One of the joys of telecommuting: no actual commuting. No train ride (I’ll thank you for not spilling your coffee on my New York Times again, strangers) and no car ride. Where do I go? To my home office. The consequence is that I’ve been driving for fun and when I’m too short on time to walk the 3/4 mile trip to the grocery store. It’s a breeze parking my little VW GTI between the beheamoth luxury SUVs that have become suburban landmarks. What I always forget, while I arrogantly load up my hatchback with a 24 pack of toilet paper, is that I share a big SUV with my father – an eleven year old Ford Expedition. We bought it with 150,000 miles for about the same price as a really nice big screen TV and use it for, well what you really would need a big truck for. That means hauling lumber from Home Depot, or double sized mattresses and coffee tables simultaneously, or towing the 23 foot Chris Craft we bought to restore, or driving six of my friends comfortably to Atlantic City. While the old Ford only gets to stretch its legs once a week or so, it’s there when we do need it. It seems somewhat wasteful to have an extra car; then again, whether you consider the total cost of the small and large cars, or the carbon footprint (ahem), or the amout of gas we use, it’s all very small. I do know people with a fleet of new cars, large and small, for different tasks too. Some relatives are augmenting their current Saturn Outlook with a Saturn Astra and a MINI Cooper Clubman. That strikes me as excessive. But who am I to judge?
It’s also nice to have a 2nd beater truck/suv for the few days of crappy weather; extreme rain, snow, or ice, esp. if it has AWD or 4×4.
+1 on the telecommuting love.
I have seen our nation’s future, and it wears pajamas. All day long.
You need to consider getting Sta-Bil and putting it in your fuel tank! (Assuming it’s a gasoline Volkswagen).
I joined Philly Car Share, http://www.phillycarshare.org/ , and in addition to my Golf (amazing vehicle!), I now have access to a fleet of cars. All kinds. I think car sharing programs are the future, you can use a vehicle when you need it, as long as you need it. Not have to pay insurance while it sits there, or maintenance of any kind.
Its a miracle, I tell ya, a miracle.
Jersey>
I have looked into that as well, but that seems only good to run errands. You pay by the hour, no? You can’t really go out to a friends for the day or to a forest preserve for the day without paying a lot.
On the article title…..I’m the same way with my car. I have been taking the motorcycle everywhere (this month & august) & did a public transportation experiment in september (that didn’t work out too well). I think I average gassing my car up about once per month.
rob
yes by the hour or the day, by the day its way less than avis, etc. Not alot at all.
Way, way less than owning a second vehicle, even if you only had one.
For instance, if its a nice day in the forest, i can take a convertable. Or not.
i have a 15 YO F-150 I drove 1800 miles the past 2 years. It sits and rusts in front of my house. But when I need firewood, lumber, trash hauling, or a motorcycle rescue it’s ready to go.
Also proper reserve vehicle just in case my POS escort commuter vehicle dies one day. Cheaper to pour gas into the truck than buy another car.
Most of my commute is on one of the two motorbikes I own.
No gas for 3 weeks? Pretty normal for me… I have a 3 mile commute.
From late Spring through early Fall, I did about 50% of my commuting and any shorter weekend errands that didn’t involve significant cargo by bicycle. Besides the fuel and carbon footprint savings, I’ve dropped a lot of weight and have much more energy.
But we’re a one-car-per-person family and doomed to stay that way… public transportation is pretty poor in this area and there’s days in the Twin Cities when biking is not an option. Like November through March or thereabouts; I’m just about done for the year.
I like the car-sharing concept, too. There’s an outfit like that, here, too, but it’s not too workable here in the ‘burbs. At least, not yet.
I fill my car up about once every 4 to 5 weeks. I work about 4 miles from home, but unfortunately I can’t really telecommute due to the nature of my job. I used to work 55 miles from home, and that was when fuel was cheap. I can’t imagine commuting long distances now unless you’re driving a motorcycle/scooter (or a Lupo TDI.)
Kix> I have thought about bicycling, but it is simply too dangerous here since you have to ride next to parked cars and people throw their doors open.
At least on a motorcycle I can keep up with traffic & ride away from the parked cars….YMMV, just my $0.02.
On the other hand, I bet I’m more overweight than you :)
Another long time member of the multiple-rides club here.
I have a much loved and long-ago paid off Econoline van. It pays for itself in insurance costs and then some every year in sheer utility. It’s a drop box on wheels for dump runs and yard debris, a top-notch lumber/furniture hauler (4×8 sheets of plywood are a piece of cake) and when I sweep it out, a nice 20+ MPG road trip camper. Not to mention the several six packs of microbrews I score for moving crap around for my friends!
