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I'm not kidding. I've been given charge of the disposal of one FSP (http://houston.craigslist.org/car/736436025.html). Anyway, I feel terrible so I'm offering any buyer a gas card so they can drive it for a year before it gets repo'd. If you know anyone dead set on getting a shiny new FSP, they might as well recycle. This FSP, if purchased would be assembled with 100% post-consumer FSP parts. I'll give anyone a $500 bounty if they convince a FSP shopper to recycle instead of buying new.

Anyway... Here's the official sales pitch (http://houston.craigslist.org/car/736436025.html):
$1000.00 GAS CARD - 2000 Limited Edition Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer - $7900 (Houston,TX)Reply to: 106mpg@gmail.com
Date: 2008-06-28, 10:54PM CDT


Get a $1000.00 gas card when you purchase this 2000 Limited Edition Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer 4.0L V6. This car has it all with only 78,000 miles. We will pay a buyer referral fee of $500.00. The features include: leather, 6-cd changer with full car speakers and tape player, rear air, towing package, moon roof, electric seat adjustments, electric windows, rear cargo cover, alloy wheels, roof rack, running boards, split drop rear seats, flip up glass on tailgate, automatic headlights, interior recorder, interior home-link, door keypad and keyless entry, steering wheel controls for air, music, and cruise control, 4-wheel disc brakes with ABS, and floor and cargo mats. A/C IS COLD! I AM AVERAGING 19 MPGS FOR CITY AND HIGHWAY COMBINED! (<= Ed. that's my wife's quote. I should hit low 20's at least)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/side_view.jpg
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/interior_front.jpg
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/interior_back_seat.jpg
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/interior_cargo.JPG


Anyway... Please consider my recycling effort in case you know a FSP buyer dead set on buying one. Or if you know someone in an Escalade looking to downsize and gain 20% in FE, this is a good option as well. It also gets 30% better FE than an Hummer and and 60% better FE than an armored tank. Anyway... the good news is that the original owner is now driving a Hybrid ;).

PLEASE.....

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No, I don't, but I would be in the market for a really cheap older toyota type pickup if you know of anyone... (that needs little to no major maintenance) I need one for doing monthly type recycling type hauls and it would otherwise be parked... :) Don't even care if it has like 200,000 miles if it works rather well ;)

Dan, careful - that looked like spam at first glance. :eek:

Dan, careful - that looked like spam at first glance. :eek:Yeah... no kidding... Some spammer must have hijacked Dan's account since that can't be him posting....

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I had a split-second Barney Fife moment. :o

Very nice vehicle. It must have the 5 liter V-8, so it is rated 13/18. It should get at least 22 mpg in hy driving at 65 mph or so.

The biggish SUVs make a lot more sense used now, than new. You get the same utility without forking out $30000 for something that might become a dino if we see $10 gas.

Luck,
Charlie

Very nice vehicle. It must have the 5 liter V-8, so it is rated 13/18. It should get at least 22 mpg in hy driving at 65 mph or so.

The biggish SUVs make a lot more sense used now, than new. You get the same utility without forking out $30000 for something that might become a dino if we see $10 gas.

Luck,
CharlieNope... 4.0L V6.

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Very nice vehicle. It must have the 5 liter V-8, so it is rated 13/18. It should get at least 22 mpg in hy driving at 65 mph or so.

The biggish SUVs make a lot more sense used now, than new. You get the same utility without forking out $30000 for something that might become a dino if we see $10 gas.

Luck,
Charlie

You can get upper 20's easy. I've had one 30+ tank in mine.

Good move selling it though.

This seems counter productive. Selling an FSP on a Hypermiling site? I'm sorry, but I just don't get it? The owner switched to a Hybrid, so your selling this to get someone else to drive a FSP? :rolleyes::confused:

This seems counter productive. Selling an FSP on a Hypermiling site? I'm sorry, but I just don't get it? The owner switched to a Hybrid, so your selling this to get someone else to drive a FSP? :rolleyes::confused:Kinda tongue-in-cheek. I certainly don't expect anyone to buy it, I just thought it was hilarious that me (of all people) was given charge of disposing of this monstrosity. But I'll execute to the best of my abilities.

I guess there is some logic to my joke of recycling. Someone will eventually drive this beast to it's eventual disposal. I'd prefer that person do it burning the least amount of gas. So either a hypermiler or someone who drives very, very little. There are prices to my convictions, but I'm not willing to take it to the degree of selling this thing for scrap metal to a disposal site. Sorry... I need the money.

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The 6 cyl- I'm surprised that Ford offered the Eddie Bauer trim level with the 6 cyl ? Yes, it should do better FE wise.


Fluxuated. No it makes perfect sense. This vehicle will remain in service, so it is just a question of WHO WILL DRIVE IT!?. A hypermiler who will average 20+ mpg with it, or an average driver who will average 14 mpg with it? It would be very wasteful to scrap a vehicle with so much life in it; that sure isn't green. Dan is dead on.

Very tough sell of course.

Luck,

Charlie

Wow, that interior looks nice, but small! The Prius must have seemed cavernous compared to the cramped quarters in this FSP! I bet the Mariner even offers more leg room than this thing.

