guessing the gas mileage would be similar or perhaps a bit higher than the diesel.

Diesel will give better mileage.

Any year Civic should be fine. Or look at small Acura like the Integra. It's a Civic, but a bit upscaled and often built better.

IME repairs on old TDis are pricey also unless the price of diesel turns around i would just go gas

Exactly. I have an old Civic with about 240,000 on it and when it dies

Quite. I gots an '96 Civic with 139,000 miles on it whose only value is how many mores km I can sqeeze outta' it! Tough little bugger won't die but recently needed two half shafts and a radiator.

However…………

also you spend a lot of time in that car so there is the quality of life issue

know when to dump a high milage car

So true. With my Civic none of the windows and only three of the doors open! :lol:

The longer I keep it the more $ my wife offers to fork over towards a new ride. :evil:

IME repairs on old TDis are pricey also unless the price of diesel turns around i would just go gas

Mk 4's require maintenace and its expensive, a timing belt at the dealer is 12-1500$, a MK4 that old will need stuff like rear axle bushings If you can do it yourself or have a cheap independant who KNOWS what he is doing that will be cheaper I know when I dumped mine at 285K it had several thousand dollars in deferred maintenance

http://forums.tdiclub.com/
if you buy one do your HW [HTML_REMOVED] be aware

buying a new TDi was cheaper than driving a used high km 4runer due to fuel costs [HTML_REMOVED] maintenance so for quality of life I bought new MK4 TDi's minimum down, run them hard, write them off, back then diesel fuel was almost always cheaper now its almost always more expensive than RUG so do the math and make sure you are really saving money compared to a civic on gas … I suspect you won't