For the first time in my life, I have a daily commute to work. I drive about 45 minutes each way to work each day of the week. According to my math, I’m going to be spending about $125 a month just on gas, let alone maintenance, upkeep, and so on. When I look at it that way, my new job isn’t as awesome as I thought it was! What can I do to trim that amount?

Here are ten things I would suggest for anyone who is seeking to optimize their commute and minimize the financial cost of it.

1. Start (or join) a carpool. I wrote an article recently on how to start a carpool, but if you can find one that already exists, join that one instead. It not only reduces the number of days per week that you have to drive, it also allows you to use the more efficient HOV lanes during the commute.

2. Properly inflate your tires each month. Few things damage your gas mileage than poorly inflated tires. Think of a bicycle and how much extra effort you have to exert when your tire is even a little bit flat. The same is true for your car – it might be plenty inflated to make the trip, but if it’s even a bit under the recommended maximum level, your car is working harder to go the same distance, and that eats gas.

3. Find the optimum route. Unless the route to your job is incredibly straightforward, there are several different routes you could potentially take to your job. Spend some time to figure out the optimum route – the one that eats the least amount of gas, in other words. Use Google Maps to help you in this regard. Finding a more efficient route will simply shave transportation costs (and possibly time) off of your daily commute.

4. Identify the low-priced gas stations along your route. Take note of the gas stations available to you along the route and identify the ones that consistently have the best prices (if there is variance – usually, there is). Then, make that station (or stations) your regular stop to fill up your tank.

5. Use a “gas card” for that chain of stations. Once you’ve identified the inexpensive station, sign up for their gas card. Use it just for gas – nothing else – and pay the card off in full each month. The rewards on such cards are often quite nice and can add up to a free tank of gas every few months or so.

6. Examine public transportation options for all or part of your commute. Just because there isn’t a train straight from your home to your place of employment doesn’t mean public transportation isn’t an option. Perhaps you can drive to a nearby station and take a train/bus combination to your place of work. If there is a combination that can strongly reduce (or even eliminate) your commute, you should take it.

7. Use your A/C and heater less. Just use them to get your car to the right temperature then turn them off. You don’t need to leave them running during your entire commute – they just eat fuel. If you find the temperature getting uncomfortable again, just flip the A/C or heat back on.

8. Ask about subsidies at work for commuters. Some places of employment offer benefits for commuters, such as reimbursement for miles driven. Don’t be afraid to ask your human resources contact about it, just to see if it’s available. If it is, it’s cash in hand for you.

9. Leave a bit early to avoid the rush and to avoid the need to speed. In the morning, get in the swing of leaving a little bit earlier. This way, you can avoid speeding (which conserves gas and also helps to ensure you don’t get a ticket) and also potentially avoid the worst part of the rush hour traffic.

10. Look into telecommuting. If your job allows it (and the workplace allows it), consider telecommuting a day or two a week. Those are days where you’re not commuting at all, which means a nice net savings for you.

Beyond these tips (which are things you can do right now), I would suggest car shopping with fuel efficiency in mind when you go car shopping the next time. It’s okay to pay more for a more fuel-efficient car. For example, let’s say your commute is 40 miles each way, which totals up to 2,000 miles a month. Assuming gas is $3 a gallon, if you get a car that gets 20 miles to the gallon, you’ll be spending $300 a month on gas. On the other hand, if you buy a car that gets 40 miles to the gallon, you’ll only be spending $150 a month on gas. That’s a $150 savings each month, more than enough to make up for even a sizeable difference in car payments.

Good luck with your new job!

I work at an office park about forty five minutes from where I live. I live in a highly populated suburban neighborhood.

In order to save some money on gas and wear and tear on my car, I want to start a carpool, but I don’t know anyone who lives near me who works in the office park. I don’t mind stretching my hours a bit to make this work, as I could go in with them a bit earlier and do some busywork (email and the like) to start the day or read a book at the end of the day.

The only problem is I don’t know how to get this kind of thing started and I don’t have any obvious people to ride with. Any ideas?

Carpools are a tremendous way to save money. My wife is in a (semi-functional) carpool with a coworker and often has a ride to work two days a week. We estimate that it saves us at least $100 a month in gas and maintenance costs. It would be truly great if she could get another person or two into the carpool.

How can Jenny get a carpool started in her situation? Here’s the game plan I would use.

First, I would make up a very clear flyer that stated my first name, my cell phone number, and the fact that I wanted to start a carpool from the neighborhood or city where I lived to that office park. I’d probably make some “tear-off” tabs on the right hand side of the flyer so that people could yank the number off and put it in their pocket. Put “car pool” above the number.

I would then take a copy of this flyer to each office in the office park. There may be a lot of offices there, so you may need quite a few copies. Ask for permission to hang the flyer on the office bulletin board in each of those offices. Given your situation, I would imagine most would let you do this.

Ideally, you’ll get a few calls within the next few days. You’ll need to get some key information from each person, so you may want to carry a notepad with you.

From each caller, get the following:
+ their name
+ their cell phone number
+ their address (so you can map their location)
+ their approximate work schedule (so you know when they would need to depart/arrive)
+ any “special” days they have (like my wife’s carpool, where it doesn’t happen on Fridays due to a special need of her carpool mate)
+ what types of vehicles they have and how many it can seat

Once you have this information from a few callers (give it a few days), set up a schedule. Figure out a departure time (both from your town and from the office park) that works for everyone (or at least for the largest number of participants). Also, figure out a rotating driving schedule.

Once you have this information, call each person in the pool back and let them know when the pool will begin. I highly recommend you drive the first day.

When you do the first day, pick up the other people on the route and give each person a list of addresses, phone numbers, and schedules for everyone in the pool. I recommend that you make the schedule as simple as possible, even if it inconveniences you. The best way to do this is to say that Person X drives on Mondays, Person Y drives on Tuesdays, Person Z drives on Wednesdays, and Person A drives on Thursdays, with Fridays handled on a rotating basis. If you have five people, this is really easy. If you have three people, have Thursday and Friday rotate. If you just have two people, have each person drive two days and have Friday rotate.

Yes, this is a lot of set-up work. But you’re the one who has the initiative to start the carpool and you will save a lot of money on it. It may take a bit of extra effort in setting it up and an occasional headache when someone is sick, but it will be worth it in the large savings you get, especially with a four or five person carpool.

Good luck!

Transportation – gasoline, motor oil – $2,384

The average American family drops $200 a month on gasoline and motor oil – and that’s at early 2009 prices for gas, which were significantly lower than prices today.

However, this is one of the easiest numbers to trim in your entire budget. There are several simple steps anyone can take to reduce their gasoline usage without making radical lifestyle changes. Here are twelve options.

Form a carpool (or join an existing one). Even if this is an irregular carpool – my wife, for example, carpools with a friend two days a week, saving her one day of driving – it still saves you signifcant fuel costs on your commute and wear and tear on your car. In some localities, you also gain the option to use HOV lanes, which can add to the fuel efficiency of the drive.

Use public transportation. If you have easy access to public transportation, it is almost always a fuel saver, particularly if you can use such transportation routinely. Even if you can just occasionally use the bus system or the subway, it still leaves gas in your tank.

Use a bicycle – or your feet. Alternately, use a bicycle – or your own feet – to reach nearby locations. I often walk to the post office instead of driving there – it takes substantially longer, but if I use a brisk walk, I can get a moderate workout from the situation, making me healthier, while also saving money on the fuel.

Buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle. If gasoline is $3 a gallon, moving from a 20 mile per gallon car to a 25 mile per gallon car saves you $360 a year (assuming you drive 12,000 miles a year). If you’re buying used, such a savings can make it well worth your while to invest a bit more in a more fuel-efficient car.

Change your own oil. Not only will you save on the maintenance costs if you’re not paying someone to do it, but it also gives you much more control over the actual oil that goes into you car – and much more power when it comes to comparison shopping for that oil. Study up on the type of oil that’s truly best for your car, then shop around for it. You’ll find a great price on the best thing for your vehicle – a win all around.

Drive the speed limit, especially on the interstate. Stick in the slow lane and stick with the speed limit and you’ll find yourself saving quite a lot on gas. “But everyone’s going 90!” If that’s the case, and you still choose to drive there, then you’re paying a substantial amount to drive at that pace.

Keep your windows closed – or your air conditioning off. If you’re driving in town at low speeds, keep the windows down and your air conditioning off. However, if you’re out on the open road, do just the opposite. The wind drag when you go at higher speeds becomes significant, exceeding the fuel costs of running an air conditioner. Alternating between the two will save you the most money.

Minimize the “stop and go” when you’re driving in town. Instead of gunning it out of a stoplight then just slowing down again to a complete stop at the next stoplight, accelerate more slowly out of a stoplight and slow down gradually well before the next one. You’ll maintain much more momentum (and thus retain fuel) by slowing gradually rather than slowing quickly, stopping, and then accelerating from a stop.

Re-evaluate your routes. Are you taking the most efficient route to your regular destinations? Many people lock themselves into the first route to their destination that they discover, not bothering to investigate further and discover shorter routes. Doing so saves on fuel costs, wear and tear, and your valuable time.

Keep your tires properly inflated. Ever tried a bicycle with partially deflated tires? It’s hard work to pedal. Improperly inflated tires on your car cause your car to burn a lot more gas to get going. Given that it’s really easy to properly inflate your tires at your local gas station, you should take advantage of the free air to save yourself some cash.

Remove excess weight. If you’re carrying items in your car without a good purpose, remove them – they’re just slowly milking your fuel efficiency. Go through your trunk, your back seat, and the bed of your truck and look for items that don’t need to be there. (The same goes for fuel itself – you’re better off refueling when you’re close to empty than when your tank is mostly full – though the effect is tiny.)

