Holly crap! It worked!
Friday, July 13, 2007
This is just a test
I don't think is is going to work correctly but I'm seeing if Google Picasa can upload a photo to blogger.
Holly crap! It worked!
Holly crap! It worked!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
MPG
Just a short post to sing praises of my car purchase. We've filled it up with gas 4 or 5 times now and our lowest MPG has been 25.6 for a tankful. As it works out, we're still filling up the Malibu once a week, just like we did the Avalanche, but now a tankful costs 35 bucks instead of 60. We're on track to save 50-100 dollars each month on gas burned just commuting between home and work. BTW, me and my wife carpool, so that save us gas, and overall environmental impact too.
Still, $35 for a tankful. This car has a 16 gallon tank and uses regular unleaded. We've been putting about 12-13 gallons in it every Thursday. I remember the good old days with my '97 Grand Prix GTP that used premium unleaded and was just appalled at having to spend 20 bucks to fill its 18 gallon tank! I think premium gas was about $1.30 a gallon at the time. BTW, that car got about 16mpg in town and about 30 on the open road (it was a 3.8 liter supercharged motor).
Still, $35 for a tankful. This car has a 16 gallon tank and uses regular unleaded. We've been putting about 12-13 gallons in it every Thursday. I remember the good old days with my '97 Grand Prix GTP that used premium unleaded and was just appalled at having to spend 20 bucks to fill its 18 gallon tank! I think premium gas was about $1.30 a gallon at the time. BTW, that car got about 16mpg in town and about 30 on the open road (it was a 3.8 liter supercharged motor).
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Bought a car to save gas
"They" (probably Edmunds.com) say that it's good to go car shopping on a rainy day, so we did. We ended up buying a 2007 Chevy Malibu to replace our 2002 GMC Envoy. We figured that since the Envoy was coming up on 6 years old, and we didn't need it AND the huge Chevy Avalanche which is newer, we would get something smaller.
We originally went to look at Cobalts (think "updated Chevy cavalier") to add a more fuel efficient multi-passenger vehicle to the garage/driveway. Well, the ones in stock at Lonestar Chevy on 290 either didn't have the options we wanted or had too many and cost more than we wanted to spend. We decided to look at the Malibu just to see how their prices where. They had a nice "golden pewter metallic" sedan that had what we needed on it and the price wasn't TOO much more than what we had figured we wanted to pay on a Cobalt. Anyway, to shorten the story, because it was Memorial Day, they had extra rebates going on, we had an extra rebate waiting in the wings from the GM card we use. The guy brought out the list price of the car, which matched what I had looked on line before and said, "Well, there's list and I want to make a little commission so let's see what we can work out whether it's 1%, 2% etc". We told him truthfully that we could drive to our old dealer in Navasota and order anything we wanted for exactly $100 over invoice, so how about 100 bucks. He said "ok" and that was that. So, about 50 signatures later, we had a Malibu for about $3000 under the msrp/sticker price, THEN subtracted $5800 in rebates and they matched want we wanted for our trade in. We took enough to pay off what was left on our Avalanche, and left with a TINY remaining loan on the Malibu.
So, that's the first time that either me or Melanie have EVER bought a car off of a lot. We have always before ordered our cars with EXACTLY what we wanted on them, so it was quite an experience for us. All in all, we're pleased with the results, and while the Malibu is a bigger car than the Cobalt, the rated gas mileage is the same. Oh, and although the color is "golden pewter metallic", it's prettier than it sounds. It's actually a silver-grey that looks like it has a hint of blue added in and it looks different depending on the ambient lighting.
I've also decided not to go to Oshkosh this year. I want to use those vacation days for something else this year. Also, we voted to increase the flying club deposit this year for just about the same amount that it costs to attend Oshkosh for a week, so skipping the cost of Oshkosh will leave more money for flying and hopefully performing an Angel Flight this fall.
Check out my MySpace page too.
We originally went to look at Cobalts (think "updated Chevy cavalier") to add a more fuel efficient multi-passenger vehicle to the garage/driveway. Well, the ones in stock at Lonestar Chevy on 290 either didn't have the options we wanted or had too many and cost more than we wanted to spend. We decided to look at the Malibu just to see how their prices where. They had a nice "golden pewter metallic" sedan that had what we needed on it and the price wasn't TOO much more than what we had figured we wanted to pay on a Cobalt. Anyway, to shorten the story, because it was Memorial Day, they had extra rebates going on, we had an extra rebate waiting in the wings from the GM card we use. The guy brought out the list price of the car, which matched what I had looked on line before and said, "Well, there's list and I want to make a little commission so let's see what we can work out whether it's 1%, 2% etc". We told him truthfully that we could drive to our old dealer in Navasota and order anything we wanted for exactly $100 over invoice, so how about 100 bucks. He said "ok" and that was that. So, about 50 signatures later, we had a Malibu for about $3000 under the msrp/sticker price, THEN subtracted $5800 in rebates and they matched want we wanted for our trade in. We took enough to pay off what was left on our Avalanche, and left with a TINY remaining loan on the Malibu.
So, that's the first time that either me or Melanie have EVER bought a car off of a lot. We have always before ordered our cars with EXACTLY what we wanted on them, so it was quite an experience for us. All in all, we're pleased with the results, and while the Malibu is a bigger car than the Cobalt, the rated gas mileage is the same. Oh, and although the color is "golden pewter metallic", it's prettier than it sounds. It's actually a silver-grey that looks like it has a hint of blue added in and it looks different depending on the ambient lighting.
I've also decided not to go to Oshkosh this year. I want to use those vacation days for something else this year. Also, we voted to increase the flying club deposit this year for just about the same amount that it costs to attend Oshkosh for a week, so skipping the cost of Oshkosh will leave more money for flying and hopefully performing an Angel Flight this fall.
Check out my MySpace page too.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
????? Oshkosh 2007 ?????
Time to start thinking about Oshkosh this year. My buddy says that he's going again but doesn't know if he'll be camping or not. If his wife goes they'll either have a hotel room or a camper. Plus she doesn't fly AT ALL so they'd either drive or fly commercial. I was thinking of bowing out this year just to save the vacation time and money (although it's not a very expensive vacation) so I'll have to wait and see. Another friend on the wait list for the flying club (note the new URL) is talking about riding his motorcycle up there which sounds like fun, but a Honda 599 really isn't much of a touring machine for a 1000 mile trip! Hmmm. I wonder if you can rent a 'wing somewhere.... Bill would probably know. Hmmm.
Oh! And I met my goal to average one angel flight per quarter in 2006 by flying my 4th mission this past December. Money is tighter than it was when I first started doing this but hopefully I can keep it up and do 4 more this year. Wish me luck!
Oh! And I met my goal to average one angel flight per quarter in 2006 by flying my 4th mission this past December. Money is tighter than it was when I first started doing this but hopefully I can keep it up and do 4 more this year. Wish me luck!
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