Test Drive The Sun

Not sure if solar panels will help you?  Try this out.  Roof ray is a great way to see if using solar power will work in your location.  This sounds very interesting, let me know what you think!

[roofray]

[gizmodo]

Eco friendly and gorgeous!

I am a huge fan of the Lotus Elise and especially the new Tesla Roadster (because they are practically kissing cousins) but I found some middle ground.

The Lotus Eco Elise.  

To achieve the "Eco" status they use sustainable alternatives for different materials and add a water based paint.  Oh, and there are solar panels in the hard top that supplies power to the electrical system.

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Forget fuel economy, my car drives up walls!

Really, I'd be willing to sacrifice mileage just do to this.

Is it worth it to trade in?

Gas prices around my area just started going down slightly, so that's a plus, but they are still higher than I want to pay (that's why I usually walk everywhere!).

I also keep seeing a lot of trucks and SUV's on peoples driveways with the big orange and white for sale sign on them.

They must be tired of getting that horrible gas mileage that comes with those behemoths and they now want the fuel sipping hybrids that are looking more and more attractive these days.

Well, is it really worth it?  Will you be saving money by really trading in your truck and getting a smaller car?

Edmunds has a great interactive calculator that lets you see if you'll be saving money.  I tried it out, and it turns out that I should just keep what I have.  I'll have to forgo that new Mini Cooper!

I thought I'd try trading in my Chevy Venture Minivan for a 2008 Mini Cooper.  I would be saving about $45 a month on gas and the number of months to breakeven and begin saving money on gas was a staggering 415 months.  415!  Wow.

Keep in mind that I don't drive hardly anywhere these days so that may skew my results, but give it a shot, it's fun to see the outcome is!

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