The Great Debate

The great debate around our house (or maybe it's just my head) is what to do about our vehicle situation. We revisit the subject often, but don't seem to really come to any conclusions. Or, rather, we don't seem to actually act on anything that we sort of decide to do.

So this is the situation...we live in the boonies. Combined we are currently commuting 180 miles a day. My commute is always the same, 60 miles round trip. The boyfriends commute changes as he is in construction and moves to different job sites. His round trip commute at this moment is 120 miles. Yes, that's 1-2-0. I don't think you could pay me enough to make that commute, but he doesn't seem to mind too much.

Anywho, on top of racking up a lot of miles commuting we each have a Dodge Ram 2500. They are atleast diesel so we get a little better mileage then gas, but it's still a huge expense every month. Especially when diesel was almost $5 a gallon! Luckily, the boyfriend had about a 15 mile round trip commute when that was going on!

So we talk about different options for our vehicle situation all the time, but a year later, we still have our big trucks. One problem is the value of our trucks have gone down the drain lately so we don't have many options. I have a year left on my loan, which is very exciting and hard to get motivated to get something new and start over again. Plus, I love my truck. I get teary when I start seriously thinking about getting rid of it. I've had it for almost 5 years, put about 80,000 miles on it and have many great memories with it.

Another problem is that it's been very convenient on more then one occassion that we had 2 big trucks. We've got the horse trailer and a flat bed trailer and have headed different directions each with a trailer quite a few times. It's nice having them both. We are definately truck people and put them to good use.

Commuting so much in them is not good use of them though!

Yet another problem is what the heck do I/we get instead?!? Most of the vehicles that I want are not practical at all. My truck probably gets the same or better gas mileage then most of them! Or, they are more along the line of a luxury car, which I don't need and is also completely impractical. But then, I've never been known to be practical. See Exhibit A. (Still haven't worn them one single time)

I would love to trade my truck in on a newer Dodge truck, but those suckers are expensive!!! Of course I want the leather, heated seats, power everything, spoiled brat, cushy truck. $50 grand please. OUCH! I love my butt warmers though and I'm pretty sure that is going to be a requirement in anything I get.

So, because our trucks aren't worth jack poop, I love my truck and haven't found anything worth giving it up for, don't want to spend the $50k that would make giving it up worth it and we're just indecisive lazy bums, we've still got 2 big trucks. We did manage to scoop up a little commuter car for really cheap for the boyfriends insane commute though. It's made a huge difference in the fuel bill already! But that doesn't solve the two big trucks issue.

The reason it's reaching a critical stage right now is that I need new tires. My brakes are also pretty much toast. And I'm way over due for some major maintenance work. I'm not worried about the engine so much, it is a Cummins with only 120,000 miles on it, but I'm sure the transmission will be costing me some money in the not too distant future. So I'm torn. If I'm going to get rid of it, like we've been talking about for a while now, I don't want to spend the money on the tires and brakes and maintenance, which means I need to get rid of it soonly. But, on the other hand, that would be cheaper then buying a whole new truck.

I know, I know. Tragic. What an awful problem to have. But that is the great debate around our house lately. I really just wanted an excuse to take pictures of my truck. lol