Happy New Year. This year really can't do much worse than the last, so I am excited about the end of the Bush era. I will make the statement here first just in case... When Jeb Bush runs for president, REMEMBER THAT HE IS JUST AS MUCH OF A DOUCHE AS W. IS.
We will have to see what kind of bullshit misleads the majority of voting Americans this year and who we end up with next. Pardon me for not being hopeful but, we seriously don't know what we're doing when the democratic process is concerned.
On a sad note, my truck became financially prohibitive to continue driving (nickel and dimed for repairs on little shit all month in december), so I traded him in and bought a new car. This time it's BRAND NEW, as in, it had 11 miles on it when I left the dealership. It's a 2008 Toyota Yaris S. Mine is black, not red like the one above, but I couldn't find a decent picture of one in black.
I'm having trouble getting used to the low height, not being able to see the front of the hood, and the center-mounted gauge cluster, but i think the gas mileage gains are pretty worthwhile. It's a sub-compact car, which is a big change coming from a 1998 fullsize chevy 1500 extended cab pick-up, but even though it's small on the outside, they made the interior pretty big compared to most other subcompacts. A friend of mine who is 6'2" or 6'3" was in the backseat behind me last night and he said he was comfortable. It's not going to move band equipment like my old truck, but I think I could get a couple speaker cabs in the backseat and amp heads and guitars in the trunk if need be.
I'm still on my first tank of gas and the engine and transmission haven't been broken in yet, so I am not sure what the mileage will be, but the Yaris is supposed to be the car with the best gas mileage that isn't a hybrid. I can't afford a hybrid, so i'll do this. It was either this or a Subaru Impreza, but the dude at the toyota dealer got my payments way down there, so it was hard to let if slip. Theres a few sources that keep up with the gas mileage on a Yaris. This forum has a thread where people post their *WORST* mpg on a tank of gas, mostly in the upper-twenties and lower-thirties. A big leap from my truck with it's 10mpg.
This other forum thread discusses decreases in MPG for some Yaris owners, but through lots of input it is determined that it's standard in terms of decreasing economy in cold weather, which may also effect my first few tanks in terms of MPG. Another one talks about cold-weather fuel formulations that they have in some places, i'm not sure if we have that here or not. This thread, and this one both discuss general info about the efficiency in the Yaris. Keeping in mind, for 2008, the EPA started doing efficiency estimates in colder temperatures and at higher altitudes which makes the ratings lower on new cars than they would have been in past years. The efficiency could be the same or better in real life.
This site and this site are databases where you can post your MPG info and info about how you drive so that the info can be used to help increase mileage. The guy whose data is up on the second one is getting a 46mpg average in a Yaris, with regular tanks over 50mpg. I think I feel like less of a hypocrite now.
