Best service vehicle besides a van

works pretty good.. but I got BOTH front seats.. looking for a Geo Tracker, and will make it into one. till I get my other one fixed.

--Shiva--

I'm looking for an answer to that too. I want something I can stand up in though.

What about this?

Holy cow, you guys sure would think differently about van selection if you had to pay the big $$$ for petrol that the rest of the world has to pay. Personally, I couldn't think of anything worse than having to drive around town in such a monstrous truck, just to do lock work. TOYOTA RULES !!. Cheers all.

Probably true.

I know a guy who uses a motorcycle and a motorcycle trailer. Very nice set up.

I thought about that with a sidecar, but I would think I would be carrying too much weight to do a full-service set-up.

funny thing today.,, oil is $55 or so a barrel.

todays paper is saying it CAN (think WILL) go to $105.

now, if I remember right, assuming 55 gallons oil in a barrel, that means that oil is about $1 a gallon.. what percentage converts to gas I dont know and dont care, but, considering gas here NOW is about $2.10 a gallon, that says for my area, about

2.1 times the cost of oil, for gas..

so, if it HITS 105, then gas 'should cost' about $4...

AGAIN, for MY AREA>. lots of you are a lot higher.. the airlines commented to that price- they would just shut down.. now, for the 'rest of the world, where gas is ALREADY in the $4-5 a gallon or equal range, your actual price would probably only go up, say 20-30% because a lot of your prices are taxes and not actual cost of gas..

MY work would go WAY UP- repossessing vehicles that people suddenly dump, cause they cant afford to drive them now.. along with houses.. cause they cant afford the 3 new cars, gas, and house payment way out in the sticks, 50 miles 1 way from work..

I think the economy here in the US would collapse..

--Shiva--

My first service vehicle was a Chevrolet Chevette, four door. I had a marine battery behind the drivers seat, and a Rediline Generator. Ran a Ilco Mini Mite key machine, and had some depth keys. Pinset, some other tools. Worked nicely.

people SHOULD NOT under any circumstances engage in this practice of living

10+ miles from their job and then driving a car to work. i've done it, we've all done it, but all these cars add nothing but pollution to the already polluted world. and people say, well it will only get worse. but it does not have to. people can learn to live with less. you DON'T NEED a huge TV, or a huge house or any of that other claptrap that people think they need. you are all just chasing your tails out there.

if we are indeed living in an economy that can only be sustained by more and more "growth" in terms of expanding population and ever rising foreign inflows of people, we might want to ask why we are bothering.

10? my BIL drives 90 each way..

some in CA drive over 100 each way.. some places, you dont get a place to live within 30..I got a town to my south 55 miles, that the norm is a 35 mile drive-so they can afford the house.

--Shiva--

if he works 5 days a week, that's 900 miles per week. 45 gallons of gas assuming 20 mpg. and 112.5 dollars gone assuming 2.5 a gallon, and if he works 50 weeks a year, that's $5625 just in gas. He'll need 16 oil changes, at $30 each, that's another 480, add another thou for insurance and another thou for tires and brakes. Call it 8000 BEFORE depreciation. Add at least

2000 for that, but probably closer to 5000, so you're looking at maybe $13,000 in car expense, or 6.50 an hour.

I hope your BIL is making a lot of money.

$100,000 for a house outside of the city, $250,000 for a house in the city. Eleven and a half years for the "vehicle expenses" to make the difference.

he is.. full PAID benefits.. and a VERY nice pay scale.. and its really hard to get fired.. and the retirement?? its great too..

--Shiva--

I bought my house 45 minutes from DC about 3 years ago for $135,000. It's now worth $260,000+. People here drive well over an hour each way (rush hour) on a good day to get to DC. On a Friday or a long weekend?? Well over 1 1/2 hours to get home. 2 hours and more is not uncommon.

I call that crazy. I'll take the pay cut and save myself 12 hours a week that I don't have to drive.

Add the appreciation to the house and the depreciation to the car, and I don't think I'm doing that bad at all.

His house will probably appreciate at nearly the same rate as his car expense (many of the expenses he would have regardless, such as insurance, but we wont worry about that). That makes it pretty much a wash on gain/expense between the two, and he is still saving $150,000. Not a bad deal.

How many miles on the van?

How many miles for the year?

see, I'm not so dumb.

van was new at the begining of the year

25+K

g'day