So I really don't mean for this to be a rant but I do apologize if it ends up seeming like one.
Anyways, the past six months I have been looking for a more 'cost efficient' car that could replace my Aero. I was looking at all Subarus, Infinitis, Nissans, and even a few Hondas (my previous car was a Honda). So I've probably driven over 2000 miles looking around for a car that fit my needs. Just this past Saturday I finally discovered....there really is no car that can replace my Saab. Everytime I attempted to compare my car to another, it became a complete and utterly failure. So as of Saturday night I have decided that I must keep my Saab and will be forced to love it for all of eternity (or until something major happens...).
So on to what was killing me about my car. I don't exactly hate the gas mileage, but it does seem to be worse than many other cars in respect to the city. Now, when I say city, I'm talking about stoplights, stopsigns, and multiple parking garages.....everyday. I discovered that as I drove up the parking garages (top floor, 4th floor, everytime is my luck) I averaged around 10mpg. I don't know if that is normal but it really does hurt. What is odd is that I get around 34-35 on the highway and around 22 in basic city traffic. But again, I drive up and down parking garages 3 or 4 times a day.
My next concern was the oil changes. I felt that if I wanted to keep the car in good condition all the time, I would need to follow the book and do fully synthetic every 3000 miles. Since I don't have the best access to do my own oil changes, I discovered the cheapest I could get it done was for $70 each time. This wouldn't be so bad if I didn't drive 20,000 miles a year, but I do.
My last concern is the tires. I currently have Pirreli P-Zero Rosso tires on the '04 Aero rims. They aren't bad tires, but I've had to replace 3 of them (while they were less than a year old) due to various bubbles I received when hitting pot holes. I know this is just bad luck but when the tires cost about $290 a piece installed, it adds up. The worst part about it is that I've only had the car for one year and I've spent twice the amount on these tires than I would have had I had 15" tires.
In order to fix all of this, I came up with these conclusions. I'm going to change my own oil. This is something I'll have to figure out with my time limitations and location. The gas obviously can't be solved, so I'm just going to have to drive less. Don't know how I'll do this, but I'll figure it out. Finally, I'm looking into getting either cheaper tires, or smaller wheels.
So in order to finish all of this I'm going to end in a couple questions. First, are there any suggestions on how you would solve my problems? Would any of the 15" wheels from the 9-3 fit my '01 aero (stock 17's)? Do you know of any cheaper longer lasting tires I could fit on my car?
Thanks in advance, and again sorry for the long post.
Jacob
Anyways, the past six months I have been looking for a more 'cost efficient' car that could replace my Aero. I was looking at all Subarus, Infinitis, Nissans, and even a few Hondas (my previous car was a Honda). So I've probably driven over 2000 miles looking around for a car that fit my needs. Just this past Saturday I finally discovered....there really is no car that can replace my Saab. Everytime I attempted to compare my car to another, it became a complete and utterly failure. So as of Saturday night I have decided that I must keep my Saab and will be forced to love it for all of eternity (or until something major happens...).
So on to what was killing me about my car. I don't exactly hate the gas mileage, but it does seem to be worse than many other cars in respect to the city. Now, when I say city, I'm talking about stoplights, stopsigns, and multiple parking garages.....everyday. I discovered that as I drove up the parking garages (top floor, 4th floor, everytime is my luck) I averaged around 10mpg. I don't know if that is normal but it really does hurt. What is odd is that I get around 34-35 on the highway and around 22 in basic city traffic. But again, I drive up and down parking garages 3 or 4 times a day.
My next concern was the oil changes. I felt that if I wanted to keep the car in good condition all the time, I would need to follow the book and do fully synthetic every 3000 miles. Since I don't have the best access to do my own oil changes, I discovered the cheapest I could get it done was for $70 each time. This wouldn't be so bad if I didn't drive 20,000 miles a year, but I do.
My last concern is the tires. I currently have Pirreli P-Zero Rosso tires on the '04 Aero rims. They aren't bad tires, but I've had to replace 3 of them (while they were less than a year old) due to various bubbles I received when hitting pot holes. I know this is just bad luck but when the tires cost about $290 a piece installed, it adds up. The worst part about it is that I've only had the car for one year and I've spent twice the amount on these tires than I would have had I had 15" tires.
In order to fix all of this, I came up with these conclusions. I'm going to change my own oil. This is something I'll have to figure out with my time limitations and location. The gas obviously can't be solved, so I'm just going to have to drive less. Don't know how I'll do this, but I'll figure it out. Finally, I'm looking into getting either cheaper tires, or smaller wheels.
So in order to finish all of this I'm going to end in a couple questions. First, are there any suggestions on how you would solve my problems? Would any of the 15" wheels from the 9-3 fit my '01 aero (stock 17's)? Do you know of any cheaper longer lasting tires I could fit on my car?
Thanks in advance, and again sorry for the long post.
Jacob