Thanks for reading.

During this next school year, starting in September, I'll be working a paid internship 53 miles away from my and my wife's apartment (on campus at her school, good deal).

I currently drive a Ford Explorer which gets about 20 mpg highway. The "Exploder" has about 110,000 miles on it and is fairly reliable.

So over the next 12 months I'll be driving about +25,000 miles with gas at +$4 per gallon.

I was hoping ya'll would help me think of my options. Here are a few:

Option A: If I bought a beater which got 30 mpg, I would save about $1750 on gas over the 12 months. This savings could be applied to the cost of the beater and insurance.

Option B: Carpool, stupid!

Option C: ???

Anyways, if you could help me think about this, that would be appreciated. I'm caught in a conundrum, since this could be an opportunity to get a "free" second car due to the gas savings, but on the other hand a new beater would be quite a liability. On top of that, if I found a good carpool, the gas savings on the beater would be mitigated greatly.

Thanks for your thoughtful replies. Peace!

what does your wife drive? Maybe you could take her car instead? Getting a beater is a good idea as you won't have any car payments.

Does your wife have a car if so switch cars with her.
Assuming 5 days a week 52 weeks a year you are talking 27,040 miles. Assuming 20MPg you are talking 1352 gallons or $5408 at $4 a gallon. Can you do simple things like getting stuff out of car tire pressure not speeding to bring the mpg up at all? every mpg you add will save you a fare amount. I would not buy a new car over $1750 as you will not get a good trade for your explorer and might end up with a lemon and that $1750 is easy to lose again with old car repairs.

Can you find an internship closer to where you live?

I understand that sometimes internships can provide great experience, but if we are talking about an "internship" that pays little and doesn't add to the resume, I'd look elswhere. I've seen fast food places call student positions internships.

Wouldn't you sell the Ford if you got a beater? If not, insuring and registering and paying sales tax on the extra car would likely cancel out any gas savings over the Ford.

Otherwise, a few ideas:

-Motorcycle?
-Stay overnight in work community one day per week with co-worker/buddy?
-Drive the Ford, but budget extra time and drive the speed limit, saving MPG

Drive your current car into the ground.

Exploder:
1,250 gallons for 25,000 miles.

30 MPG beater:
833 gallons for 25,000 miles.

40 MPG beater (damn few of these, BTW):
625 gallons for 25,000 miles.

Gas savings:
Existing car = $5,000 in gas.
417 gallons for 30 MPG beater = $1,600 savings at $4 gallon.
625 gallons for 40 MPG beather = $2,500 savings at $4 gallon.

Your chances of just breaking even on the 30 MPG vehicle are minimal when you take into account transaction costs and the inevitable small repairs you'll need to do on the old used car (and an old used car that might not be reliable in the first place). Even if you can find a true 40 MPG car you might end up scratching out a grand or so in savings over two years. To get that you'll have to spend weekends looking for a new car (because this whole idea only works with a private sale and not a dealer) and then you'll get to try and sell a 110K Ford Explorer for something, anything, as a private sale. I don't even know if that can be done at this stage--might well just be a write off/charitable contribution. Can't sell the Explorer, and you're looking at, max, $1,500 bucks for a fuel efficient car to make your grand. Good luck with that.

Investigate the public transit options. Even if there are no options that take you directly from A to B, you might be able to get most of the way.

Example: LA area has added light rails. Most often do not get you where you need to be, but many people will drive to work on Monday, then park their car at train station by work, take train home. During the week, they ride train, use car to get from station to work. Friday they drive the car home to have available on weekends.

Variations can also work. Take public transit most of the way, have a carpool pick you up at train/bus station for the final bit. Easier to find people at work who pass the local station than live near you 53 miles away.

I'm surprised no one has said "car pool, stupid!" It's by far the financially savviest option. For $0 it will turn your Explorer into a 40mpg green machine. It also saves wear and tear on your car, reducing depreciation and repair costs (assuming you alternate driving days). Just do it!

You'll have to pay sales tax on the beater, registration fees, inspection fees, etc. Those are your transaction costs.

Your Explorer may have 110K miles on it, but you also know its history very well which means you know what (if anything is wrong with it). You've got no such knowledge of the "new" beater but you need to work on the assumption that part of the reason it is being sold is because someone is trying to get rid of a car with problems. Thus you need to plan for some repairs after you purchase it (new tires, brake job, etc.)

Also, if you're planning on keeping two cars then the marginal cost of a second vehicle on insurance also cuts down on your savings from lower gas prices.

Now, I think there may be a different question at work here: you may really want two sets of wheels rather than one. That makes a lot of sense to me since your wife will be stuck carless during your commutes. Doesn't seem to me like you need a fuel savings justification to swing a $2-3 K old Honda in that case! (And do not be tempted to go with an American made car with +100K miles, by the way. That "brand name" premium for Honda/Toyota exists for a very good reason: the cars are simply much more reliable and last much longer than others.)

motorcycle?