RBulldogger

Not sure if this is the proper place to post this, but here goes......

I just bought an '08 Jetta City that I'll be using as my daily driver now instead of the truck in my sig. My question is, what are you guys doing as far as upkeep on your trucks that are just sitting almost all of the time? I drive over 125km's a day(work commute), and I got tired of my fuel costs.


Thanks in advance!

bnold

Start it up once a week and give her a good run... Actually drive get up to operating temp and work her a bit... I run a fuel additive, but IMO its probably overkill...

PRO-NRA

Me too have to commute (about 100 miles round trip) but drive my Beetle that gets 50 MPG and it's an Intercooled Turbo Diesel although a lot smaller compared to our CTD. My truck is just a Sunday car to take the family to church.

TonyB

I run mine about 10 miles or so on the weekend, just to get it up to temp and boil off any moisture. Also keeps the batteries charged up. Some weekends I do more than 10 miles...just depends on what needs to be done.

I also treat every tank w/ Stanadyne.

Tony

2006Mega

if you can afford it take it to work once a week. the worst thing to do to a vehicle is let it sit.

torquefan

Good advice. My truck takes me to work one day a week. When parked, it sits with a solar charger on the dash and my VW takes me to work.
Tomorrow's truck day.

RBulldogger

Appreciate the responses. torquefan, where'd ya get the solar charger, details please...

cdhd2001

Congrats on the car!

Big question. After buying the car, have you calculated how much the payments, maintenance, and fuel costs per month?

I bet you are paying more "total" per month than if you just bought diesel and drove your truck.

Personally, I have run the figures many times. A typical commuter car would save me $200 per month in fuel costs. How many newer and reliable cars can you buy for sub $200 per month? Insurance would cost me $40 per month. Maintenance costs? Even if you payed cash for the car, how long would it take to pay yourself back? $2,500 over 12 months equals $208 per month.

Just adding fuel to the fire...

Duallydog

Thats just looking at it for one year with the current costs, what happens when the fuel keeps going up by the end of year 3, you've saved a bunch of money. My biggest problem is the inital cost.

doug60

Gotta have the extra car (commuter )
I rather rack up the 100 miles a day on a 20,000 car.
Besides that, haveing the extra car make it easier to take the truck in for more mods.

paroxysym

thats why im buying acheap maybe $1200 car to rock to and from work. i figure filling that up once a week compared to the truck will save me... almost $400 a month, so it will pay itself off in 3-5 months once you throw insurance into it and stuff.

Seeder

My truck sits pretty much all week and I will drive her on the weekends if I can, I try to usi ti atleast once a week if possible.

I get my wifes car when the miles are too high, I drive her old 97 civic to work that has 168K (auto) on it and gets 32 mpg's. The wife has a 05 Grand Prix right now that will be mine in about 2 yrs or so, that gets around 26-30 mpg's.

Commuter vehicles are nice but I don't think are worth spending much money on. My civic is great cause no matter how dirty I am I can just hop in and go, the truck I spend 15min cleaning myself off before I get in.

-Seeder

cdhd2001

My figures were for $2,500 per year. I have been researching the commuter car for about 6 months. All of the $2,500 cars I have looked at are ragged out. Seems that to get a decent & reliable commuter car you have to start $6-$7k. Over 3 years that works out to $170 to $200 per month for 36 months. For me that means the initial cost is spread out for a long time. To be honest, I spend too much time in traffic to tolerate being stuck in a pos.

Everyone has to work this out on their own.

Wide spread hysteria and panic over fuel prices seems to be driving many people's decisions.

bnold

I have done the math and for the amount of miles that I drive per year I save $1400-1650 per year AFTER car cost, maintenance, insurance (dramatically lower truck insurance with my car as the primary), etc....

A huge effect for me, but I bought a car that can get 45-50MPG with ease, 55MPG if I baby it... Not to mention I dont have to drive the dang truck everywhere... Cars definitely have their place.. Like sitting in TRAFFIC!!