Izuzu Ascender
2003
We own it! No payments!
That's the way to go, you live and learn!!!
2003
We own it! No payments!
That's the way to go, you live and learn!!!
F•O•U•R•T•E•E•N
10 months ago
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Nate and Kayla
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The Vella Family
18 comments:
Congrats on the new car and yeah for the kids. So much has happened in such a short time. It was great to get caught up with you all. So happy for you that things are going well. Can't wait to see the pictures from VBS and summer vacation!
Love you guys. XO
ok, first - glad you finally stopped leasing cars. That was just retarded.
second, it's "Ascender", not "Assender", the latter of which could be mistakenly read as "ass-ender" which certainly doesn't bring good thoughts to mind.
Lastly, are you crazy? Why the heck are you buying a huge SUV? It gets 15 mpg city, 20mpg highway. That's nuts with gas prices like they are. Please explain to me why that is necessary. Be careful, you're responding to a very defensive Prius owner whom just last week took 2 adults and 3 children camping for 4 days with his PRIUS, and DID NOT pack lightly.
oh, and love ya ;)
Crazy, Crazy, Huh! Hmmm a 30k Prius which will take about 10 years in gas savings to recoupe the cost of your "gas efficient" car.
Also, its a v6 suv with a 20 gallon tank. Uses as much as my little 1997 Altima.
And your camping... "NO WAY" we went for 1 night and our Altima was over-packed. We wanted to bring more but just couldn't.
You try fitting us and your uncle earl and aunt nita plus 3 kids in you "Prius"
Mountain driving, Towing, 4W drive...all reasons why we didnt get 50 Horsepower gas saving car.
Lastly...we don't drive all over the place like back and forth to work!!!
And the best thing of all we only paid 5k on a 2003 ASS-Ender SUV!
There is a reason why we called it an "ASS-Ender"... it's because all the Prius cars that are overloaded with camp gear keep on getting stuck going uphill and we always end up ramming it in the rear!!!!!!!
My prius was 23k total - less than I'd pay for that SUV new. I don't know why everyone throws out a "30k" number when I mention a prius. I mean, maybe if you get leather, bluetooth, navigation, etc...
Your computations on gas savings are WAY off. The monthly money saved with my driving compared to an SUV is greater than the car payment - thus making it, from a cash flow perspective, free. Long term, it saves me $3,703.71/yr over an 18 mpg average SUV.
As for your doubting my camping trip, please see the picture album that I linked to. I'm not joking - my girlfriend doubted we could do it as well. I'm sorry that you and Roy don't know how to pack. We took 3 tents, 6 chairs, camp stove, and all my misc camping gear. Again, for 5 people.
But if you are lugging Earl and Nita around, I understand. A family of 7 could perhaps make use of that beast.
Glad to hear you have an alternate car as well!
Oh dear...ignore my brother...he's "always" right.
Just came to say I had to smile when I read this because I recall that "debate" in your house back when i spent the night and went round and round with Roy...LOL!
Proud of you guys! One step at a time and get it all together.
Love you!
So at that rate it will take you the almost 5 yrs to make up the difference on what we paid for our SUV...I dont see the value!!!
As far as packing, how about bikes, rafts, kayaks, towing an atv. What about taking a nice drive on an off road path???
Also for a 3 hr trip that looked like a very uncomfortable ride in the back seat. Imagine if an adult was back there.
BTW, I found out what Prius stands for... Putting Relatives In Uncomfortable Spots!
Um... you are comparing apples to oranges. After 5 years, my car will be 5 years old, and have 125k miles on it. Yours will be 10 years old and have 125k + [whatever it has now] (I used 25k/year as my baseline). We'd have to start looking at resale value at that point, which I can promise mine would be FAR ahead - especially given gas prices going up increases demand, which increases resale value.
Kayak was on the roof, bikes were on the bike rack, and atv was in tow (well... if I wanted them). Any car car tow and carry things like that! But I don't do any of that stuff.
An offroad drive - again not my cup of tea, but the prius certainly isn't a wuss. I drive it to every ski vacation too - and it does better than any car I've owned in deep snow and ice. Four wheel drive doesn't really mean much under most conditions, thats a myth. But if you're into real offroad driving, you have a jeep anyhow.
Adults would not have fit comfortably in back, but just because stuff was packed on the floor. Aside from that, the car is the same size as a Camry, and quite comfy.
Tow - You can tow up to 1500 lbs however if you decide to tow your gas mileage will not hold up. Any more weight and you risk violating the manufacturers warranty.
Off Road - Checked many forums and all say they would not or could not bring a Prius off road..they usually have another vehicle for that. You might have nice roads for your camp grounds..well here we have alot of rugged terrain to get to camp spots, creeks, waterfalls, etc.
4WD - I already had a car go into a ditch where one of my front wheels were off the ground...had to get pulled out. But if I had a 4WD, I could have easily been able to drive out of a situation like that.