Wow, that interior looks nice, but small! The Prius must have seemed cavernous compared to the cramped quarters in this FSP! I bet the Mariner even offers more leg room than this thing.When we went shopping for a FSP I couldn't find anything that was remotely close to the Odyssey in terms of space. Blew me away that a full sized suburban was so small inside and the third-row was almost non-existent. The Odyssey has a third row like a couch. No knees up by my ears or anything of the like. Sad part is most third rows are intended for kids smaller than 40 lbs. Useful, but not so useful. The larger SUV's have cramped "living" quarters, with gobs of space for gear in the back. But in the same breath, they are sold as "family" cars for people with need to move lots of people, not gear.

Never understood marketing, or consumer trends.. Well the good news is I got rid of the Prius, and now we are down from 4 cars in my drive, down to 3. If I can sell the FSP, I'll be back to 2 cars (one more than I probably need).

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Well the good news is I got rid of the Prius, and now we are down from 4 cars in my drive, down to 3. If I can sell the FSP, I'll be back to 2 cars (one more than I probably need).

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:( Dan, say it isn't so....no more Prius?:( Have you had any serious offers on the Explorer yet?

My previous FSP was a 1991 Eddie Bauer Explorer. I sold it at 300,000 miles, still running, for $500. It killed two trannies in its life, but the original motor was running strong. It gave me a lot of years with no car payment.

Nanci

Dan - you must mean the Tahoe. Despite its 204" length it has a cramped 3rd row. No one complains about the Suburban's 3rd row being cramped. In general the 200" plus minivans have good 3rd rows , but the 200"+ Tahoe,Expedition,Yukon have cramped 3rd rows - probably because of that solid axle vs independent suspension. The Suburban 218"
has lots of 3rd row space. Frankly , other than garage space there isn't much point in getting the "short" 204" SUVs , you get the same fuel penalty but less utility.

Our Pilot-188" - had that very cramped 3rd row - strictly for under 10 yo kids.

Charlie

How funny, I'm helping a friend sell a 2006 Mercedes R-500 wtih 27kmiles on ebay. He paid over $65,000 for it two years ago and was only offered $25,000 when he went to trade it in a few weeks ago.

Another sad story - I know a gent who is trying to get rid of a 2003 Lincoln Navigator with 34k miles. It was probably close to $50k new. He drove it down to Car Max and they only offered $7,000 for it. They apologetically informed him they can't get rid of these huge SUVs. Just think, he was riding in style just last year and now this FSP is like a noose around his neck. $100 weekly fill-ups anyone?

atlaw4u -$100 fillups !! Heck if they have plus 30 gallons tanks , and most do , a 350 mile city fillup can easily be $120 ,and on some vehicles -44 gallon tank in my 98 Suburban- you can nibble at $200 for a fillup. The mid sized and larger SUVs can easily average under 12 mpg in city driving , and that is with a 2wd vehicle. For reasons that are not really clear to me a 8 cyl 2000 Explorer is rated 13/18 vs 12/17 for a 2000 Suburban. I would have guessed that a midsized would be better than 1 mpg better than the largest 1/2 ton SUV , but I would have guessed wrong.

Older midsized SUVs with the V-8s get pretty poor FE. The popular crossovers are riding for a fall also. In general they are rated 16/23 ; vs 14/20 for the HUGE Suburban.A 15% improvement just isn't very much . The Odyssey (cyl shutdown one costs almost $30000) and the Sienna are rated about 26-28 mpg hy a significant improvement , but the other minivans get roughly crossover mpg - not good for their longevity.

Eventually potential crossover buyers will realize they aren't buying much FE when they trade in their monster SUV for a crossover. Folks will hold out until the crossover makers switch to large 4 cyl motors (2.7 liters), and lower vehicles with better CD numbers. This will give them 1-2 mpg better city and they will reach 30 mph hy. The VUE 4 cyl mild hybrid is rated 32 mpg and none of the 32 mpg has anything to do with regen braking etc. It is all due to better CD , small efficient motor, electric steering, electric compressor (I think) better tires etc.

EPA 30 mpg is going to be the minimum for a family "road trip" vehicles soon. The cyl shutdown Odyssey with huge interior volume is at 28 already. With a decent Honda 4 cyl and a little slimming/tapering it would get 30 mpg without cyl shutdown. Heck with GMs 2 mode hooked to a Honda 4 cyl it would be a heck of a car.

Folks with relatively new big SUVs are better off just sucking it up and coming here. They just can't downsize there way out of having a high vehicle cost per month. A small crossover will put them so upside down they will never see light again, and they won't save much on fuel costs - even $20/gal gas wouldn't make trading the FSP in smart.They need to come here and get a 25% improvement with the mildest of modifications to their driving style.

I'm running on, sorry .

Charlie

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/Ford_Exploder.JPG

Dan may have an update ;)

Ohh Please, Please let them buy it!!!

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:eek::o:rolleyes::D:woot:
W E . R E C Y C L E D . I T !
:eek::o:rolleyes::D:woot:

Hurray!

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And all it took was, what, $3.65 per gallon? Ahh, well. Glad it's not darkening your driveway anymore!

Yeah, we were pretty scared. Glad to have it out of here. The new owner is super low mileage so thats good too.

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