If your mopar is you daily driver!

Agree with price of newer car versus MPG for the most part (new web acronym alert- FTMP).

I am currently running three vehicles (2000 Dakota, 2003 P/T and 1973 Satellite) for less than the cost of payments on a newer car.

All cars owned free and clear cost about $900 a year for basic liability insurance and about $200 a year for registration. We get a small break on "antique" registration in FL.
I should probably add in maint costs, as we've had about $900 on the P/T (A/C and Timing belt) this year and $600 on the Dakota (A/C). I don't do those repair, but do a lot that doesn't require special tools/recovery system.

NOT having a $400+ monthly car payment sure can buy a lot of gas for the 14 average MPG Dakota and Satellite and the 26 average MPG P/T.

I'm itching for a manual trans classic, and an o/d trans in an A body would fit the bill nicely, and still not be equal to that $400/month "new" car payment.


PS- bonus material for cost consious "money" minded folks-

I own stock in three "oil related" companies- BP, Sunoco Logistics, and Pembina Pipline.

The dividends from my investments in these companies pays back about 40% of what I spend at the gas pump!
If I'm paying them, they might as well be paying me!
So far I've got about 16K invested (8K plus gains). My goal for the mid-term is to have the dividends cancel out the at the pump costs :)
They've also appreciate quite nicely Pembina is up 25% for the holding period, Sunoco Logistics has (wait for it) TRIPPLED, and BP is "beat up", is up about 5% but could recover back to pre0spill prices which would be about a 25-33% gain!