Aspire To Save On Gas

You might remember the post I wrote some time back when we considered trading in our minivan for a more fuel efficient car. After running the numbers, it didn't seem to be a smart move for us.

A few days ago, an elderly couple who live a few blocks away put their 1997 Ford Aspire up for sale. The man has had a stroke and other medical complications and can no longer drive. The Aspire was a third vehicle for them, so he sold it cheap -- at about 1/3 of its book value -- just to get rid of it. We had noticed the vehicle sitting for a few months and had been hoping it would go up for sale. We jumped at the opportunity when it did.

It's not much to look at at 11 years old. But it has low miles for its age, and when I filled it up, drove it 100 mixed city and highway miles, then refilled it, I calculated the mpg at 37.5. That's double what our van gets at its best.

Most days, Shane will need to take his truck to work (because of the tools he must haul), but most of my solo driving and our family driving will be done in the Aspire. It will be our "first-choice" vehicle.

For now, we have no intention of selling our minivan. Sure, we could do without it now. We could use our truck to pull the tent camper when we go camping. But the truth of the matter is, we just don't want to get rid of the van. It's our newest, most comfortable and most reliable vehicle, even if it is a bit of a gas hog. We will still use it for camping, outings when there may be more than just the three of us on the trip, and trips where comfort might be more important than fuel economy. If, after a year, we find we aren't using the van much at all, we might consider selling it then. However, if gas prices continue to rise, there may not be much of a market for it.

On another note, that S-10 work truck Shane bought to drive instead of his full-size truck? It's a good ol' work truck, but it doesn't get quite the good mileage we expected, and in the meantime, Shane was able to track down what was causing his bigger truck's mileage to go down. So the S-10 is up for sale.

Update: After we cleaned it up, waxed it and repainted the trim and wheel covers, the car doesn't look bad at all, especially for an 11-year-old car.

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365 Day Clutter Challenge - Days 3 & 4: I don't wear make-up more than a couple of times a year anymore, so yesterday I tossed out all but a couple of things. It was old anyway. Today I went through a few file folders and culled out anything I didn't need to keep anymore. I recycled what I could and shredded what I needed to. There are still more file folders to clean out, though.