$400/mo on tires? dayum

3/19/2011 12:25:16 AM

Yeah, it's pretty painful. That's assuming a day or weekend at the racetrack every month or 6 weeks or so.

Even just in routine driving, as a secondary vehicle, I'd guess it would work out to something on the order of $100/month on tires. Probably over double that if I drove the car as my primary vehicle.

3/19/2011 12:50:35 AM

I have got to get something different.

I'm a house-call lawyer and traveling 80 plus miles a day on average.


Gas is fucking killing me.

3/19/2011 8:44:17 AM

I do about 180 miles per day and I have a 2003 Jetta TDI Wagon. Good car, although a new diesel isn't worth it. Hippies have screwed diesels over with emissions regulations etc... and the cars are just too expensive. It's cheaper to get a fiesta or something in that range if you want new. (And VW's quality coming from Mexico is crap / Mine came from Germany - my wife's from Mexico - you can tell a difference)

If you buy a used VW make sure you have someone knowledgeable that you trust look over it. And depending on the mileage, replace the timing belt & water pump first thing.

3/19/2011 9:52:54 AM

Quote :

"not particularly since foreign oil is used to ship parts around the world and to produce electricity to manufacture the parts . . . fully electric cars != Prius"

If we don't put as much foreign oil in our gas tanks, then that reduces our dependence right? I must be missing your point with all the shipping talk...and I'm pretty sure gasoline isn't used much to generate power for utility companies.

sure prius != electric car. but we learned a lot through hybrids, and used that knowledge/experience to make better electric cars...that's why i called them a step.



and dammmm that's a lot a lot to spend on tires. how much do they cost each duke?

3/19/2011 4:20:22 PM

a set is just over $700, shipped from an online distributor (which is actually a STEAL...it could easily be double that). Then, it's pretty close to $100 for mounting/balancing.

I'm about to order another set of tires, plus another set of front brake pads & rotors (~$300). All of those things were replaced less than 2 months ago, and during most of that time. I'm guessing that they have 3000-4000 miles on them or so (but about 6-6.5 hours spent on the racetrack).

Needless to say, I don't give a shit about the difference in a few mpg. That's not what's killing me.

[Edited on March 20, 2011 at 10:44 PM. Reason : ]

3/20/2011 10:42:35 PM

Mounting set of tires for $100. You're an idiot if you pay that.

3/20/2011 10:46:27 PM

In high school, I had a 89 5.0 Mustang. It was fun as hell to drive, but there was no way in hell I planned to drive that thing back and forth to State, and I couldnt leave it anywhere because the doors didnt lock. Also, it got anywhere between 10 and 15 miles per gallon.

I ended up getting a 2010 Subaru Outback Sport. Absolutely love the thing, its 20x as reliable, and gets anywhere between 24-28 mpg. Love it.

3/20/2011 10:47:09 PM

^ I drove a Wrangler for 5 years, which effectively doesn't have door locks (even if you have the top on, there's no point in locking the doors, because you can unzip the windows from the outside. that, or people will just cut the windows). It got similar mpg to what you're talking about, too.

^^ I was rounding a little...It's probably about $80, for mounting and balancing, which is a standard to low-ish rate if you aren't removing the wheels and bringing them in yourself, which I don't have time to fuck with usually, and would then have to drive my truck--at 10 mpg--to take them to the shop. (I probably rounded down a little on the tires...it's a little over $700. Altogether, a set of tires, with shipping, plus mounting & balancing, is right around $800).

3/20/2011 11:03:12 PM

^I had that same problem, the mustang was a convertible. The back glass would easily zip out.

3/21/2011 12:23:43 AM

Lol, Duke why are you mentioning your track wear expenses? That has nothing to do with driving around on the road in a normal day to day situation which is what this thread's about A set of my tires costs around $800 installed and I'm sure if I went to the track more often than I already do they wouldn't last very long either.

But that's not a normal vehicle operating expense

3/21/2011 8:38:23 AM