we bought a honda civic and love it. 38 mpg!

I went the opposite way lol. I have an 06 325i that was given to me. boy was i thankful for it but the time came when i needed new tires ($400 for run flats ) and I drive so much that I was nearing the end of their awesome warranty so I sold it for an '04 Explorer and had money left over to catch us up on all of our bills another perk was that my insurance went down $1000! so yeah my suv is a gas guzzler but i still think it was worth it. i love all the space i have now.

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- Chantelle

Mommy to Roly (2000) and Elijah (2005) and expecting #3 due May 7th 2009!


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Yes! My husband sold his '92 Wrangler and bought a 2001 Diesal Jetta. The Jetta is getting roughly 50mpg !!!!! He was able to get a few more miles by fully inflating the tires, cleaning the intake and changing the air filter.

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When my older girls no longer ride/live with us (probably about 6 or so years from now), I plan to trade our minivan for a smaller car. I want something more fuel-efficient, cheaper to maintain, etc, plus, I really don't like driving the van (it drives fine -- this is just me).

Both my van and dh's car are paid for. DH noticed his mileage getting worse until we had it serviced (major) last week. He said it's like driving a new car again, and his mileage is back up to about 45 mpg! He commutes, so we bought it with that in mind. The major services aren't cheap, but they cost less than a single month's car payment!

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Attaining financial freedom is like eating an elephant . . . it takes one bite at a time.

As of right now, I plan on getting a used Ford Escape (hopefully an '08) in a couple of years. It is much more suited to my lifestyle (camping, hauling around 2 large dogs, outdoorsy stuff) than my Pontiac Grand Prix. The gas mileage won't be much worse (the Escape is supposed to get 28 mpg highway and I think 21 or 24 in the city) and my car is supposed to get about the same. I don't think that's bad for an SUV. DH has a Chevy Silverado that will be paid off next year, and we never drive it. We are going to keep that (forever), but especially if I end up opting to get a fuel efficient midsized car instead.

I'm also thinking of going in the opposite direction and getting a bigger car. Right now we have two cars (a volvo and a vw passat) but we plan on selling the passat in the next few months and just having one for a while. But then I'm hoping to get something a little bigger. We do a lot of weekend traveling and want something AWD or 4WD. I love SUV's but I was thinking more of a crossover. I really like the Dodge Journey. It has AWD and lots of storage and cargo space. Plus I love the built in navigation system! Now all I have to do is some convincing

We downsized years ago. We used to have big extended cab pickups to pull our camper. We sold the camper and the truck 5 years ago. Went to a Toyota Corolla, and now I drive a Subaru WRX wagon (not exactly the most economical gas mileage, but not too bad). Smaller cars with good safety ratings is what we look for. Since we live in areas of snow, we've become quite fond of our 4WD cars. Each teen is going to be taking a used Subaru to college.

We bought my DH a Mazda 3. He wanted something a little sporty too. We didn't get him the hatchback. We bought it in September and he still really likes it. I am pretty sure that we get 25 mpg at least. We have three kids, one in a car seat, and we all fit. It is squishy, but we fit.