I agree a Prius is a great car for daily commuting...but not so good for the weekender trips for what we do here.
As far as value I would hope yours would resell at a higher value...you got it brand new. We bought an older SUV (2003) for cheap because of the fears like you have. Gas isn't always gonna be this high. So when you go to trade in your car for 10k five years from now...you lost 13k you put into it. As when we go to trade it in say for 1k...we only lost 4k. So tell me where the prius is a better value?
Your right a prius can go off road. I found a picture of it slightly modified to enable it...
http://homepage.mac.com/paintlab/.Public/Priusweb.jpg
I had to delete the post I left prior to this one, I spelled a word wrong, but what's new?
I am writing to tell you all I love you and all comments left by KristinsMemories are actually ROY!
He is using my account to post comments.
LOVES
Tow - 1st off, what would I tow that's > 1500 lbs? 2nd off, warranty already void due to EV only mod I made.
Offroad - I do all those things and have NEVER owned anything but a small 2wd car.
4WD - Learn how to drive I guess, see above.
It's a great car for weekend trips as much as commuting. We'll just agree to disagree here. It's not good for traveling with 7 people though, as I already said, so you made a good choice.
Value - sorry, but yes, gas will always be this high, and higher. As for the trade in value WAY more needs to be taken into account such as maintenance! I won't have any major repairs, you'll have MANY. I bought my minivan used and over 3 years dropped well over 15k into it.
Bottom line, there isn't a way to determine best value - it's a whole lot of luck when it comes to cars, and it also depends on what you use them for. Sounds like you made a good choice since you have a family of 7. CHEERS!
Last comment. Its not about our fam of 7. Its about when you have friends over or say we come up. Will you be able to pack, Kristin and I plus all our kids say to go out to eat? No and that was one of the main reasons we got a bigger car because we were constantly running out of room.
And your right, its all about luck when it comes to maintenance with cars. I bought the altima used 9yrs ago, its a 10 yr old car and I only put about $1500 of repairs into it.
As far as fixing my car, its not expensive...I have options on buying used or new parts cheaply because its so widely available plus any mechanic can do the job.
Now I am just curious, say your computer system/software goes and your out of warranty...is that something that any mechanic could fix for a reasonable cost?
Addressing your paragraphs in order:
People that come to my house bring their own car, like you did last time. If we wanted to eat, we'd drive separately. If for some reason you can't drive separately, then how did you get there in the first place? Walk?!
Glad your luck worked out. NEVER buy a Ford. I didn't check consumer reports on your new car, but you may want to in order to get the average maint costs.
Depends on what breaks! Engines and transmissions are expensive. Are you trying to imply a prius owner pays more for parts or requires some special mechanic? Common myth.
I fail to see what you are getting at here, but yes, sometimes it's easily fixable quite cheaply, sometimes it's not. That's hardware though. From a software perspective, I have no clue what you are getting at. But alas, it's irrelevant to cars. I never once implied that you should have bought a computer instead of a car.
In finality - you got a great deal and the car looks great. Please vote for your pro-drilling for oil local candidates.
I feel inclined to mention how Dana's Prius did manage to get stuck at that one cabin and we had to push it up the hill... And finally got it up on the umpteenth attempt, but we were wearing sandals so we blame it on that. XD
My fourth vehicle was an Isuzu Rodeo which got terrible gas mileage (~15mpg) but I know I put over 60k mi on it in less than 3 years, then gave it to Trish who managed to put significant miles, and dents, on it... The odometer stopped working at 80k mi (about a week after I owned it) but now my cousin Wayne in VA drives it and the only repair we made to it during all that time was a Distributor cap and radiator hose replacement, and I'm pretty sure Trish never got the oil changed once.
I like this banter stinks I'm so late coming in I missed it!
My truck is an '05 Dakota (15mpg City, 18mpg Hwy; not sure what EPA estimates those are my actuals) V8 Magnum 4x4 and every bit of awesome! I never intended to buy it (back in 07) because we had a custom purchased a Prius to get shipped to us in Orlando (it was $27k without bells and whistles, the Orlando market sells AT sticker price they won't haggle) but in the process we visited a friend of my dad's and stumbled on a truck that was two years old and had 5k miles on it and paid less than $17k for it (it was funny because the guy who signed the paper work wanted "to see the pictures I had of his boss" ). This truck works great for us because Bonnie and I are always going places with the dog and a bed load of stuff (yard games, bikes, excessive woman packing, etc). So while I'm certain you both have fun things to poke, I will vehemently defend our - on the whim - purchase. AND I'm the only one with the added benefit of "Vehicled Encouraged Fitness" by riding my beach cruiser 17 miles to work a few times a week to save on gas and tolls.
yep and forgot to mention that i love the vehicle. pretty awesome to get it for such a steal
who invited you?
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