When you’re stopped, turn off the engine. Whenever you’re going to be idling for more than fifteen seconds or so, turn off the engine on your vehicle. Idling just causes your car to burn gasoline without providing any forward motion for you – and even just a few seconds’ worth of idling eats more gas than is eaten during ignition.

I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.

Transportation – other expenses and transportation – $3,130

This unlclearly-defined category includes vehicle finance charges, maintenance and repairs, vehicle insurance, public transportation, vehicle rental, licenses, and so on. In other words, besides buying a car and putting fuel in it, every automobile expense goes into this category.

With such a varied caetgory that speaks to the wide variety of lifestyles people have, there are many ways to save money within this category that really work well for some people – and don’t work at all for others. Thus, use these tips with that in mind – look for the ones that work for how you transport yourself.

Learn how to do basic auto maintenance yourself. Changing your oil and checking your fluid levels isn’t that hard. Your car’s manual explains how to do all of these things. Instead of paying someone else a ridiculously high hourly rate to do it, spend that time teaching yourself how to do it. Once you know how, it’ll take you less time than dealing with taking your car to a maintenance shop.

Don’t skip the maintenance. Follow the maintenance schedule in your car’s manual to the letter. Why? Skipped maintenance inevitably leads to more repair costs and a shorter lifetime for your vehicle over the long run. The fluids in your car don’t last forever, and when they start to become dirty with wear, they can cause real damage to your car. Take care of business.

Get a bus or subway pass. If you find yourself dropping coins or bills into the till on the subway or the bus every single day, get a pass. Yes, it looks expensive, but if you’re riding every day, do the math. The pass is almost always far cheaper than the cost of paying the fee every day.

Shop around for auto insurance. This means more than just using Progressive and their “comparisons.” Actually get yourself a quote from several different insurers and study their customer service and reputation a bit. You might be with the insurer that was the cheapest a decade ago, but now it’s one of the more expensive ones.

Raise your auto insurance deductible. Honestly, over the last ten years, how many claims have you made on your insurance? Instead of paying more to have a $250 deductible (for example) only to find out you’ve only made four claims over the last decade (the average of the people I polled), bump it up to a $500 deductible or even a $1,000 deductible. Then take the savings on your premiums and put it in your emergency fund. Over the long run, you’ll almost always be cash ahead.

Don’t buy cars on a payment plan. This was somewhat covered in the “buying a car” part of this series, but some of the money lost to making car payments is categorized here as well. Instead of making a down payment and shelling out cash out of pocket for the payments, pay cash for the whole thing up front.

Never sign up for a car rental at the airport. Doing so puts you completely at the mercy of the rental agencies – and you will pay for that. Take the time to reserve a car in advance.

Shop around on car rentals, too, even after making a reservation. When you’re considering making a reservation in advance, spend some time shopping around for the best rate at your destination – and keep doing it when you have a few free moments, even after you’ve made a reservation. You can always cancel the first reservation if you find a better deal – and more often than not, you will.

I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.

Transportation – vehicle purchases – $3,244

The average American family spends almost $300 per month simply on car payments. What’s stunning is that this is the average, since $300 per month would be roughly the payments on a brand new car without a down payment.

This is a number that can easily be cut with some careful planning and foresight when it comes to buying vehicles.

Focus on the cost per mile. If you’re looking to minimize the impact of a car purchase on your family’s budget, the real factor you need to focus on when making a purchase is minimizing the cost per mile of driving that you get out of the car. This means that a $2,000 car that you think you can get 30,000 miles out of is a far better value than a $20,000 car that you think you can get 200,000 miles out of.

Buy used – or at least include them in the search. If you’re focused on minimizing cost per mile, quite often, this means purchasing a used car, and that’s where most car purchases should begin. You might not necessarily wind up with a late model used car, but such cars should absolutely be an essential part of your search.

Drive the car you have for longer. Instead of trading in regularly for something better, drive your car for longer. Ideally, keep driving it until it reaches a point that the consistent problems are causing excessive financial strain and personal stress. That’s the sweet point for getting rid of a car, not the moment where you’re in thrall with the new features of the latest models.

Make your car payments to your bank account – in advance. While you’re driving that car for longer, start making the payments on yoru next car now while you don’t have a real car payment. Set up an automatic savings plan with an online bank account to keep withdrawing the amount of your car payment when your car is paid off. Keep driving for a few years while you have no car payments. Then, when you go to buy, you’ll have a fat wad of cash with which to buy plus the interest accrued in savings. Alternatively, you could buy a car on payments and then pay finance charges straight to the dealer. One of these options puts you in a better financial place – can you guess which one?

Start shopping long before you buy. Never rush into a car purchase. Start considering what your actual needs are, researching those needs, and looking for automobiles that match those needs lnog before you buy. The person who pays the worst price for a car is the person who is up against a deadline to make a purchase.

Never buy a car during your first visit to a dealership. Sure, you can negotiate, but the number they give you is never the bottom line. Walk away. Leave your number with the salesperson. Unless the car is sold quickly, don’t be surprised to get a phone call from that salesman in a few days “reconsidering” the situation and giving you a better price.

Never be afraid to walk away from a deal. If you’re simply not getting the price you think you should pay on a particular car, don’t be afraid to walk away. If you’ve given yourself plenty of time for a purchase, you’re fine. There are plenty more fish in the sea.

Hit your social network. If you’re shopping for an automobile, mention it to your friends and family and see what they’re aware of. They might just know of someone who has a car for sale by the owner or some other arrangement that takes place far from a car dealership. These types of arrangements usually provide the best deal for both the seller and the buyer.

Avoid leases, even if the sticker price seems good. Leases do allow you to drive a shiny new car for a lower price than a full car payment, but at the end of the lease, you’re left with nothing (except for perhaps an opportunity to buy that leased car – that is, after you pay plenty of fees). Avoid that rat race and focus on actually buying a car for yourself and keeping it until well after the payments run out. It’s those payment-less months that really make buying a car into a much better deal.

Know your needs (distinct from your wants) and be open-minded. You might know the exact model you’re looking for, but be open-minded about it. Keep your eyes and ears open for strong deals on other models. Be aware of a long list of models that you would find acceptable and don’t be afraid to jump on bargains that appear from that list.

I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.

I’m in the market for a late model used car. I’ve narrowed my desired model down to a handful of choices, each with different gas mileage data. How can you really figure out how much fuel efficiency is worth in terms of dollars and cents? I know how to do the basic math, but it seems artificial. How would you do it?

It’s pretty easy to see how better fuel efficiency saves you money. If gas is $3 a gallon and you have a car that gets 30 miles per gallon and a car that gets 40 miles per gallon, over 100,000 miles, the more fuel-efficient car will save you $2,500. That’s real cash in the pocket.

The only problem with that is the number of variables in the question. How much will gas cost in the future? How long will you drive the car? Does your personal driving habits have anything to do with it?

Let’s look at each factor and see how it affects the importance of fuel efficiency in a car purchase.

How Much Will Gas Cost?
You can usually get a solid estimate of where the price of gas will go over the next year by paying attention to the short term energy forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but anything beyond that is basically tantamount to gambling. Even within that year, unexpected events can disrupt the price of gas – like 9/11.

So what can a person do when it comes to figuring out the future price of gasoline?

My first piece of advice is to estimate high if you’re in doubt. A high estimate of future gas prices simply means that you’re putting a bit of extra value into fuel efficiency. If fuel prices really are high, you’ll be glad you did it – even if they’re not, you’ll still reap some rewards from fuel efficiency. This is a better scenario than estimating low and being stuck with a gas guzzler if prices spike.

Beyond that, I would assume the trend in the one year forecast will continue for several years. Since it’s the only real “future” number you have to go on, just assume that trend will continue for however many years you intend to own your car.

So, let’s say you’re buying a car and you intend to drive it for about seven years. The fuel estimate report says “crude oil prices contribute to an increase in the annual average regular-grade gasoline retail price from $2.35 per gallon in 2009 to $2.83 in 2010.” That means that a one-year increase will be about $0.48 per gallon.

So, if you’re going to own the car from 2010 to 2016, you’d assume $2.83 a gallon for 2010, $3.21 a gallon for 2011, $3.69 a gallon for 2012, $4.17 a gallon for 2013, $4.65 a gallon for 2014, $5.13 a gallon for 2015, and $5.61 a gallon for 2016. This averages out to $4.17 a gallon over the time you’d own that car. That seems like a high-end calculation to me. However, recall that in 2000, gas prices were often below $1 per gallon, for comparison’s sake.

How Many Miles Will You Put On The Car?
This is a fairly personal calculation, but we’ll stick with the above premise that you’re intending to drive the late model used car for seven years. This is comparable to how long I’ve driven my truck – and it’s very near the point of needing to be traded away.

How many miles do you put on a car in a year? If you have some mileage data, that calculation becomes much easier. Look at your own records and see if you have some data from a year or two earlier that indicates your mileage on a specific date. Calculate how many years ago that was – for example, you might note that the number came from 1.3 years ago – and then subtract that mileage from your current mileage. Divide the difference in mileage by the years since that number and you have a rough yardstick of your annual driving needs.

For the sake of calculations below, we’ll assume that you’re going to be driving 12,000 miles a year. Over seven years, that’s 84,000 miles on the car. Again, this may change based on your own plans and your own auto usage.

