Let Your Gas Savings Make Your Payments Plan - How Does This Work?

[Karnaj]

You nailed it Jeff, that's the double-edged sword that is this forum. It's entertaining, interesting, and sometimes informative! But it's also at times frustrating, folks typing-without-thinking, and wildly speculative.

A skill you'll want when reading threads here, is to recognize speculation and treat it as such. Once you have that skill, the frustration goes down a bit.

One thing we all could do, is when someone asks a question, we could all say "..... I dunno....", but what fun would there be in that?!

I dunno...

Actually, that was kinda fun

 

[Ian442]

I have to say as a member of multiple bulletin boards, this is about the best one I have been on in a long time.

keep up the good work.

As for the topic, I think when I finally trade in for my car all I'm to get is a handful of beans

 

[Sethodine]

The last time I had a car evaluated for its trade-in value, they said, "Look, either you can sell it to Pick-n-Pull, or we'll sell it to Pick-n-Pull." :/ I ended up just giving that car away to a family member who was in need of a gap car for a few weeks while he got his transmission repaired.

On-topic: the other day I was fueling up, and 8 gallons was about $17 in my area. I estimate I would have to fill up about 1.5 - 2 times per month, so call it a monthly car payment of $76.50 - $102. This is about equal to what I'm paying for gas right now ($25 per fill-up, 3 or 4 times per month)

IF this whole credit card concept works, then I know I would be happy with this outcome

 

[Rickb]

You nailed it Jeff, that's the double-edged sword that is this forum. It's entertaining, interesting, and sometimes informative! But it's also at times frustrating, folks typing-without-thinking, and wildly speculative.

A skill you'll want when reading threads here, is to recognize speculation and treat it as such. Once you have that skill, the frustration goes down a bit.

One thing we all could do, is when someone asks a question, we could all say "..... I dunno....", but what fun would there be in that?!

The real skill to develop is to recognize Elio Motor's speculation on which to base our personal speculation.

 

[Rickb]

The last time I had a car evaluated for its trade-in value, they said, "Look, either you can sell it to Pick-n-Pull, or we'll sell it to Pick-n-Pull." :/ I ended up just giving that car away to a family member who was in need of a gap car for a few weeks while he got his transmission repaired.

On-topic: the other day I was fueling up, and 8 gallons was about $17 in my area. I estimate I would have to fill up about 1.5 - 2 times per month, so call it a monthly car payment of $76.50 - $102. This is about equal to what I'm paying for gas right now ($25 per fill-up, 3 or 4 times per month)

IF this whole credit card concept works, then I know I would be happy with this outcome

2015 gas prices have averaged $1.04 per gal. lower than a year ago. Over the year I saved $15 on my weekly fill-ups. That savings went into my personal Elio gas savings account which totals about $780 for the year and it's drawing interest. I predict to have another year or two of savings time before Elio's production date. It seemed too make sound financial cents to me.

 

[pistonboy]

Not really any more details, just a little snippet from an email I got yesterday about the TEDx thing:

"Which of these resonated with the audience the most? Paul explained the “let your gas savings make your payments plan” and how it has the potential to get clunkers off the road. The plan being developed would allow anyone with a vehicle that gets less than 27 MPG trade in their vehicle for an Elio. They would receive a credit card to use with fuel purchases, but would be charged three times the amount of the actual purchase. One-third would go toward the fuel, the other two-thirds to paying off the vehicle.

“We can literally give vehicles away and get clunkers off the road,” Paul told the crowd.

They responded with enthusiastic applause."​

The phrasing implies that you trade in your existing vehicle, but that could just be me reading too much into the phrasing.

This is an aside comment, but I always wonder what is meant by "clunkers". I have several old cars with some in good visual condition and others not in good visual condition, but all in good mechanical working order. Is clunkers determined by mpg, emissions, reliability, visual esthetics, or what. It says there was an "enthusiastic applause". I am sure these are people not into cars. Would they consider a perfectly restored Duesenberg to be a "clunker" and like to see it destroyed? I wonder if Paul has any appreciation for old cars. Would Jay Leno's cars be considered non-clunkers because he has a lot of money to have them restored, and my vehicles would be considered to be clunkers because I do not have as much money as him to do restorations?

 

[pistonboy]

I have to say as a member of multiple bulletin boards, this is about the best one I have been on in a long time.

keep up the good work.

As for the topic, I think when I finally trade in for my car all I'm to get is a handful of beans

A "handful of beans" is about all you get for a trade in.

Drive them till they fall apart and can't go any further. Than shoot it and put it out of it misery.

 

[WilliamH]

I read something about the credit card option a while back.
It was explained something like this.
(I'll throw some figure to help with the explanation.)
You walk in and pick credit card option.
You are able to put $1800 down. (we won't worry about Tax, Title, destination. remember, this is simplified.)
So you get your card and it has a $5000 charge on it and is secured by your car.

At the end of month ............... Gas charges ..............Loan ballance
........... 1 ......................................$30........................$5000
You pay $90 so it now looks like
.....................................................$00.........................$4940
............2.......................................$50..........................$4940
You pay $150 so it now looks like
.....................................................$00..........................$4840
............3.......................................$40..........................$4840
You pay $120 so it now looks like
.....................................................$00..........................$4760

etc, etc till paid off
The $300 available for gas never increases.
I don't know about interest rates and I won't speculate.
I don't know how this would show up to a credit reporting agency.
Anyway, this was my understanding.

 

[BlioKart]

This is an aside comment, but I always wonder what is meant by "clunkers". I have several old cars with some in good visual condition and others not in good visual condition, but all in good mechanical working order. Is clunkers determined by mpg, emissions, reliability, visual esthetics, or what. It says there was an "enthusiastic applause". I am sure these are people not into cars. Would they consider a perfectly restored Duesenberg to be a "clunker" and like to see it destroyed? I wonder if Paul has any appreciation for old cars. Would Jay Leno's cars be considered non-clunkers because he has a lot of money to have them restored, and my vehicles would be considered to be clunkers because I do not have as much money as him to do restorations?

I would guess a "clunker" is determined by gas mileage and age. My current car is @187K miles and is 12 years old gets average 30mpg so it might be a clunker.

Most cars made today wont be classic cars.

 

[Hotscoots]

At that rate of gas consumption and depending on interest charges , your Elio should be paid off in just under 7 years.