I am beginning to seriously consider purchasing an older 4 cylinder, 5 speed econo car, i.e. Corolla, Civic, Sentra etc. here in the next few weeks for my long distance chases. Here is my reasoning behind that.
My daily driver and current chase vehicle is a 1998 Subaru Forester, which I bought in February. With a 4 cylinder and 4 speed auto it's getting 25 mpg on long highway trips, which is pretty good considering it's an AWD suv. It costs me right around $50 to fill up the 16 gallon tank at $3.55 a gallon (currently the average price here in eastern Colorado/western Kansas, give or take five cents) and with a typical range in the 300 to 350 mile range, a typical 900 mile chase will cost me right around $150 in gas, or $75 if somebody rides along with me.
Now, if I picked up an old 4 cylinder 5 speed Civic, for example, I could get an older one in relatively decent shape for well under $2k. I would only take out liability on it, which would be dirt cheap for a 10+ year old economy car, even with me being an 18 year old male driver. And where its so old, if it gets beat up by hail, oh well, who cares.
If I was getting 35 mpg with that, figuring a 350 mile range on a 10 gallon tank, I would only be shelling out $35 per fillup instead of $50, and a typical 900 mile chase would set me back a 'mere' $105, or $52 if someone rides with me and we split costs, an average savings of $45 for solo chases and $23 for non-solo chases.
If I chased solo five times and non-solo five times the rest of this chase season (say from today to September), if I was driving my Forester @ 25mpg, it would cost me $750 and $375 in gas, respectivley, for a total of $1,125 in gas.
If I was driving the example Civic @ 35 mpg, it would cost me $525 and $260, respectively, for a total of $785 in gas, resulting in a not insignificant $340 in savings over driving the Forester. If I give $2k for the car, the car will have paid for between 7/8ths and 1/4th of itself in one chase season, and if gas stays in the general neighborhood of $3.50 to $4.00 for the next few years, it will have completely paid for itself in fuel savings in 6 chase seasons. However, in the unfortunate likelihood that gas goes higher than that, the car could very well pay for itself in fuel savings in as little as 3 chase seasons.
Not to mention I will be putting significantly less wear and tear on my Forester, which I've already put 6,000 miles on in he 3 months I've owned it
It really is a very practical proposition when you think about it. The trick is to find one that's been very well maintenanced - otherwise, the costs of keeping it on the road may vastly outweigh the fuel savings. I'm scouring Craigslist like a hawk, taking my time looking for the proverbial little old lady who can't drive her immaculately maintained old 4 cylinder Corolla/Civic/Cavalier anymore and wants it out of her driveway for a song...
