Opportunity to Trade Cars - What's your opinion?

I have a 2008 Ford Escape Limited, 2wd, 3.0l V6 with 94,000 mlies, all highway.

My grandparents are getting older and have trouble getting in and out of their truck and have offered to trade me for my car that is lower to the ground and smaller. They have a 2002 Chevy Avalanche with 80,000 miles, 4wd, 5.3l V8.

Both cars are fully loaded but the Escape doesn't have 4wd. I've been considering trading my car in on a Ford Fusion with AWD anyway because I don't necessarily need my CUV but would like to have AWD and since the AWD Fusion get's the same gas mileage as the Escape 2wd and would be great to have for going skiing. The Avalanche is going to get terrible gas mileage, I'd say that more of my driving is highway and I'd probably get about 18-19mpg at best with the Avalanche. The Escape I have now get's about 22-23 mpg on the highway. So it's not a huge difference especially now that I'm not driving home every weekend (340 miles). I'll mostly be going to and from school so I won't be driving as much but it'll still be quick trips down the highway to school (100-150 miles a week).

I'd like to have the Avalanche because I love having 4wd when I go home for the beach. We don't get much snow where I live for school, maybe 1 week of snow per year. I am an architect though so I often drive onto construction sites where it would be helpful to have a more durable truck with 4wd. The Fusion would also be just as good, yea I wouldn't be able to take it on the beach but I can't do that with the escape anyway, but I would be able to use it on the snow for Ski trips.

What's your honest opinion? Would you trade out for the Avalanche? Keep the Escape? Trade the Escape for an AWD Fusion that will help for ski season?

I wouldn't trade down 6 model years unless I felt I needed to do it because my grandparents needed the financial help.

milessthomas said:

They have a 2002 Chevy Avalanche with 80,000 miles, 4wd, 5.3l V8.

Click to expand...

The Chevy Avalanche is a BIG vehicle...with a 5.3l V8...and with gas getting close to $4.00/gallon in some places...you're not going to be a very "happy camper" filling it up (regardless of how few miles you drive). With a 31 gallon tank...that could mean upwards of $120 bucks to fill the tank when almost empty

Fuel economy ratings say 12mpg City / 15mpg highway...and since this vehicle has 80,000 mies on it...mpg could be a little less.

Fuel Economy of the 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche 1500 4WD

My 2 cents,

- Nick

Yea Razormac, it would really be more to help them out so they didn't have to figure out getting a new vehicle.

I traded for a brief period this summer and calculated the average mpg over a 2 month period using gallons per fill up vs. miles driven, and compared each calculation for a total average of 17.4 mpg. This was all done using my usual route to and from school and regular driving. The new calculations done by fueleconomy.gov seem to undercut numbers and are based on general calculations and not individual driving habits and long term averages.

Now 17.4mpg isn't great but its a lot better than the reported numbers from the EPA. Gas has been increasing on the national average but the fluctuations don't really matter to me, I buy new vehicles based on what I need out of the vehicle not the cost of gas. I could go out and buy a small honda civic and get 30 mpg but I won't have the cargo room I need for trips, the awd/4wd I'd like to have for the ski season, or the potential to haul my boat during the summer without borrowing my dad's truck.

I think the Avalanche would be more utilitarian for my needs, but idk. I'll have to keep thinking on it.

Are they both paid off in full? Insurance cost difference? Any major maintenance coming up at 100k for either vehicle? How long would you be holding on to either vehicle and what's the total yearly cost of ownership? Just some stuff that pops through my mind.

MY druthers... would be to go with the Avalanche. Can't beat the 5.3L engine, 4WD, utility and size.

We had a 2003 Chevy Suburban, in about 2004 it cost just about $100 to fill up(31 gallons) in the area we live. I would hate to fill that up now(I believe they have the same exact gas tank)!

I like the Avalanches and Suburbans. I wouldn't mind having one, but I couldn't stand paying $100+ every week...so I bought a new Pilot

I say, if you can afford it, do it, while helping them out.

Selling it might also sound like a reasonable plan.

Both are fully paid off, insurance should be the same since I had a Tahoe on it before and it didn't change, I've done the 100k maintenance on mine and my grandpa said he'd take care of 100k on Avalanche. Gas will slightly increase cost of ownership. Parts and Maintenance are pretty negligible since my dad own's a parts store and a shop.

I take good care of my cars and generally drive them until they completely die. I had my 1991 Cherokee until it had 290,000 miles and the doors were literally so worn out I could see outside through the rubber gasket to the outside and it whistled so loud on the highway I couldn't stand it anymore. My dad still uses that as a work hauler.

I definitely agree iggibar, I just have to see whether its worth it to me for the utility or just help them sell it and get something else.

I guess my real issue is that I could see myself driving either car and not really caring. The game changer will be seeing how much I'd use the 4wd or using it to tow the boat.