On Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:58:31 -0500, "Leon"
wrote:


"Tim Daneliuk" wrote in message
news

Well, after all the fiddling around with various dealers ...
I ended up with ... another Chevy Tahoe. Why? I managed to
find what I wanted and they just *gutted* their prices to make
the deal too good to walk away. Between the employee pricing
and additional cash incentives, the dropped the price something
like $11K from sticker. I don't drive a whole lot, so the gas
prices were not a huge factor. I traded in a 13 year old Tahoe
and - to GM's credit - they've really improved the engineering.
Then again, my new car with 20 miles on *insists* that the hood
is open when it isn't ... sigh ... it's Warranty Roulette all over
again.


You will probably be happy with that vehicle. My neighbor bouught
essentially the same thing 2 years ago but the GMC version. I have no
problems with these vehicles as far as comfort are concerned, they have full
and comfortabhle back seats unlike the truck extend cabs and their doors
fasten securely unlike the truck extended cabs the Gm is currently making.




What's fascinating about all this is that - having looked at most
of the major SUV options out there ... they all get more-or-less
the same mileage, regardless of whether they are mid- or full-sized
truck frames. Go figure ...

I noticed the same thing, I was considering down sizing until I noticed that
the gas mileage was not that great of savings. Very often the smaller
vehicles are simply under powered by compairison to the larger vehicles with
the stronger engines. Small engines do use less fuel unless they have to
strain more to perform like you want. I had an 87 Isuzu Trooper with a 140
hp 4 cyl engine that got 14 in town, 20 on the highway. I replaced it with
a 97 Chevy extended cab with a 230 hp 5.0 liter engine, it got 13-14 in
town and 20 on the highway. My 07 Tundra 4 door with 381 hp 5.7 gets 15+ in
town and 20 on the highway. Although each new vehicle got larger and had
more considerably more hp gas mileage pretty much stayed the same and or
improved.


I'm sure later technology has a lot to do with this but having
enough power is also a factor.



Without a doubt on the technology. Comparing ten/twenty year old
vehicles with what is offered today is not relevant.

As an example, my '07 Tacoma, double cab, 2WD, Auto, V6, regular fuel,
which is a relevant comparison gets 19.5 around town and 22.5 on the
highway. No estimates here, I've kept nearly two years of data in a
spreadsheet, throwing out only those tanks used for towing (about 14
mpg depending on hills). So the manufacturers are using technology to
get better MPG across the board with regard to vehicle size.

As an example, I had a 1970 volkswagen beetle. As I recall it only
got 23 MPG and it was a U. S. mileage leader. Next car was a 73 Monte
Carlo with a 454. I don't want to talk about its MPG, brings back
nightmares.

Frank