How Is Your Driving?
You can use FuelEconomy.gov to find out the fuel economy of nearly every make and model sold in the United States over the past decade or two – it’s an invaluable resource. However, the government uses certain standards to minimize the variation in fuel efficiency from car to car, and your driving is almost assuredly different than those standards.

Here’s a quick test. Fill up your car as much as you can, write down the mileage, then drive it normally for a while. Fill up again and write down how much gas you put in. Fill up again and write down how much gas you added, plus your current mileage. Add up the two gas totals. Subtract your old mileage from your current one. Divide the difference in mileage by the amount of gas you put in, and you’ll get a good estimate of your real world mileage for your current car. It’s not perfect, because it doesn’t vary across seasons too much, but it at least provides some variance for your use.

Now, go look up your current car on FuelEconomy.gov and see what average fuel efficiency your model should get. Then, subtract your calculated fuel efficiency from the government-estimated efficiency and then divide that difference by the government efficiency. That’ll tell you by what percentage your driving habits – plus the conditions you drive in – vary from the government tests. Subtract that from 1 (or from 100 if you’re using percents).

Then, look up the models you’re considering buying and multiply that by the fuel efficiency percentage you just calculated. That new number should get you pretty close to the fuel efficiency you should actually expect to get from the car on the road.

Why do all this? A person who drives aggressively will simply be less fuel efficient than a person who drives conservatively. Thus, an aggressive driver gets less benefit from buying a fuel efficient car. Doing this just calibrates things based on how you drive – and the conditions in which you drive (as winter driving often has a negative effect on efficiency).

So, let’s say that ol’ lead-footed Jim finds that he only gets about 80% of the government numbers out of his car.

A Calculation Example
Jim is looking at a 2007 Toyota Corolla and a 2006 Ford Focus, for example. He looks them up on FuelEconomy.gov and finds that the government estimates that the Corolla gets 31 miles per gallon and the Focus gets 26 miles per gallon. Jim estimates that he drives at about 80% of that efficiency – he drives on the interstate a lot and is a bit aggressive – so that modifies things to about 25 miles per gallon for the Corolla and about 21 miles per gallon for the Focus.

Jim wants to drive the car for seven years and puts about 12,000 miles on it per year. As above, he calculates that the average gas price will be $4.17 a gallon for those years, and he’ll put 84,000 miles on each car.

So how much will the Corolla save him?

In the Corolla, Jim will total up about 3,360 gallons of gas used. At a cost of $4.17 a gallon, that’s $14,011.20 spent on gas over the period. In the Focus, Jim will total up about 4,000 gallons of gas. At $4.17 a gallon, that’s $16,680.

The Corolla would save Jim $2,668.80 in fuel costs over that period, using the estimates we came up with above.

Wait, I Don’t Agree With That One Assumption, So Your Entire Post Is Bogus
The real challenge in making such prediction-based calculations is that they’re based on assumptions, and almost all assumptions about the future are up for debate. The best anyone can do is rely on the best data available and make reasonable leaps based upon that data – and have a rational reason for explaining those leaps.

If you don’t agree with one of the assumptions – or two of the assumptions, or more – change them. Just be sure that you have a valid, intelligent reason for changing it that’s based on some real data or logic. I’ve done my best to explain the logic behind the calculations and information I’ve shown here so that you can use it in your own calculations, or at least have a good starting point for finding your own assumptions.

Good luck.

The first step in that journey is to make sure that we have everything we need in the car in case of an emergency of some kind. These supplies are the ultimate form of insurance – they help ensure that we’ll get through a real emergency safe and sound. Here are fifteen things that go into our automobiles in November and stay in there until April.

Blankets are the most important thing you can possibly have with you. If you bury your car in a snowdrift and it won’t start, the ability to keep yourself warm is going to be absolutely vital. Blankets are the best way to do this. I also keep a few hand warmers, too.

A spare charged cell phone will allow you to call 9-1-1 in a pinch. Keep this wrapped up in the blankets so that it’ll be likely to survive a crash without suffering irrepairable damage.

Flares will help rescuers see you. If they’re searching and all they can see is white, a flare will make all the difference in your discovery.

A wind-up radio lets you keep tab with the weather regardless of whether or not you have electricity in your car. A simple winding will do the trick and let you know when conditions have improved and what the state of roads are.

A first aid kit will be vital if someone is hurt in an accident. Perhaps just as important is knowledge of how to use it, because knowing how to apply a leg splint can be very, very important in such a moment.

Extra winter clothes will help you keep warm, especially if you need to leave the vehicle. Layers are key – the more layers of clothes you can put on, the warmer you’ll be down at the surface of your skin.

Jumper cables come in extraordinarily handy on cold mornings when your car doesn’t start. Quite often, it’s the result of a battery that became overly cold overnight and can be started with the help of another vehicle and some jumper cables.

A bag of sand not only adds weight to your car (improving traction) but can be spread to help you get traction if you get stuck in a bad position.

An ice scraper – preferably one with a brush to help remove snow – comes in constant handy throughout the winter. Without it, it will be very difficult to keep your windows cleared.

Dried foods like beef jerky and granola bars are perfect for this type of situation, as they’re energy dense. Don’t keep water or other liquids in your car – they’ll explode if stored below freezing for a long period and you can likely get plenty of liquid in a blizzard – just look outside.

Emergency tire sealant can enable you to get to the next twon in a pinch rather than being stuck beside the road with a flat tire.

Flashlights allow you to see what’s going on and also aid in signaling help. Although flashlights operated by human action exist, they’re not very bright – get one with a very bright bulb and make sure it’s charged.

A shovel will help you to dig out in a pinch. I used to keep one in my truck when I commuted – there simply isn’t room in the car, however (I wish we did have room).

A small tool kit can allow you to fix minor problems yourself on your car. Make sure you have everything you need to (at least) change a tire and loosen or tighten some bolts.

Extra batteries for the flashlight and the radio (assuning you don’t have a wind-up one) are vital. The last thing you want to do is to get stuck, pull out the radio or the flashlight, flip ‘em on, and find that they don’t work.

These tools will help you survive almost any winter weather accident, no matter how bad the storm. By keeping warm and safe and making sure that you can signal to help, you’re doing everything you can to ensure your future.

As I shop for the minivan, I keep coming back to one central question: what exactly am I buying here? On the surface, it seems obvious – I’m buying a minivan. But that’s not what I’m really buying.

First of all, I’m buying something that will get me, my wife, and all three of my children from point “A” to point “B”. The entire point of buying such a vehicle is for transportation.

That being said, I am not buying a status symbol. As long as it’s clean and safe, I really don’t care what it looks like. It doesn’t have to be shiny, new, or top of the line. I don’t really care what the opinions of the people around me are about the minivan I bought. Does it meet my needs? That’s what matters.

Is a status symbol a need for you? Probably not. Is it a want? Probably. The question you have to ask yourself is how much extra money you’re willing to pay for a status symbol whose luster will fade in a year or two.

I have three primary concerns when buying this car.

First and foremost, it must be reliable. Next April, I will have three children under the age of five. I don’t want a vehicle that has repair issues bubbling just under the surface. For me, reliability is more important with this vehicle than it was with my wife’s commuting car that we bought earlier this year, in which our priority was fuel efficiency. I’m using Consumer Reports as my primary guide for this, which is pointing me towards the Toyota Sienna or the Honda Odyssey.

Second, it must be safe. I require a vehicle with good safety ratings and a history report that shows that it’s never been in accidents. Again, my concern in this area is raised by my specific requirements – this vehicle will be used to transport myself and my children.

Third, it must have storage space. We often go visit family for a week two or three times a year. In order to accomodate two younger children, a baby, and two adults for a week, there’s going to have to be some significant storage space in the vehicle. On top of that, It’s this need for additional space which is pushing us toward a minivan instead of a large car.

Beyond that, fuel efficiency is a secondary factor, as is ergonomic seating (chairs that provide lumbar support and don’t result in numbness and back pain after a long drive).

I do not care about having a drop-down Blu-Ray player. I do not care about leather seats. I do not care about having a perfectly silent ride, nor a perfectly smooth one. If those features came for free, I would take them, but I’m not about to pay much for them at all.

I am the one buying the car. Because I’m buying early, I can wait until the right vehicle comes along. I don’t merely have to choose whatever is available on the lot. This enables me to look at other options, such as what’s being sold on Craigslist and other sources directly by individuals. Given what I want, I have the cash on hand to buy pretty much anything within those requirements.

What are you buying when you buy a car? Do you know what you want? Do you know what you don’t want and aren’t going to pay for? Have you planned ahead enough that you have the time and ability to explore lots of options to find what you want?

After all, the last thing you want to do when buying a car is to find yourself on a car lot needing to make a purchase and having no idea what you really want or need. Such a situation is delicious prey for car salesmen.

In order to start cranking the numbers on this, I had to use a few assumptions. Let’s walk through them.

First, I figured that you have 1/4% chance of receiving a speeding ticket for each mile you’re over the speed limit for an hour. So, if you drive 68 in a 65 zone for an hour, you have only a 3/4% chance of receiving a ticket. On the other hand, if you drive 82 in a 65 zone for three hours, you have a 12 3/4% chance of receiving a speeding ticket.

Second, I figured the cost of a speeding ticket is $200 and has a ten minute time cost. The ticket itself will cost you less than that, but the raise in your insurance rates will eat the rest.

Third, I figured you lose 1% fuel efficiency for every mile per hour over 65. I’m using government estimates for this figure.

Fourth, I’m using a figure of $2.50 a gallon for gas, and I’ll use a car that get 25 miles per gallon for the calculation.

Got that? Let’s get cracking.

