{"id":1379,"date":"2008-04-28T22:07:30","date_gmt":"2008-04-29T03:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1379"},"modified":"2008-04-28T22:07:30","modified_gmt":"2008-04-29T03:07:30","slug":"think-smaller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1379","title":{"rendered":"Think smaller"},"content":{"rendered":"

A big part of the enjoyment of the travel lifestyle has been having fewer things, but for us this trend is reversing lately. \u00a0 First we bought a house, then a second car to keep at the house, and now we have a third car.<\/p>\n

To be sure, it’s not a glamorous set of wheels. \u00a0 It’s a slate gray 1983 Honda Accord<\/a>, made back when Accords were smaller than today’s Civics, with a 75-hp engine and crank-up windows. \u00a0 Being a life-long Florida car, the paint is totally dead (closer to battleship gray on top, than the original slate color), but otherwise is in surprisingly good condition. \u00a0 It has just 60,000 miles on it.<\/p>\n

Terry found it for us in Florida, and we bought it sight unseen a few months ago. \u00a0 He and Brett have been fixing it up for us with new plugs & wires, rotor & cap, hoses, belts, brakes and brake cylinders, valve cover gasket, fluids, filters, wiper blades, freon, and headlights. \u00a0 I picked it up today and put the new license plates on it. \u00a0 It runs perfectly, stops on a dime, and gets great mileage out of a gallon of gas. \u00a0 For a total investment of about $1,800 we have reliable transportation.<\/p>\n

But what for? \u00a0 We bought this car because we anticipate spending summers in Vermont. \u00a0 A car to run around in is going to be helpful, so this car will be relocated there permanently.<\/p>\n

The idea of having a third car, when we first thought of it, was frankly a bit annoying. \u00a0 We were doing so well at downsizing our possessions, and then suddenly we felt the need for another car. \u00a0 That’s why the “new” car is such a beater. \u00a0 Even with all the repairs and maintenance, our total investment is less than one-eighth the price of the 2007 Honda Fit we bought for our home base.<\/p>\n

So it’s perfect for the job: no monthly payment, (hopefully) reliable, not worth insuring for more than liability, able to carry four people, and reasonably pleasant to drive. \u00a0 If it gets dinged in the parking lot we certainly won’t shed any tears for it. \u00a0 When it rusts, which it certainly will do after the first time it gets driven during a Christmas visit, we can accept the inevitable more comfortably than we could with a nicer car.<\/p>\n

\"campaign_vw.jpg\"<\/a>Mostly having it is a strategy to deal with the rising cost of fuel. \u00a0 Our cost per mile when towing has risen to about 41 cents lately, a record high since we started full-time traveling, and it will go even higher this summer. \u00a0 Driving the Nissan around without the trailer currently costs about 24 cents per mile, but with the Honda it is just eleven cents a mile.<\/p>\n

That really adds up over the course of several weeks, especially in Vermont where driving distances tend to be long. \u00a0 With all the driving we do there, shuttling Emma around to swim classes and visits with friends, driving the beater means a realistic savings of about $120 per week just in fuel, plus it keeps miles off the expensive Nissan Armada that we use to tow the Airstream.<\/p>\n

That’s a very good thing, because everything about the Honda is economical, and most things about the Nissan are not. \u00a0 The Honda tires are tiny 13-inchers that cost about $30 each, versus $100 each for the Nissan’s tires. \u00a0 \u00a0 The wiper blades are smaller. \u00a0 The fuel tank is smaller. \u00a0 The oil changes are smaller. \u00a0 The insurance is smaller. \u00a0 And the payment is certainly smaller (zero).<\/p>\n

Now that I think of it, maybe even though we’ve acquired yet another car, we might be making another move toward a “smaller” lifestyle. In some cases, I guess it’s not about the number of things you own, but how well you make use of them. \u00a0 We’ll see over the next few months if this little experiment pays off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A big part of the enjoyment of the travel lifestyle has been having fewer things, but for us this trend is reversing lately. \u00a0 First we bought a house, then a second car to keep at the house, and now we have a third car. To be sure, it’s not a glamorous set of wheels. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}