Comment Re:Unintended consequences (Score 2) 282
For a truck that is spectacular gas mileage. The manual transmission helps, but the big difference is that it just isn't that big. Our current regulations make small trucks like the S10 infeasible. That's the sort of unintended consequence that is likely to make this 30 year-old vehicle even more desirable in the future.
And before you mock his gas mileage remember that he has been getting that gas mileage since 1995 when 23 MPG was even more amazing. That vehicle cost around $10k new, is far less expensive to insure than basically anything else. While the S10 is small, it is still a pickup truck. If you take the time to compare his driving costs over the last 25 years compared to yours you will probably be far less inclined to mock his decision. Especially when you consider the fact that his vehicle doesn't phone his insurance company every time he brakes aggressively.
I drive an old 1996 Honda Civic for similar reasons. It gets better gas mileage (and seats more people, at least in a pinch), but it isn't as generally useful as an S10. I'm jealous.
What I want is a new Toyota Hilux. It is like the S10 in many ways (in that both are small pickups). Unfortunately, Toyota can't sell them in the U.S. due to the unintended consequences of some of our stupid EPA regulations. Instead we are stuck with bigger trucks because apparently those vehicles get loopholes.