The rest of the time, I drive a small car. And I have another small car stashed away that’s ready to go if I need it. I rotate the herd every so often (usually when I get bored with a particular ride or desire a new project to tinker with), but the van is the constant.
If you’ve got a place to park both, a 1/2 ton van or truck/small car combo is hard to beat, IMHO. The best of both worlds.
I have thought about bicycling, but it is simply too dangerous here since you have to ride next to parked cars and people throw their doors open.
At least here, you’re allowed to ride one metre out from parked cars and/or the curb. That should be far enough for most.
It’s actually safer to ride out a bit into traffic–that way cars see you. If you cower into the kerb, you risk them not seeing you if the swerve and/or you losing control if you hit a bad patch (which happens more frequently at the edge).
Nice GTI Justin, but what’s going on with that color? Are you selling Mary Kay cosmetics on the side?
Oh har har har Cicero. Just my badly set up digital camera. The GTI is just bright red. I think they call it Tornado Red, which makes sense. Because tornadoes are red.
VW Group also has a 7-Speed DSG (with dry clutches as opposed to wet) used in low-torque transverse applications such as the 1.4 TSI in Europe.
As for the colour of the car… it’s red but the pic looks like it was taken with a crappy phone camera, so it looks a little wrong. The GTI should only be had in black, red or white.
Justin, How’s the restoration of the Chris-Craft coming? Or is it a bad subject to bring up?
I ask, because a neighbor had a similar project in his driveway for several years, got about 15% along, and realized his life was going by too fast (he’s my age, or older). Got rid of the rotting boat and bought a conversion van – now he actually gets out.
@Paul:
Ha! No, not a bad subject. We just got it a few weeks ago. The guy we bought it from however had been planning to restore it for the past 15 years!
The engine is totally beyond salvaging. And neither my dad nor I are marine engine mechanics. So we’re looking for a replacement Chevy 350 marine engine. Craigslist, ebay, word of mouth through the mechanics we know at local marinas, etc.
Body is in great shape structurally, but it’ll need a lot of cosmetic work.
My guess is that we’ll have it in the water next summer. Guess? Hope? Wish? Dream? Nah, it’ll happen. Maybe.
I used to have a near perfect fleet o’ cars. I had Old Reliable, Cheap, But Hideous for my normal runaround, my Luxury Car for special events/the hoe stroll, and a Convertible for the few sunny days Seattle allows us.
Then, I decided to buy a Mazda3 as my new runaround. Since I’m not totally embarassed to take a lady to the movies in it, my fleet has become somewhat redundant. Oh well. It’s always nice to know if my car doesn’t start, I can just grab another set of keys and fire up another!
Although I have about two dozen vehicles, I’ve been able to refine my needs to two.
1) The Fuel Economy Champion – This was a 1993 Mazda Protege that was getting me close to 40 mpg. Now it’s a 1997 Sunfire Convertible that only has 29k original miles.
2) The Hauling/Family Car – Very few vehicle can beat an old Volvo wagon in this category. The 940 can get about 27 mpg highway, 20 City, haul 3000 pounds, and move a massive amount of material. It’s also the perfect ‘family & dog’ vehicle and since it only costs $600 and was dealer maintained, can’t beat it.
I do have a full-sized pickup, 2 S-Class’s, a couple of minivans and even a scooter. But the old Brik and cheap 5-Speed Vert’ would pretty much be the ideal fit if I weren’t in the car business. They offer low insurance costs, cheap maintenance, and all the fun and hauling we would need.
my high tech employer preaches greenery but fails to walk that walk: we’re not allowed to telecommute because some people “abuse the privilege.” gotta love being treated like an adult by a faceless corporate droid. meanwhile petrol costs too much, freeway traffic bites, public transit is even worse, & days are too short & wet to risk riding a bicycle.
That’s a lot of money sitting on the driveway, doing nothing.
Justin,
I own a 2008 GTI and actually do drive to work every day (less than 10 miles) and I usually buy gas every two weeks. The new CCTA motor seems very fuel efficient.
My GTI is black:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ted.Varias/2008VWGTI#
-ted
I have an 07 GTI w/ the 6MT and my most recent tank was 34.8MPG. The best I saw in my Impreza 2.5RS was 29MPG. I gotta say I’m happy with the extra 40hp and fuel economy.