Is it more efficient to drive 80 miles per hour or 65 miles per hour on the interstate? Let’s say you’re making a 200 trip on the interstate.

If you go 65, you have zero chance of receiving the speeding ticket. You’ll consume 8 gallons of gas and arrive in three hours and five minutes, costing you $20.

If you go 80, you have an 11.25% chance of receiving a speeding ticket. If all goes perfectly, you’ll consume 9.4 gallons of gas and arrive in two hours and thirty minutes. However, if you receive a ticket, you’ll arrive in two hours and forty minutes – that’ll happen 11.25% of the time. So, combining the odds of the two, an average trip driving 80 will allow you to arrive in two hours and thirty one minutes (saving thirty four minutes) and cost you $46.03.

So, driving faster saves you thirty four minutes but costs you $26.03 – an hourly rate of $45.11 for driving slower.

What about going 70? You have a 3.75% chance of receiving a speeding ticket. If all goes perfectly, you’ll consume 8.4 gallons of gas and arrive in two hours and fifty one minutes. However, 3.75% of the time, you’ll receive a ticket and arrive in three hours and one minute and drop $200 on that ticket. So, combining the odds of the two, an average trip driving 70 will allow you to arrive in two hours and fifty two minutes (saving thirteen minutes) and costing you $28.55 (costing an average of $8.55 more). Your hourly earnings from driving 65 instead of 70 is $38.91.

What about going 66? Only a completely malicious cop bent on getting their quota would give you a ticket then – you have a 0.75% chance of getting a ticket over three hours. If all goes perfectly, you’ll consume 8.1 gallons of gas and arrive in three hours and two minutes. However, you have a 0.75% chance of getting a ticket, and if you do, you’ll arrive three hours and twelve minutes and get a $200 ticket. Combining the odds, on an average trip going 66, you’ll arrive at three hours and a bit over two minutes (saving a bit under three minutes) and spending $21.70. Your hourly earnings from driving 65 instead of 66 is $36.50.

Here’s the data up through 120 miles per hour. The data in the “TRIP COST” column is the total cost (gas plus odds of a speeding ticket) of an average 200 mile trip on the interstate at that speed in a 25 miles per gallon car. The “SPEED COST” indicates the total cost you incur by going that speed instead of going 65. The “MINS SAVED” column tells you how many minutes you save by going that speed instead of 65. The “HOURLY” column indicates the hourly wage you earn by simply going 65 instead of speeding. So, for example, if you go 120 miles per hour, your trip costs, on average, $126.94, which is $106.94 more than you’d spend if you drove the speed limit. Driving this fast saves you 84.6 minutes on average, though, so if you drove the speed limit instead of going this fast, you’d earn an hourly rate of $75.83 for your time.

Conclusions
First of all, each mile per hour you speed is more costly than the one before it. Going from 70 to 71 is more costly than going from 69 to 70. That’s fairly straightforward, though.

Second, if you look at it in terms of an hourly wage, speeding can be pretty costly. Remember, we’re talking about after-tax dollars here, not the raw amount you bring home. Thus, a $36.50 hourly rate for the two minutes and forty eight seconds you spend driving 65 instead of 66 is more like $50 or $55 an hour in pre-tax money. The chances of a speeding ticket are more costly than you might think.

Third, this doesn’t include a “wear and tear” factor. Continually speeding puts additional wear and tear on your car – an amount that’s hard to quantify. With an enormous pool of real-world data, one could come up with a factor for this, but it would simply serve to make the cost of going faster even higher.

Fourth, this is all about probability. You’ll hear from people who claim to always drive eighty and never get a ticket. Others may get a ticket going 37 in a 35 (the ticket said 42, but I was going substantially slower – an officer was pretty obviously trying to get a quota filled). One lucky person is a great anomaly, but it doesn’t change the simple fact that the faster you go, the more likely you are to get a ticket.

Finally, some people with a high value on their time can justify speeding. If you are hurrying to a place so you can start billing $100 an hour, there might be a great justification in speeding. However, the more you push it, the less you actually gain, because the hourly cost for each mile per hour goes up.

However, on most road trips, you’re better off setting the cruise control at the speed limit and just cruising along. Getting to Aunt Melba’s ten minutes earlier isn’t worth the potential cost for most people.

The comments on this one should be fun. All I suggest is that you shouldn’t get bogged down in picking apart the assumptions, because even radically changing them still results in the same conclusions. I tinkered with and researched the assumptions extensively for this post and found that even if you modify the assumptions radically, the conclusions still hold.

Our trip, as currently planned, is 2,548 miles in length – and that doesn’t include the inevitable driving around in local areas or any side trips we decide to take along the way. Yes, it’s long. Yes, it’s fairly intimidating.

Originally, our plan for the trip had involved taking two vehicles – our Prius and my parents’ car. From our perspective, this was a good idea, since the Prius gets great gas mileage, but my parents’ car doesn’t do as well.

As we discussed the trip more, we came to the realization that it made much more sense to drive in one vehicle, for several reasons.

First, one vehicle at 20 miles per gallon consumes the same amount of gas as two vehicles at 40 miles per gallon. In short, even if one of the vehicles is our Prius, we’re still better off purely in terms of gas driving a minivan.

Second, maintenance costs over 2,500 miles are significant. The average car has 5.3 cents per mile in maintenance costs beyond fuel – oil, transmission fluid, coolant, tires, and so on. That’s a total of $132.50 per vehicle over the trip.

Third, 2,500 miles on your vehicle is 2,500 miles of depreciation. Again, the average car depreciates roughly $0.20 per mile – this is very hard to precisely estimate, but it’s a real value. Again, by reducing to one vehicle, we save $500 in depreciation. Note, here, that depreciation includes major repairs and other such factors.

Fourth, two cars means double tolls. On our trip, assuming no detours, each car would be paying somewhere around $15 in tolls. Reducing to one car saves another $15.

In total, we realized that we would save roughly $650 by using just one vehicle on this trip – and that assumes no fuel savings and also assumes no detours, no construction, and no environmental impacts.

At that point, we really beat the pavement to accelerate the purchase of our second vehicle. The problem, though, was that we couldn’t find a vehicle we really wanted.

So, finally, my wife raised the question: would it be cheaper to just rent a van for this trip?

The trip is scheduled to be nine days in length. I did some calling around to local rental services and found several vans that could be rented for $400-500 for the length of the trip – unlimited miles.

So, let’s look at the math. We would save depreciation on two vehicles ($1,000), maintenance on two vehicles ($265), toll on one vehicle ($15), and a small amount of fuel savings, too, for $400. That’s a total savings of $880.

In order to make sure there wouldn’t be any nasty surprises, I contacted our auto insurance provider, who told us that coverage while driving the rental would be essentially identical (in terms of our cost) to coverage if we were driving our own car. Thus, no need for the additional cost of rental car coverage.

Thus, for our purposes, the decision has been made – we’re going to rent for this long road trip and split the cost. This choice will save us $440 and also save our parents $440.

Sometimes, thinking outside the box a bit can save you a surprising amount of money.

And the flame war was mighty potent. The post currently sits at roughly 174 comments, about equally divided between positive and negative, and I’ve received at least that many emails on the subject.

Since we acquired the Prius, though, our other “old” vehicle has largely died. It’s capable of making it around town, but drives of any distance cause it to rumble so ominously that I’m scared to drive it more than a mile or two. We’ve had it checked over twice and the conclusion has been the same – it needs thousands of dollars in parts and repairs to get the truck back to any degree of stability and reliability – and that won’t fix everything.

So, for the last two months, we’ve experimented with essentially being a one-car family. And, to put it simply, it doesn’t work.

Although I work at home most days, there are many days when I have meetings or research trips outside the home (particularly with regards to my second book).

Another key problem is that we’re likely going to have a third child in the next few years, meaning that none of our current vehicles can safely seat our family.

A third problem is winter weather. While the Prius gets incredible gas mileage, it’s not adept at winter driving in Iowa. My truck is fairly adept, but it’s not reliable at all without some significant investment.

So, we’ve started the process for buying a replacement for the truck. Luckily, as we were researching the car, we were also doing research on what we might purchase for a truck replacement.

To put it in a nutshell, we’re looking for a late model used van, (strongly) preferably with all-wheel drive. Let’s walk through some of the concerns.

Our Criteria
As I mentioned recently, our primary concerns are reliability and safety. We also require seating for five, and prefer seating for another head or two. For this vehicle, since it won’t be used for a regular commute, gas mileage is still a concern but it’s a lesser concern.

So, what does that mean in terms of actually finding a good vehicle for our dollar?

As with the Prius, we expect our best deal with this criteria to be a late model used. Our research starts there – we’re looking at 2005, 2006, and 2007 model vans, but are open to looking at both newer models and older models with limited mileage.

Since reliability is a concern, one of our bigger factors is lower mileage. Although it’s not a guarantee of reliability (nothing is), lower mileage simply means that there’s fewer miles’ worth of wear and tear on the parts on the vehicle.

Since safety is a concern and we live in a winter climate, all wheel drive is practically a requirement. Add in the factor that both of our parents live in a similar climate and off the paved road (with one set of parents living at the top of a steep hill with a gravel road that becomes like a sheet of ice in the winter) and all wheel drive is very important. Recent years have seen us borrowing a four wheel drive locally in order to make it to visit many of our relatives – my very heavy but not four wheel drive truck can’t do the trick. To put it simply, our situation strongly encourages an all wheel drive vehicle.

We’re not married to any brand beyond the reliability numbers. I’ve spent time at the library looking at individual reviews and reliability data on vans in the 2004 to 2009 model years. The picture becomes pretty clear – the Toyota Sienna is clearly at the top of the heap for all wheel drive and reliability, with several other vehicles in the next tier.

