Kids today, sheesh!!

Yea when I was a kid, I wanted a hemi cuda or challenger. Still do for that matter.

Let's see, which option would you choose?

-Powerful, uncomfortable gas hog and not be able to afford highway travel
-Smooth, efficient, comfortable, practice vehicle and be able to afford highway travel



I'll take the second option. I much rather travel than drive around in the city looking pimp. No thanks! More important things to see.

This is coming from someone who has driven over 1,000 miles in the past 9 days.

Practicality was never my strong suit, you only live once ya know.

One life, many places to visit. Many opportunities present. Best to be positioned to take advantage of the opportunities as they open.

That's my motto.

I'll take the hemi 'Cuda with the highway travel any day of the week... and I've driven 3,500 miles in the last 9 days.

In a practical Honda mv.

How was the trip, BTW?

And, practice NOT only on trips. 40mpg on the actual trip is important. But, to get 35/40mpg around town for daily errands, etc saves the extra money to make the trip possible.

One more thing: I hope Toyota puts the Atkinson cycle engine in the standard Toyota SOON. 147hp should be enough for the "economy" version. That should boost mileage by 1mpg on the highway but 2-3mpg in town!

Yeah, but if we didn't have 3 kids and the 'Cuda had been an option... I think there are very few of the younger generations who can understand the muscle car thing, as we've already concluded. There's more to life than "efficiency," and there are many well-paid engineers driving them who would agree . That's another thread anyway.

Trip was OK, not the best, but OK. The Southwest is my favorite part of the country and we saw a lot of areas I hadn't been to in many years. Did Carlsbad Caverns, stayed late for the bat flight (hadn't done that before - it's something everyone should see once in their life), and lots more.

We probably have about 400 engineers here, mostly EEs and you should see our parking lot, a host of vettes, vipers, porches, bmw 5 series, shelby mustangs, charger R/Ts and more mustang gt's then you can shake a stick at. The owner (now deceased) used to drive a testarosa in some times. On weekends he would practice his defensive (as in kidnap avoidance, billionaires take classes for that, must be nice) driving skills in the parking lot. I think there is one prius.

I think finance majors look for "efficiency" more than engineers do. "Bean counters" come to mind.

That makes sense.

On the plus side, I budgeted gas for this trip at a combined estimate of 18mpg, and the Ody came in at around 23. Pretty good for a 4K+ pound vehicle (empty) overloaded with 5 people and everything we own, driving ~80mph most of the way. I'd estimate there was a minimum of 1K lbs. of people and stuff in the car, not counting the 50-lb. rock we brought back from Jerome, AZ .

On the minus side, every time we needed to fill up it was in a "$4.25 area" and every time we went through a "$3.86 area" we were nearly full. Amazing how much it varied.

23 is very good!!!!

Yea the bean counters are driving benz's, boring. Although the CFO drives a Range Rover.