What with gas prices being what they are, and was I'm afraid they soon will be, I have been giving thought toward buying some little roller skate, probably a Toyota Corolla. I dunno if they make them with a flex-fuel option, but if ethanol gets shoved down my throat, our current two vehicles will either have to sit and rot or have certain part destroyed due to the corrossiveness of ethenol on certain plastic and rubber parts. it would probably cost a young fortune to get all those changed over, even if they were available.
So I have to weight the cost of a new vehicle over what it might save me in fuel costs over possibly having to convert my current paid for vehicles to a fuel I don't want.
My 93 toyota 4x4 pick up truck averages about 21 MPG. It has all of 84,271 miles on the odometer(I just checked) . That's 5,618 miles a year average on that one.
The 1998 Ford Explorer is a bit more hungry at 15.9 city and 20.5 highway the last time I checked. It has a whopping 37,067 miles on the odometer which works out to 3,707 miles per year. We bought it to take trips to visit the kids that live out of state in Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Texas. Now, about the only time it gets used is when my wife goes to church. FWIW, that 20.5 MPG is with the cruise control set at 65 MPH. At a legal 75 MPH. it drops to about 19.1 MPG.
I used to go to the range two or three times a week, but now it's been more like twice a month.
Those 50 mile round trips to the range can add up when you have to fill up the tank.
Paul B.