The problem? The all wheel drive Toyota Sienna doesn’t depreciate much in price, so it’s significantly more expensive at the late model used stage than other options.

Our Plan
So, what’s our plan?

First, we’re trying to maximize the value of our old truck. This involves cleaning it up and detailing it, as well as getting a small amount of work done on it to make it road-worthy over the short term. We’ll likely trade the vehicle.

Second, I’ve already begun checking out the prices on such vehicles from all dealerships anywhere near us. Most dealerships have online listings so that you at least have a good sense of their inventory. I’m not ignoring new vehicles, but as of yet the prices aren’t close enough to late model used to really have them in the comparison.

Third, I have a few friends who visit bankruptcy sales keeping an eye out for me. This is a long shot (estate sales rarely have vans), but it’s worth a chance.

Fourth, we’re not going to “over-wait” like we did with the Prius. With the Prius, we sat around waiting for the “perfect” deal to arrive – but it never did. Along the way, we wasted quite a bit of money on repairs and jumping through travel hoops, negating any benefit of waiting around for the best deal. Instead, if we find a good deal, particularly towards the end of the month when salesmen are trying to hit quotas, we’re just going to jump on it. There are costs involved in waiting for a deal that’s just a bit better.

Thoughts? Comments?

What do you do when you find your car is worth less than you owe on it?

This is a pretty common question, particularly given the current state of the economy. Some people are out of work. Others are looking to seriously cut back. Thus, there are a lot of people out there that would like to get rid of their current car loan – but they’ve found that their car is worth less than they owe on it. Often, there’s not enough cash laying around to make up the difference, either.

So what do you do? I see a handful of options.

Ask yourself if you really need to change cars. Many people who are underwater in their car loans are looking at upgrading their car. If you’re in this situation, spend some time asking yourself if you really need to make a change. Would this upgrade serve any purpose other than aesthetics? If there is a purpose beyond that, is it worth the huge amount of debt you would incur?

Delayed gratification is the key here. If you can put off the purchase for even a year or two, you’ll end up in substantially better financial shape than if you pushed things right now and wound up even further in the hole than you are now.

Trade down. If you still need the car for transportation, consider trading down – you’ll take a big loss on the value up front, but over the long run, it will definitely balance out.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re driving an almost-new 2009 Toyota Avalon that’s worth $6,000 less than you owe. You realize you can’t really swing the $500 a month car payments. So, you take it in and trade it for a $7,000 late model used low-end sedan. Some dealerships will accept this trade – others won’t – but what you’ll wind up with is an upside-down loan on this used car. However, the car payments will be significantly lower, as will the insurance rates.

Park it and remove insurance. If you don’t need to drive the car right now, consider parking it somewhere safe and eliminating insurance on it. This will reduce your monthly bills (no insurance), plus you’ll not actually have to give up the car – it’ll still be there for you if you return to work. It’s not accumulating miles or wear and tear, so you save on maintenance costs as well.

This strategy works well if you’re in a situation with a healthy emergency fund and are anticipating several months without work. I know of several people in this position – they’re currently staying at home, either looking for work or trying to get their own business started while living off of savings.

Get a different loan, then sell. If you have very strong credit, you might have the option to get a personal loan or perhaps add to a home equity line of credit in order to pay the car loan down enough so that you’re not upside down in the loan. When you’ve done that, actively seek to sell the car.

This is a great solution if you have strong credit (or at least access to a healthy credit line with low interest elsewhere). Essentially, you’re just eliminating the car (and its value) from the loan, leaving you with just a small debt that can be repaid over time. Plus, you get the additional savings of no insurance and no vehicle tags.

Are there any other good ideas that Michael might be able to try?

Coasting makes a huge difference on your gas mileage. One thing this data has taught me is the huge value of coasting, particularly through a series of stoplights. Stopping and starting eats a lot of gas – our gas mileage during acceleration goes down to as low as 10 miles per gallon. Coasting, on the other hand, uses virtually no gas at all.

Before adjusting my driving, I had a strong tendency to leave a stoplight, accelerate to the speed limit in town, then often find myself hitting the brake and stopping again as I approached the next stoplight. That meant I was doing a ton of acceleration, then losing most of that speed by braking again just a block later.

Instead of doing that, I’ve found it’s just as quick (and way more energy efficient) to coast as much as possible through long strings of stoplights. I accelerate up to roughly the speed limit, then I coast for a while, particularly if the light ahead of me is red. Almost without fail, I catch up to the car ahead of me just as they’re accelerating away from the stop – and I already have some momentum going forward, which means I don’t have to accelerate nearly as hard to get back up to the speed limit. It doesn’t take any longer and it saves money.

I tested this out driving through the town where I live and the difference was tremendous – doing this added about 25 miles per gallon to my mileage through town.

Driving 75 on the interstate is substantially less fuel efficient than driving 55 on a two-lane highway. One regular trip for us is driving south to the West Des Moines area, about a 35 mile trip or so. We have two routes to get there that are roughly equal in length, but the interstate is a bit faster. On the interstate, of course, we drive around 75 miles per hour to keep up with the traffic. On the other hand, we can take the highway and go around 55 miles per hour. The highway usually takes us about six minutes longer to get to our destination, so before getting our Prius, we’d simply always use the highway.

But here’s the kicker. If we take the interstate, we would get around 38 miles per gallon. If we take the highway, we get about 52 miles per gallon. So, if we take the interstate, we use 0.92 gallons, but on the highway, we use 0.67 gallons. That’s a savings of about $0.48 on the trip, even in our relatively fuel efficient car.

This changes the equation just a little bit. The two lane highway is far more scenic than the interstate as well – there are many more interesting things to see and talk about along the highway route (meaning it’s easier to engage the kids). When you also toss in the fact that it’s cheaper – and it would be a much bigger difference in a less fuel-efficient car or if the price of a gallon of gas were higher than $1.94 – the balance starts to shift towards the slower route. Does the balance actually shift? Not entirely – for us, it still depends on a number of factors (the time of day, the presence of kids, and so on) – but the balance of values has changed.

Wind resistance makes a tremendous difference in your drive. Simply put, driving on a windy day (unless the wind is consistent and at your back) is incredibly inefficient.

On a recent windy day, my family and I embarked on a lengthy road trip where the wind was mostly in our face. This forced us to accelerate quite a bit more to maintain speed – and it pushed the gas mileage down about 35% (29 versus 44). As a test, I drove with the wind on another windy day and found that it improved our mileage by only about 10% (48.5 versus 44).

Thus, unless the wind is very, very consistent and at your back, a windy day will hurt your gas mileage. If you have an optional trip to make and there’s a heavy wind outside, you’re better off delaying the trip. That’s what I’ve already done twice since seeing the impact that a heavy wind can have on gas mileage.

Turn off your cruise control in hilly areas. In virtually every car I’ve used, cruise control has been a great tool on flat roads. It helps me control my slight lead-foot tendencies and seems to do a good job with gas mileage. The data from our Prius backs this up – on flat roads, that is.

If you enter a hilly area, though, cruise control is very inefficient. Instead of maximizing your speed going down hills and using that momentum, cruise control instead tries to keep the car within a few miles per hour of your set speed.

Since it can’t read the road ahead, it doesn’t know what’s coming up. You do. Take advantage of that and turn off the cruise control in hilly areas. I turn it off any time I go downhill or uphill, since it seems to be more efficient to build up speed going down the hill (getting well above your cruise speed) then coasting at the bottom until you get back to your cruise speed, and doing the opposite on hills (allowing yourself to get well below your cruise speed instead of accelerating into a hill).

In the end, our best value from the Prius might be the ability to actually see how our little driving choices affect our gas mileage – and how we can make better choices to vastly improve that mileage. As time goes on, these better choices become ingrained in our driving habits, making the more efficient choices our natural choices – ones that we’ll carry on to other cars. Fuel efficient driving doesn’t cost you time – it just saves you money.

Personally, I’d like to see all cars have a fuel mileage indicator. It’s been an invaluable tool for directly teaching someone how to drive more efficiently – and it’s easy to see the benefit when you go to the gas pump.

When we started our process for buying a new car, we focused on a small handful of factors:

We wanted a late model used car with a reasonable number of miles on it. We didn’t want to buy a car with a lot of miles on it because we believed we would be back where we started in just a few years. We were looking mostly for late model used cars with less than 60,000 miles on them.

A compact car doesn’t work. I’m six and a half feet tall. Our 1999 Mercury Sable is about the smallest car I can sit in comfortably. Smaller models simply do not work for me – I cannot sit in them because my knees are literally pressed into the dashboard.

Fuel efficiency and reliability were our primary factors. We’ve never been interested in bells and whistles. We don’t need a six-disc CD player or in-dash GPS. We have no interest in leather seats and so on. The basic package is enough for us.

We actually calculated the fuel efficiency of each car by calculating how much we would have to spend on gas over the lifetime of the car – up to 150,000 miles, which is our estimate for how far we would drive it. We figured 15,000 miles per year, with the cost of gas being $3 per gallon on average.

Fuel efficiency is particularly important for us because this car will be used for my wife’s commute. Roominess for long trips isn’t nearly as important here – we’ll mostly use it for commuting, local errands, and some weekend trips.

Thus, we started our search looking at 2004, 2005, and 2006 sedans. I visited the library several times along the way and we looked at quite a few cars. We eventually settled on a handful of models that we were interested in – the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry led the pack, with a few other models we were considering. (The Prius wasn’t even on the radar at this point.)

