Maybe we all should start buying little 50cc honda scooters and scoot to & from the office.

A 19 yr old neighbor girl, first real job, part time 35 - 40 hrs at decent pay. Can afford the new/used car payment and swallows hard with insurance bills. With newness of a teen with her first car and she's discovered crusing around and filling the tank up is expensive.

Now she's taking the bus on weekends and evenings for her clothes shopping addiction and for city excursion trips to be mobile pal-ing around with friends.

My point was just that people should think twice before hastily trading in their current vehicle. If a 19 year old girl recently bought her first car, I hope she got something that gets fairly good gas mileage.

If a person could buy a scooter for $1,000, it could potentially pay for itself fairly quickly. If it were used to substitute for 5,000 or 6,000 miles a year on a car or SUV, the savings would not only be in fuel but also in depreciation, maintenance, wear and tear on the car. However, a person needs to learn to ride a scooter or any other type of motorcycle properly, and also buy and use proper safety gear, and it's still a lot more dangerous than even the smallest car.

i wish the city here would allow the use of electric golf carts as tranportation on city streets with speed limits of 35 mph or lower, between that my bike and walking i would almost be able to rid myself of a car all togeather. i know this is allowed in some citys, but detroit is about 30 yrs behind. seems like this would be a good way to promote the use of electric vehicles, keep traffic slowed, and cut pollution and noise.

The only way you'll probably see golf carts made legal in Detroit is if the Big Three start making them.

you mean the medium size 2. big 3 hahahahaha

**seems like this would be a good way to promote the use of electric vehicles, keep traffic slowed, and cut pollution and noise.**

And help save Social Security. Golf carts aren't very crash worthy at any speed.

see theres another advantage!

I think the purpose of moving to a more efficient car is more than simply the cost. Unfortunately, China is dealing with shortages of gas because of requirements vs. availability. I think the more gas guzzling SUVs we get off the road the better it is for all of us as our future may not increase gas consumption at 10% annually (or whatever the stats). However, I do not see this happening until our politicians force or tax these big vehicles for destroying our roads, killing more other drivers in accidents, and taking 10 minutes as a gas station.
If the $1500 is worth it - get a used Jetta TDI (maybe a year or two) before their prices start going up.

I would LOVE to buy a Passat Diesel but waiting for a 6 spd manual version.

RooseveltL, You've got to move to Portland OR. They'll love you there.

Someone taking a $20,000 hit to trade in early a perfectly good sport ute for something else for the sake of a few mpg's won't get the sport ute that was traded in off the road any sooner. I'm sure the car salesman, the finance company, and perhaps the person who wants a sport ute but can't quite afford a new one will appreciate your point of view. Not because they agree with your reasoning though.