Its going to be buried with me, i have a beater hyundai gets 35mpg so im not worried. Now if gas gets above 5 bucks id sell the hyundai and get a mo-ped..... or time to find a better job

I am going to try to trade down to a diesel VW car for the good gas mileage but if i do i will really miss the X. It is my favorite car but i cant afford the $3.00 gas to feed it.

I just purchased my Xterra last week. I am prepared for gas prices going higher since I plan on keeping it a long time.

The fact of the matter is if you plan on owning a 4X4 that is truly capable of going off road you are not going to get super gas mileage.

It also helps that I only drive around 12,000 miles per year for both commuting and pleasure.

In other words I plan on keeping mine!

I'll never get rid of my Xterra because I knew when I bought it that the gas mileage sucked. I'll just conserve a little better and deal with the prices. What more can you do?

If anyone on this forum is seriously considering dumping their Xterra because gas prices went up then good riddance. The Xterra was probably some sort of statement vehicle for them and not a true off roader. I can see how using the X as a grocery getter or a means to impress would make these people think about their investment. For me, I bought the X to go off road and paying for gas is my price of admission for my entertainment. Instead of going to a movie every Friday night I'll save my cash so I can go to the mountains.

i have just changed my driving habbits, now i get around 17.5-18 miles per gallon. a lot better than when i had a lead foot.

If i could, maybe i would trade it for a Scion TC or some other smaller, nice handling car. But i am happy with the X, and while gas is high and only going to get higher, this is just a spike for now...

I plan on limiting my driving till this spike is over.

Good thing i bought two bikes this summer!!!

We are not fucking up the planet. I love it when insignificant humans want to think that our actions are affecting the planet in such a way that it's going to implode.

The earth was here a billion years before we got here and it will be here a billion years after we leave. It's annoying to hear the greenies cry foul because the water temperature in the gulf has risen by 2 degrees in ten years. Don't these wackos realize that 10 years is a blink of the eye in earth years? This whole weather pattern we are experiencing is nothing more then earth's natural life process.

Don't get me wrong. I don't believe that we should just $#@! up the environment but we should keep this whole environmentalist shit in perspective. We need to understand that no matter what we do, if mother nature wants to blow, burn, flood or shake there is nothing we can do to stop it.

Dump the X? No way! Dump the idiot in the White House...that's what we need to do.

If you do the math...we were paying $2 a gallon for a while..now it looks to go up, and then level off in the fall around $3...call it $4 for a worst case scenario.

So, if I get 20 mpg, and drive 12K mile a year, that's 50 gallons of gas a month, or about 11.5 gallons per week.

11.5 times $2 = $23 in gas/week

11.5 x $4 = $46/week...a difference of $23/week just due to the increase in the cost of gas.

Now, lets say you get a 30 mpg commuter car...

going the same 12,000 miles...and using 33.3 gallons a month, or about 7.7 gallons a week...

7.7 x $4 = $30.80 in gas per week....

So - At the scary $4 a gallon gas price...we can drive a 30 mpg commuter car and pay about $31 a week in gas, or the X, and pay around $46 a week in gas...

The difference is about $ 15/week....or, ~$780 a year.

If you sell the truck/buy another car, you will lose WAY more than $780...in NJ, the insurance difference alone on the second car can be more than that. (X's are not expensive to insure, some of those rice burners are VERY expensive to insure)

I think my trade in value is around $8k...I paid more like $17K...what can I get that's as reliable, and gets super duper economy for the differnce?

I expect used/new econo car prices to shoot through the roof pretty soon....wiping out the cost savings the way getting the diesel option used to require a 15 pay back period to recoup the extra potion purchase cost.



Those of you who get less than 20 mpg in your X's will also get less than 30 mpg on the commuter cars, due to your hilly terrain, right foot, traffic, and other reasons you are unable to get better mileage compared to other drivers elsewhere, etc.

So - for my $15, I can keep my truck, still off road, and get on with my life, such as it is.

If gas stabilizes later in the year closer to $3, my bill drops to $34.60/week at 20 mpg, and to $ 23.08/week at 30 mpg...a difference of only $11.52 to keep the X, or a measely $599/yr.

Assuming the gas prices will steadily rise, it could actually make more financial sense to try to squeeze as much mileage out of the X now while prices are circa $3.

I had considered parking the X and driving my Altima for a while. I could do this for the next few years and rack the mileage up on the Altima. Assume the gas price closes in on $5 around this time and I'll have a low mileage SUV that will cost too much to run and be even harder to sell and a high mileage car that is closer to the end of its life cycle.

Better for me to drive the X now because in 10 years we'll look back to the good old days when gas was only $3/gal.

TJ, thanks for that breakdown. It doesn't seem quite so bad when you put it like that.

Can I second that, great analysis.

Don't forget the other "hidden" costs of that POS beater. You know, like the $90 alternator that dies in the middle of a rainstorm, the $200 exhaust system that falls off in the middle of rush hour traffic, the $15 brake hose that decides to let go due to dry rot - prompting another couple hundred dollars in brake work to replace the other dry-rotting components....

Been there, done that.

I'm actually gonna give up my gym membership to help pay for the extra gas...plus I plan on getting a bike and riding it to work(5-7 miles each way) to stay fit and replace the gym...not to mention I only owe 6k on the X and hope to have it paid off around Thanksgiving!

I just got my X: Yes it was a conscious decision! I may cringe at the pump, but damn, I love this ride!!!

I am gonna drive more!, eat less....shed 30lbs and thank the gas crisis.....

Hell no! I just bit the bullet and set the cruse to 55 (actual speed limit), hurts like hell but with 95% highway to work it has to make a difference. Plus it also gives me a backwards way to justify getting an intake and exhaust .

I'm keeping mine. Doing other things to save money.

-Cut down on my daily Starbucks to 3 time's a week
- Limit long road trips.
- Try to walk more instead of driving.

Thinking about

- Takeing the bus or riding to work a few days a week.

Im getting rid of my X but im getting an 05 NISMO Frontier. No wife, no kids (that i know of) and only beer and my truck to occupy my money...what the hell.

Tim

That's EXACTLY what i'm doin'. I was looking into buying one of those street legal scooters that get like 125 mpg. but it's cheaper to just ride my bike 8 miles to work. get a workout, ditch the gym membership, and transportation to work for free!

no way! I love my xterra, i did however buy an older honda prelude which i've rebuilt the engine. but i'll never get rid of my truck. honda should get around 35mpg though; cool!

I'm staying with mine as well. It would be mad for me to get rid of it now. I'll loose too much money on it. I'll have to bite the bullet. I wish I could bike to work but since I work 31 miles from home that's not gonna work.

Well I'm glad to see that we all actually agree on something. The Xterra is the shit and worth every dollar it takes to make it go!

Thinking of upgrading to an 05 myself. Until gas hits $4.00 a gallon (Probably by next weekend) I figure it only makes a $20 a week difference, which I can easily save by not eating out.

get rid of my 05X...no way man...I am looking for some dumbass to dump his and I am going to buy another one.