What we began to notice is that, in the models we were looking at, the new cars weren’t a lot higher than the used versions we were looking at. We would see a used 2005 Camry with 50,000 miles on it at 60-65% the price of a new Camry, for example, and our per-mile calculations would show us that we would get the same value-per-mile out of the new car if we drove it to 150,000 miles, plus with the new car, we would get two or three years of initial low-trouble driving out of the car (the first 50,000 miles).

The prices were mostly the result of the economy in late 2008. Reliable used cars were holding their value well, but new cars, even on models that sold well, were seeing great prices.

Thus, we began to include new cars in our search. This was cemented at a large Toyota dealership in mid-February, when one salesman quoted us a price on a used ‘09 Camry (with a few features we didn’t want) that was only $1,000 less than a new ‘09 Camry.

Another factor: the stimulus package. Here’s the scoop, per cnn:

Under the Auto Ownership Tax Assistance Amendment, car buyers will be able to deduct sales and excise taxes on the purchase price of a car up to $49,500. As originally proposed by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., interest payments would have been deductible as well.

The full text of the amendment (featuring fifty tons of legalese) is here, but the summary above makes the benefit pretty clear – the taxes paid on a new car plus car loan interest (note: the car loan interest provision was removed in a revision of the bill) are tax deductible. This saves us a few hundred dollars (at least) for buying new instead of buying used.

Yet another factor that nudged us towards new is the warranty offered on a new car. To put it simply, with auto insurance and a warranty, our only expenses on the car over the first several years are maintenance and deductibles (if anything happens). Although many used models have some degree of warranty available, most are very short term or are severely limited in some regard.

As our 1999 Mercury Sable began to exhibit more and more problems (failing struts, a transmission that would take five or so seconds to shift from first to second gear, our search began to grow more urgent. We received the 2009 car issue of Consumer Reports in the mail and my wife and I pored over it carefully.

We focused on the entry-level family sedan section and eliminated them based on a handful of factors: it had to have at least average safety, it had to have fuel efficiency above 22 miles per gallon, and it had to have a good reliability history. These factors quickly eliminated quite a few models, leaving us with just four new models that we agreed to consider along with the used models we were considering: the Toyota Prius, the Toyota Camry, the Nissan Sentra, and the Honda Accord.

Here is where the Prius began to really stand out for us. We did fuel efficiency calculations for these models assuming that we would drive them to the 150,000 mile mark with the same cost-per-gallon assumption we used above. According to that calculation ($3 per gallon), the Prius would cost us $9,782 in gas over the lifetime of the car (at 46 MPG), while the Camry (for example) would cost us $18,750 in gas over the lifetime of the car (at 24 MPG). A $9,000 savings on fuel (at the assumed $3 per gallon rate, of course) versus an average fuel-efficiency car was a huge factor for us in our calculations. To put it in another perspective, we anticipate putting roughly 15,000 miles per year on the car. Versus the Camry (which I’m using as an “average” sedan here for comparison), the Prius would save us $900 a year in fuel.

We spent a month comparing prices on used cars available at local dealerships as well as the new cars we had identified and, to put it quite simply, we could not find anything that really competed with the “bang for the buck” value of the Prius. Most of the used models we examined were priced close enough to the new models – even after negotiating – that we eventually came to the realization that the Prius was the right purchase for us.

Our down payment decision We had enough in cash to pay for the car in one shot, but two factors kept us from doing that. First, it would partially deplete our emergency fund, putting our family in a somewhat more risky spot. Second, we will have to replace our other vehicle (currently a Ford F-150 with somewhere around 140,000 miles on it) in the next year or two, so depleting our entire car savings might not be wise. Add into that the fact that our credit is stellar (we got a 4% rate on our car loan), we’re nearly breaking even by keeping the cash ourselves and holding it in a savings account plus we have the security of having a big emergency fund. We chose to put $5,000 down on the car to avoid any liability and insurance costs if we were to be underwater on the car at any point. The rest remains in our savings, minimizing our risk against other life emergencies.

(Edit: after reading many comments about whether or not we could afford the car, I wanted to note that we had enough in car savings to pay for the entire car in cash. We chose not to because we have a second vehicle that will need replacing in the next year or two and that may require major repairs in the near future (we consider that to be an emergency, hence the mention of “emergency” savings above – if our truck had failed right after buying the car, our emergency fund would have gotten hammered). At the same time, we were earning 3% in savings & CDs with the cash compared to the 4% loan – that didn’t offer enough incentive to lose the huge cushion in our savings.)

Thus, after all of this, we bought a 2009 Toyota Prius. After driving it for a weekend trip (and putting about 400 miles on it), the car is achieving almost exactly 42 miles per gallon (even with my wife lead-footing a bit on the interstate).

Here are four things we learned during the process.

Know what you actually want. Because this is a car we’ll use for commuting, our biggest factors were reliability and fuel efficiency. We did not want any extras, either – the base package is what we wanted. Thus, as we shopped, we were often comparing the base package for the new models versus a motley crew of packages for the used models, meaning the prices were often closer than they would be if we were demanding some certain “extras” as a minimum requirement. This changed our buying process significantly.

Before you even start shopping, spend some time figuring out exactly what you want. Spend some time considering the features you consider important – and focus on those factors. If a feature isn’t important to you, don’t pay for it.

Don’t restrict your horizons without a reason. Our original predisposition against new cars was mostly due to the prevailing notion that new cars simply aren’t a good buy. Yet, in those market conditions, we ran the numbers carefully and found that our overall cost of ownership with a new Prius over the period we intended to own it was lower than virtually all of the used models we could find.

Total cost of ownership per mile is a surprising (and useful) number. Most of our calculations centered around the total cost of owning the car up to 150,000 miles, then we figured out the cost-per-mile for the car. So, for example, if we have a used car we evaluate that has 70,000 miles on it, we figure out how much the cost of fuel and maintenance and insurance will be up to 150,000 miles, add that to the cost, then divide that by 80,000 miles (the amount we’ll actually use it). For the Prius, we figured up the cost of gas and maintenance and insurance through 150,000 miles, added that to the price, then divided by 150,000. In short, we looked for the best bang for the buck, not the lowest monthly payment, and the best deal turned out to be the new Prius.

Don’t go shopping in one day. Take your time. Visit lots of dealerships. Even if you know what you want, negotiate a bit with that dealer, but don’t sign on the dotted line immediately. Let them know that you’re visiting lots of dealers. I don’t claim to be a good negotiator, but I do know that visiting lots of dealerships, talking openly about the things we’re considering from other dealerships, and leaving dealerships after expressing some interest in a car on the lot only helped us over the long haul.

If you’re making a careful purchase, research and dealer visits will likely be part of the equation anyway, so play it to your advantage. This can easily save you thousands on the initial price.

Good luck!

Much like everyone else, we strive to minimize both the time spent in the car and the financial cost of our car trips, and this week is definitely going to give us a chance to try out our tactics.

Here are twelve things we’re doing this week to shave some of the cost from our Christmas travel plans.

Air up all of the tires before you leave. A day or two before you depart, take your car to the local service station and check the pressure in all of your tires. Don’t know what the pressure should be? Check the sticker inside your door jamb. Make sure all of your tires are filled up to the maximum recommended pressure. Proper tire inflation can save you 3 to 4% on your gas bill during your trip, and over several hundred miles, that can really add up.

Get a tune up. If you can’t remember the last time your car received a tune up, get one before you go. A proper tune up is your best insurance that your car will operate in an optimal fashion while traveling, and a tune up from a quality professional can identify any major problems that may interfere with your travel.

Prepare an emergency kit. Traveling in winter can be hazardous, and the best way to minimize the risk is to be prepared. Pack some blankets, an extra charged cell phone (for 9-1-1 calls in a pinch), extra clothes, some food, and some road flares in your car and make sure you have a spare tire and equipment for changing it if you need to.

Make sure your auto insurance is up to date. A long car trip is not the time to be caught with out-of-date insurance. Make sure your insurance is up to date, and if it’s not, make every effort to get the premium paid so that your insurance is in effect over the course of your trip.

Pack food and beverages before each long leg. Tasty and nutritious snacks are always a hit in our car – we like granola, raisins, and dried cranberries for long trips. They’re perfect for taking the edge off of hunger, enabling us to happily survive without hunger pangs until we arrive at our destination. We also pack water bottles to keep us on the road instead of stopping for expensive beverages.

Plan for simple entertainment for the kids. Bored children can make a long trip miserable and can often cause you to make unplanned stops along the way just for a break from the noise, which wastes time and often wastes money, too. We usually pack a “trip bag” for our kids – a few familiar toys, some books that my son knows by heart (which he then reads to his sister) – and have some ideas in mind to keep the kids interested, such as pointing out interesting roadside items.

Check the maps, even if the trip seems very familiar. Use a mapping tool like Google Maps to plan your trip, even if you’re very familiar with the route. Since moving to my current area just a decade ago, the optimal route to visit my parents has actually changed four times, and now, compared to the original route, the trip takes more than an hour less than it used to. That’s pure savings.

Time your trip to avoid obvious traffic issues. If you know you’re going to be driving into a major metropolitan area, try to avoid entering the metro area during morning or evening rush. This can usually be done with some careful planning in advance. Leaving a bit later (and eating at home instead of on the road) can actually end up getting you to your destination just as quickly with a lot less time on the road and a lot less money spent.

Eat a homemade meal thirty minutes before you leave. Being purely sedentary right after a meal isn’t particularly healthy, but you should plan your trip so that you’re not hungry along the route (which will almost always result in unintended expenses). We try to leave roughly half an hour after meal time. Quite often, this coerces the children into taking a nap (which, again, makes the trip less expensive as there’s less need to stop) and also keeps the adults from being hungry along the way.

