Big_Kill

My first post. Thank you all for the wealth of info here.

Here's my story. I asked this question in my Suzuki Bandit forum ( www.maximum-suzuki.com ) at the beginning of May:

"That's my question for you. What vehicle, sold in the U.S., available with four wheel or all wheel drive, gets the best gas mileage?

I've got a V8 GMG van for my wife. The '95 Impala SS with the LT1 and the '00 Wrangler with the inline 6. The Jeep gets the worst mileage of the 3.

Now, I'm not ready to sell... my hearts not really into making that move... I LOVE the Jeep, but, If I were to sell it, what would replace it? Off road capability not really an issue anymore, but I would like to get up my driveway in the winter without having to shovel.

I'll do some Googling in the meantime, but I thought maybe someone here would have an answer to the above question. "

Two days and a lot of suggestions later later I wrote this and thought that would be the end of it:
"Thanks for all the input guys! It has been quite the interesting thread (and if anyone one wants to contribute - keep 'em comin'.

But for me, right now, I think the subject is close to moot.

I did have it narrowed down pretty well, though.I pretty much eliminated anything that didn't get at least 30 mpg on the highway. I mean, I was looking for mpg. That left a lot of vehicles out in the cold.

Though I could afford it, I was concentrating on vehicles under 20 grand. I pretty much narrowed it down to the Toyota Matrix

Suzuki has a new vehicle coming out in the Fall to replace the Aerio (My folks have an Aerio Front Wheel Drive) AND I had the Subaru Outback Sport on the list which starts at around $18,000.

But what really got my attention was the Scion Xb. I know it's not 4WD, but it's roomy, has fold flat seats for utility, standard traction control and stability control AND gets 31 to 34 mpg. All for 14 or 15 thousand.

So I was really pulled between the Scion and the Matrix.

But, to make a long story short, just before I went out to see how I fit in them, I talked to my brother and told him I wanted to figure out what I was actually spending on gas before I pulled the trigger ion a new car.

The Jeep will be 6 years old in August and has 34,000 miles. (Due the the variety of vehicles we drive.) That's about 6000 miles a year.
15 MPG into 6000 miles if 400 gallons a year. At $3 a gallon, that $1,200 a year in gas.

Even if I got a car that gets 30mpg that's only a savings of $600 a year. Once you add a car payment to that, there's no real savings at all.

So... it looks like I can keep the Jeep (yaaaahhhh!) with no regret and I can quit sweating over it. I should have done the math first.

Thanks again,

Tim "

But I couldn't get the Scion oughtta my head. So after looking at a few sites to see what the value of he Jeep Wrangler Sahara was (around ten grand) and after taking an outside look at an xB at a local dealership, I decided to go back and take a test drive. I figured if they give me the $10,000 the Jeep was worth, I'd kick in $500 and borrow $4000 and for a coule of twenties a month over the fifty bucks a month I'd be saving in gas, I could put myself in a new ride.

To make a log story short, the dang dealer tried to tell me that the planetary gears were going in my 34,000 mile Jeep and they could only give me about $7,300 for it.

I've heard of people saying they were insulted by a dealer, but I always thought it was an exageration. I had made it clear to the salesman that I was perfectly satisfied with the Jeep and was only going to make a deal if I could get the trade-in value for it. So I left. I went to my longtime, trusted mechanic who said that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the tranny on the Jeep.

Five days later I went to another dealer and had one of the best experiences buying a car in my life. I just told the guy my Jeep story, that I was on the fence about going for something new and told him I'd been in an xB and drove one (not mentioning that it was at another dealership) so we could skip all of that. I told him I looked up the trade-in values and if he could come up with 10 grand for the Wrangler, we would have a deal. I told him I was basically interested in a manual transmission xB with no add ons since it was mostly my beater car for the Impala SS. "No problem." They checked out the Jeep, made a few phone calls, and about 15 or 20 minutes later came back and said that they had someone who would buy the Jeep for $10,000 and did we still have a deal? "That's what I said when I came in."

So we did the paperwork for a Shadow Mica MT and he told me 30 days "at most." That was last Monday. In the meantime, I have read many, many of the threads going back a couple of years in all the xB sections.

I already ordered a set of Konig Rewinds in graphite (it looks like it'll be perfect on the SM. (I'll put snow tires on the steel wheels.) And I'll probably do the front window tint, vent visors, armrest and rear swaybar (I know what it did for the SS) over the summer.

I spent YEARS putting together my '95 Impala SS and I don't know if I got the modding bug out of me or not. I've been autocrossing various vehicles (TR8 V8, a couple of Escort GTs, and the Impala) since about 1981, so you know the xB is gonna get a crack at it sometime.

One of my few regrets is that it's gonna be harder to carry my bicycle. I had a nice, cheap, easy, over-the-spare tire rack for the Jeep. I've actually pondered taking out the back seats, spare tire and storage are of the xB and making a big flat (and lower) area just to tote things. I haven't found to many threads with anyone who has done this to their's. I used the back seat in the Wrangler maybe once a year since I had it. It just took up space in my basement most of the time.

Well, I guess this is pretty long for a first post. I'll post a picture when I get it and when I put the wheels on.

Tim

OldYeller

With the seats folded down, the height of the roof, and the square back end--I have stuffed a lot of big stuff in the back of my box. I would recommend something to cover your bumper if you do a lot of hauling. Welcome to the boards!!

bB2NER

What a cool way of deciding on your box. You'll love it!

They make a class 1 hitch. Just get the bike carrier that fit a class 1 and the bikes become a non issue. Congrats and welcome to our community.