[Trombone-l] Expenses

[Daryl Burch]

I'm in the same boat so to speak. Most of the rehearsals I end up at 
are in a dank-n-stanky old Persian rug factory converted into rehearsal 
studios on the south side of San Francisco. It 54 mis. one way. At the 
current gas prices and with bridge tolls, I pay out $17 - $20 to attend 
each "FREE" rehearsal. So when the gig pays $75 or less, if there's 
more than 1 rehearsal beforehand, I've lost money on the gig in travel 
expenses alone.

<in Jackie Mason voice> "Fa THIS I went ta calledge!"</>

If you are considering picking up a more fuel efficient mode-o'-transpo 
for gig-xsport, seriously consider something like an early-to-mid '90s 
Ford Escort or Mazda 323. I had a '90 Ford Escort Pony FS, with a 2.0L 
4-speed manual that I put over 500 mis./wk. on giggin'. It averages 36 
mpg.!! OK, so it was black with no A/C in the CA sun. But it still got 
36 mpg!!!

Most of the so-called "hybrids" from Ford, Toyota, Honda and others are 
only getting 30 mpg or so off the lot. (Conspiracy theorists: start a 
buzzin'!!)

Heck, my wife's '89 323 with a 1.8L 4-cyl. got 28!

And our current '03 Toyota Sienna with a V-6 gets 26 mpg on the freeway 
consistently.

FWIW: The '85 Honda Civic 1.3L 4-sp. average 40 mpg!!!

All this info is available from fueleconomy.gov.

I'm not promoting/endorsing any of this stuff. These are just the facts 
I came up with when I started wondering why all the big automakers were 
turning out costly "hybrids" that are more expensive to maintain and 
only get 10-20% better gas mileage than their standard counterparts. 
Unfortunately "hybrid" has become yet-another marketing buzzword to 
sell cars. And its original intent has been lost.

I know a number of 'bone/low brass players that keep a beater car for 
gigging specifically for gas mileage-considerations.

Trambone related content: The 2003 Toyota Sienna holds 16.7 more 
trombones than the 1990 Ford Escort Pony FS hatchback.

Thanks for enduring my Cliff Clavin-esque rant! Cheers!
-D-
www.radionoise.com <- Rock star by night
www.burchinteractive.com <- Tech-nerd by day #;-)


On Jun 29, 2006, at 1:30 PM, Bill Dinwiddie wrote:

> Should I lose the Tahoe and buy a
> car that gets 40 mpg for $15 to $20,000 and spend 5 years paying it 
> off?