Use your cruise control over long stretches. This not only keeps your speed at a steady rate (keeping you from wasting money from accelerating and slowing down over and over again), but it can also keep you at a speed that will ensure you’re not pulled over and issued an expensive speeding ticket. In Iowa, most trips involve long, straight sections of highway, so we utilize our cruise control on almost every trip.

When you do stop during the trip, make everyone use the restroom. Trust me, with two young children, bathroom stops are a constant part of any long trip. Every time you stop, though, you lose time and you also lose a bit of money wandering around in a small town searching for a gas station that doesn’t make you afraid to use the toilet. When you do find a gas station, though, have everyone use the restroom. It might take you a bit longer while stopped, but it will keep you from making multiple stops later on, which will save you time and money.

If you need food along the way, don’t use fast food. Not only is it unhealthy, it’s often sneakily expensive. Instead, stop at a grocery store. You can get all the supplies you need for an easy meal right there – cold cuts, a loaf of bread, and some finger vegetables can be had for just a few bucks and will feed everyone in the car.

From a strict personal finance perspective (and ignoring the larger global economic concerns), this is fantastic news for most people. If you have to fill a typical car tank each week (12 gallons), the price change is saving you somewhere on the order of $30 a week – that’s $120 a month, an amount that can really help with debt repayment, saving for a down payment, or preparing for retirement.

This shift in gas prices comes at an interesting time for me and my family. My wife and I have been carefully studying potential automobile purchases, and our calculations had led us to focus on automobiles that are efficient with their fuel. Using our numbers, assuming a $4-$5 gallon of gas going forward, fuel efficiency was so valuable that it often trumped a higher price at the dealership.

However, when we look at the era of $1.50 a gallon for gas, the math no longer holds true, and we’re typically looking at a better deal for a less fuel efficient car.

Here are some of our conclusions after talking over the situation and doing some additional research.

The price of gas will go up from here. If oil prices stay as low as they are, oil producing countries will have to cut production to drive the price up. Most nations and regions that rely on oil income have already budgeted and planned for oil prices that are significantly higher than they are right now, and if the market doesn’t automatically bring those prices back up, they’ll do what they can to bring them up.

… but it’s impossible to know how much it will go up, or how fast. No one can accurately predict the future, particularly when it comes to the future price of such a vital commodity with so many different fingers in the pool manipulating things. Perhaps there will be another speculative bubble. Perhaps the oil producing nations will begin to really tinker with production, driving prices up quickly. Perhaps the price will just slowly inch upwards over time. No one knows for sure, and there’s no way to make accurate bets on such moves.

That leaves gas mileage as an important but hard-to-estimate factor in determining the best car price. It’s obvious that greater fuel efficiency will save money over time – the only question is exactly how much it will save. What we can rely on is this: fuel efficiency is a much bigger factor if you intend to own the car for a longer period of time. My wife and I, for example, prefer to buy automobiles that are late model used when we purchase them, but drive them until they are experiencing severe repair issues. Thus, for us, fuel efficiency is a bigger factor than it would be for a person seeking to pick up a car for just a few years.

Buying a more efficient car results in lower fuel costs regardless of prices, meaning your monthly upkeep cost is lower. If you do choose to invest in a more fuel efficient car, it will save you money each and every month. Given the fact that we cannot know what the future holds, if you can make a choice now to reduce your required costs in the future, you’re generally well-advised to do so.

So, the best strategy is still acquiring a fuel-efficient car for the lowest price possible. While it’s not worthwhile to pay a large premium for fuel efficiency, you’re still well-served seeking out highly fuel-efficient options regardless of the market conditions of the moment.

The same strategies apply whether gas is high or low.

Start saving now. You’re always in a better position if you have the money in the bank to buy the car instead of having to take out a loan to buy it. Start saving right away – set up an automatic savings plan to take $100 a month from your checking and put it into a savings account designated for automobile savings.

Do your own research. Know what you want in advance, and remember that fuel efficiency is definitely a positive even when gas prices are low.

Shop around. That means don’t just jump in with the first dealership you visit. Instead, seek the best prices around. Stop in at several dealerships and use online tools as well.

Negotiate. That sticker price is just a starting point. Don’t be afraid to make a lower offer on the car once you’ve found the one you want.

What will we do? Since we’re still in the “research” phase of the purchase – and also because we’re somewhat waiting for one of our vehicles to finally give out on us – we’re still sitting back and waiting. However, fuel efficiency remains one of our big considerations in the purchase, regardless of where gas prices are or where they might go.

The methods of saving money don’t stop when you drive off the lot. In fact, as soon as you leave the lot, there are several things you can do right away to save significantly on the money you’ll invest in maintaining this vehicle.

Here are eight things to do right away.

Read the manual in its entirety. This should be the next book that you read. Cuddle up with it, read through it, and know your new automobile. You’ll almost always learn a large handful of important things during the read-through, most of which will save you surprising amounts of cash – and can also save you a lot of time later on, as well, when you really need it.

Follow the manual’s recommendations for gas purchases. Many people think “new car, better put premium gas in it.” Don’t. Instead, before you ever visit a gas pump, flip through your manual and find out what gasoline is recommended. Almost all cars recommend the low-grade gasoline – the high-grade doesn’t do anything at all, and buying it is purely a waste of money.

Establish a maintenance schedule. Another key piece of information that’s provided by the manual is a maintenance schedule. It tells you explicitly when you should get your car maintained in various ways – oil changes, brake pad replacements, air filter replacements, and so on. Follow this schedule. Doing the maintenance when suggested will save you significantly on repairs over the lifetime of the automobile. Getting proper oil changes now can make the difference between engine problems and a smooth ride years down the line. Even better – learn how to do the maintenance yourself.

Photograph the car thoroughly. This is a useful move that many people fail to do. Detailed photography of your car can be useful as evidence if you’re ever in an accident or have damage done to your car as you can provide clear visual “before and after” images to make the damage of the accident clear. This can save significant time and effort with the insurance company and with repair work.

Keep necessary/useful supplies in your car. While an AAA membership can be useful, it’s much more useful to have supplies on hand to handle most small roadside emergencies yourself. A deflating or blown tire and a dead car battery are things that anyone should be able to handle themselves without calling for expensive help – and in the winter, a few extra supplies can really make all the difference.

Here are the things I keep in my own car – they save money and time over and over again.

Car kit checklist
+ A tire pressure gauge
+ A felt chalkboard eraser (it takes off window fog with ease)
+ A tire iron that fits your tire
+ A windshield scraper (when winter approaches)
+ Sidewalk salt (in winter – the weight of the bag plus the ice-melt ability are useful)
+ Blankets and warm clothes (again, in winter)
+ Car jack
+ Utility knife
+ Emergency flares
+ Can of tire sealer/inflator
+ Jumper cables

Air up your tires. Since you’ve already got that tire gauge in your car, put it to good use. Flip through your car manual to find out what the maximum recommended tire pressure is for your car, then drive up to that free air pump at your local gas station. Use the gauge and the free air to fill up your tire to the recommended level. Keeping your tires inflated can easily shave 5% off of your gas bill – I do this re-airing process every month.

Shop around for car insurance. The best time to shop around for insurance is when you get a new car, as that’s when the rates will diverge the most from company to company. Call around, get some auto insurance quotes, and sign up with the best company. It’s useful to do this every few years, as new insurers appear and the level of competition between insurers changes, adjusting the rates you may pay.

Establish a carpool. Again, the best time to form a carpool is when your car is new, because the fewer miles you put on it now, the longer it’ll be between maintenance and repairs and the longer your vehicle will last overall. Plus, with a newer car, you don’t have to feel as though you’ll be driving the “bad” car in the carpool. Ask around the office and find some people who are willing to ride together – it’ll do nothing but save you cash.

This isn’t a burning need. I don’t commute, so on the occasions when I do need a vehicle, I still use the truck for short trips to the library or the grocery store. Other than that, we use our car for everything.

In short, this situation is making it possible for us to research the exact car we want and wait patiently to find it at the right price – the most cost-effective way to car shop.

Our biggest factors for purchasing a vehicle are interior space so our whole family can sit comfortably (including a potential third child), high reliability numbers from the manufacturer, a strong safety rating, and fuel efficiency. We don’t care that much about the glossy touches – I don’t really need a GPS in the dash, thank you.

One of our big challenges has been determining how much each of these factors is worth for us. With the reliability, safety rating, and comfortable seating, it’s hard to put a specific number on these issues – they’re more of a basic requirement before we’d consider purchasing a vehicle.

Fuel efficiency, however, is another matter entirely. You can actually do some raw number crunching and see how much fuel efficiency is worth for you. So let’s dig in.

Let’s assume that we’re looking at two more or less identical vehicles in terms of safety, reliability, and comfortable seating – we’ll use the 2008 Toyota Highlander and Toyota Highlander Hybrid for this example. The reason for this is so that we can get some real-world numbers to work with instead of hypotheticals.

According to MPG-O-Matic, the normal 2008 Highlander gets 17 city and 23 highway, while the hybrid gets 27 city and 25 highway.

So let’s walk through some of the basic premises here.

First, how much do we drive in the city versus on the open road? We drive about a 50/50 split. Most of our day to day driving would be considered mostly city driving, but we occasionally go on three or four hour trips to visit family and those are mostly highway. You may be in a different situation, of course, with a higher portion of city driving. For us, though, that gives us an average of 20 miles per gallon for the normal version and 26 miles per gallon for the hybrid version.

