Phil wrote:
Me eyes popped out of their sockets my first trip to Scotland and I did the mental gymnastics to
compute the equivalent cost of a gallon of dead dinosaur juice.

We get all hung up on fuel costs. I did for a while when I recently purchased my '06 Legacy GT (a
premium burner) but I quickly came to the conclusion that the depreciation costs of owning a new car
swamp out fuel cost differential between premium and regular. So I was worried about the wrong part
of the dollar equation, so I bought the turbo version and learned to love premium gas.

To illustrate:

I average about 8,000 mi per year, my fuel spreadsheet indicates I burned 380 gallons of premium
fuel at an average of 3.06 per gallon for a total of US$1137. Now if I got the N/A version, I'd
get ~20% better mileage and burn low octane. So, this would mean my fuel costs would be over 304
gallons at say 2.75 per gallon, which works out to a fuel savings of US$300. First year
depreciation on a Legacy GT is about US$3,000 give or take a couple Ben Franklins.

So, what does this have to do with a Forester (yes there is only one 'r' in Forester)?

I traded in our '04 Forester XS-Premium for a new '07 Forester XT Limited in November on a trade-in
deal that Subaru was running last year.

We've driven our Foresters all over the west coast and have loved both of them. I really like the
XT up in the mountains especially in the snow. The turbo helps keep sea-level pressure all the way
up the side of the big rocks to go play in the snow. The price you pay is lower mileage and burning
premium gas.

On Apr 10, 12:38 pm, marc.ger... (AT) gmail (DOT) com (Marc Gerges) wrote:
r energy usage and
family.