<div>Wednesday (June 4) had several auto/gas related stories (front page & business section). I'll type out a few pertinent lines (and hope the copyright debate doesn't revive!):</div><div>[The writer consulted with  Consumer Reports senior auto engineer for his figures] "I crunched the numbers this week to see how much more expensive these big vehicles had become. The answer is pretty simple: a lot more expensive.</div> <div>[Calculated over 5 years ownership, at today's gas prices, probably lower annual mileage than we put on our vehicles] "While the F-250 costs $100,000 and a fully loaded F-150 -- the better-known, smaller Ford pickup -- costs about $70,000, a Ford Focus still costs less than $40,000 over five years. A Honda Civic does, too. A Toyota Prius costs only a little more. A Subaru Outback station wagon runs $50,000 or so." ... "So choosing a F-250 over a Focus is like volunteering for a 20 percent pay cut."</div> <div><br></div><div>So one of the questions is, do we really need a big muscular pickup? If one is moving pianos, or traveling on rutted dirt roads, I'm sure the answer is yes.</div><div>I can fit everything I need in my Prius (and carry piano actions if I pack extra carefully). And I'm pretty sure the NYTimes numbers weren't for business use; I average 50 mpg (45 mpg in the dead of winter; 55 mpg in the summer), times almost 20K miles per year, times roughly 50 cents per mile tax deduction, makes for about a $10,000 annual tax deduction.</div> <div>Patrick Draine</div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 5:49 AM, Phil Bondi <<a href="mailto:phil@philbondi.com">phil@philbondi.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"> <br> -I can't continue to hemorrhage cash into the truck..someone's gotta pay.</blockquote><div> </div></div></div>