Second, how many miles do we expect to put on the car? This is a question you should ask yourself before any car purchase. We intend to buy a late model used car with as few miles as possible on it and drive it until it starts breaking down. So, we would estimate 130,000 miles – an average of about 13,000 miles a year for ten years. Again, you may have a different assumption here – I’m just walking through my own assumptions for my family.

Third, where will gas prices go in the future? I expect an average of $5 per gallon of gas over the next ten years. Right now, it’s lower than that, but I expect gas prices to go up over the next decade quite a bit. Over a shorter term, I would estimate a lower price – maybe $4.50.

So how much will I be spending on gas in each model? For the normal Highlander, I’ll drive it 130,000 miles at 20 miles per gallon, paying $5 per gallon of gas. I just divide the miles I’ll drive it – 130,000 miles – by the miles per gallon (20) to get the number of gallons I’ll use over the life of the car – 6,500. At $5 a gallon, I’ll be spending $32,500 on gas for this model over its lifetime.

For the hybrid Highlander, I’ll do the same – 130,000 miles, but at 26 miles per gallon, and $5 per gallon per gas gives me a total cost of $25,000 for gas over the lifetime of the car.

Thus, the improvement of fuel efficiency in the hybrid is worth about $7,500 over the lifetime. I wouldn’t quite value it that high, since dollars today are worth more than they will be later on, but it’s a good thumbnail to work with.

But is that $7,500 enough? Edmunds estimates the value of a 2008 Highlander Hybrid at $31,687 to $37,363. Meanwhile, a normal 2008 Highlander goes in a range of $22,726 to $28,290.

The difference? Almost exactly $9,000. In this case, the extra fuel efficiency isn’t worth the higher price (unless you believe gas will completely skyrocket way past $5 per gallon soon).

You can use almost the exact same calculation to compare any two similar cars. Let’s say I wanted to compare that 2008 Toyota Highlander to a 2008 Honda Pilot, which Edmunds prices at $23,476 to $30,736. The difference in prices would be about $1,000 with the Pilot being more expensive, but MPG-O-Matic reports a 22/16 split – meaning it’s a mile per gallon worse than the Highlander. For our purposes, the Highlander would be a better buy than both the 2008 Honda Pilot and the 2008 Highlander Hybrid.

Remember, though, gas mileage is only one factor in your calculations. You should determine what factors are important to you before beginning your search and make sure you’re selecting a vehicle that meets those qualifications. At a minimum for everyone, I’d look for a minimum level of reliability and then focus on the best fuel efficiency you can get for the buck.

Here’s your game plan.

First, figure out what criteria are important to you. I encourage you to consider good reliability as a minimum requirement and also use fuel efficiency as another. Beyond that, make sure it fits your needs – and your family’s needs. If I were single, for instance, I’d probably just get a tiny, very reliable small car with strong fuel efficiency, as those are the only factors I would really care strongly about.

Second, filter through all cars based on those criteria. Identify as many models you can that meet your minimum needs. I would stick to brands that have a history of reliability (information you can easily find from auto magazines and Consumer Reports), but after that, it’s really a filter based on what you need. For us, we’re looking strongly at a van or SUV, simply because of the potential of three children.

Third, get prices and fuel efficiency numbers on those models. Sites like MPG-O-Matic and Edmunds are great sources for numeric data. You may also want to cruise a few local dealerships and get some idea of their asking prices (recognizing that they’re negotiable to an extent) and also get an idea of the value of your trade-in and of your down payment.

Once you have that, start crunching numbers and find the vehicle that’s the best value for you. We’re still in this process, but as you’ve seen above, the Highlander is definitely in the running (though we’re looking more at 2006 and 2007 models – late model used). Good luck!

The credit union he worked with gave him several options – a 36 month loan at 6.75%, a 48 month loan at 6.875%, a 60 month loan at 7%, and a 72 month loan at 7.125%.

He took the 72 month loan.

Afterwards, he bragged to me about his deal. “I’m only paying $549 a month for that ride,” he told me, believing that I’d be impressed at how cheap he got a very nice brand new Cadillac.

I went home later, though, and ran the numbers. If he had taken that three year loan, he would have paid $988.11 a month. Ouch.

But here’s the kicker. Here’s what he would have paid total on each of those loans.

The 36 month loan would have cost him a total of $35,568.
The 48 month loan would have cost him a total of $36,833.
The 60 month loan would have cost him a total of $38,160.
The 72 month loan, the one he took, will cost him a total of $39,562.

His “sweet deal” is going to cost him an extra $4,004.

Ouch.

Here’s the problem. He led with the wrong question. He focused heavily on the monthly payments without even considering the bigger picture, and for that focus, he’s being rewarded with an extra $4,000 in payments.

Here’s a better plan.

First, don’t buy something that you can only afford with a suboptimal payment plan. Because my friend wanted more car than his wallet should be able to really handle, he’s paying a $4,000 surcharge for the option. If he had waited and saved up a bigger down payment or simply settled for a bit less of a car than a Cadillac CTS, he wouldn’t be watching $4,000 walk directly out of his pocket for nothing in return.

Second, always calculate the total cost of your purchase. That’s the number you should be working with, not the monthly payment. The lowest total cost is the deal that will keep the most money in your pocket.

Third, if you can’t get what you want for that lowest total price, keep shopping. You don’t have to buy today. If you need wheels for the short term, buy a low-end used car that can just serve to get you from point A to point B and wait on the long-term purchase until you have an appropriate down payment so that you can swing the best total payment plan.

Or, best of all, save, save, save and buy with cash. With the 36 month loan, his payments would have been $988. But if he started saving $850 a month right now (yes, $138 less than his payment) and saved that each month for 36 months in a 3% savings account, he’d have enough to pay cash for the car he wanted. That plan would cost him only $30,600 – a savings of $4,968 over even the best payment plan.

What’s the take home message? Looking at just the monthly payment when you go to take out a car loan – or any kind of installment loan, including mortgages – will almost always hurt you in the end. Instead, look at how much you’ll pay in total – that’s the number you want to be low. If you can’t afford those monthly payments, then you’re buying something more expensive than you can really afford, anyway.

When you’re spending that kind of money, it pays a lot to have an auto mechanic that you trust. Obviously, every mechanic is out there trying to earn a living through their work – you’re going to pay for labor and for parts, too. What really sets the trustworthy mechanics apart are the ones that quote you reasonable and fair prices, work on your vehicle in an ethical and fair manner (meaning they fix what they say they’re going to fix), and are careful about preventative measures to ensure you don’t run into additional problems down the road.

But how do you find a mechanic like that, particularly if you’re new in an area? It’s not a particularly easy task, and it’s one that I spent years sweating over before finding one that I trusted. Here are the tactics that I used to discover a great mechanic in my area.

Hit your social network for suggestions – and for places to avoid.
This is one of the areas where one’s personal network can really come through. Reach out to as many people as you can in your area and ask for mechanic recommendations – both positive and negative.

What I usually look for is multiple positive recommendations for a place without any negatives. When I hear that, I can usually be at least somewhat confident that the place has built a positive reputation over time – which means that their work quality has at least some merit.

Figure out what criteria are important to you – and use those as a checklist before you even go in the door.
Remember, not everyone will have the same needs from an auto repair shop. For example, if you have an extremely flexible schedule (as I do), the actual shop hours aren’t that big of a deal. Similarly, if you are already pretty familiar with the inner workings of a car and mostly just don’t have the equipment or the time to replace a flywheel (for example), you don’t need a mechanic that can effectively explain the repairs needed.

Here are some things that you should consider looking for in an auto repair place. If some of these seem unimportant to you, don’t use them as criteria.

+ Hours of operation Is the shop open when I need it to be to pick up my car? Does it open early enough in the morning, close late enough at night, or have weekend hours?

+ AAA accreditation This is useful to know in general, but is of particular importance if you happen to be an AAA member.

+ ASE certification ASE certification is mostly just a guarantee that the mechanics in the shop have been exposed to the ASE training material. It is never a guarantee that a mechanic is a good mechanic, although most mechanics worth their salt tend to have them simply because it’s easy for a good one to get as they already know their stuff, like passing a test that you’ve been studying for for a while already.

+ Good online reports (Angie’s List, etc.) Are the reports about the shop online largely positive? Ignore a negative outlier or two – there are a lot of people who post negative reports online in order to discredit competition or because they have their own personal axe to grind.

+ Clean Better Business Bureau bill of health The BBB is itself a mixed bag, but if there are a lot of outstanding claims against a business, it’s usually a sign that there’s something amiss. Give your local branch a ring before jumping in with a mechanic.

When you have a minor repair, get a lot of estimates.
Once you’ve filtered out most of the also-rans, you can get down to the real business of finding a solid mechanic for you. The best time to do this is with an upcoming repair job – one where you can still safely drive your vehicle for the time being but the issue is severe enough that you need to get work done soon. You have some time to get several estimates, but the job is actually an important one.

Don’t just settle with the estimate from the first place that you go. Always get at least three estimates in as much detail as possible, preferably from the three best places from your previous search for a good mechanic. Ask questions about the estimates and also about the actual service you would receive.

Some key things to compare include part prices, work guarantees, and the willingness of the staff to explain to you what your estimate means and answer the questions you have.

Using these techniques helped me find a good mechanic in my local area, and I’ve stuck with him for a while. He’s identified two of the big problems I’ve had lately in advance (and is actually encouraging me to replace the vehicle, as he says that there will be a steady stream of repair bills over the next year or so, even though keeping my current vehicle would make him more money), has very solid rates, and gave me his own car as a loaner one day when I had other issues to deal with.