How many people daily drive their tow vehicle? I sat down and did the math and the lease payment + fuel + insurance for a basic Chevy Cruze to commute to work in was cheaper than just fuel to commute in my truck. That does not even include the wear and tear I am saving on my truck. For me it made sense to lease a car that I don't have to pay to fix (under warranty for the whole lease) and just use my truck for towing and hauling when needed.I drive about 10k miles a year commuting. 10,000 miles / 12 mpg = 833 gallons of gasoline. At $3.75 a gallon average that is $3125 a year just for fuel.In the Cruze: 10,000 miles / 35 mpg (my historic average for the last 4 months) = $1071 a year for fuel. Lease payments are $120 a month = $1440 a year and insurance is cheap because adding a 3rd car gives me a bigger discount. In the end with insurance it is right around $3000 a year for the car. The big bonus is I am saving 10k miles a year on my truck and the maintenance $$ that goes along with it and I don't have to pay to maintain the car since Chevy offered free regular maintenance on the 2014 models.

If the numbers work for you, then sure, it makes sense. My buddy has a V10 F250 he uses to pull his horse trailer. So yes, for him it made sense to have an economy car to commute in. He bought an older Civic. I have another friend that is leasing a Nissan Leaf electric car, and he tells me the numbers work out on it as well, since the 2500HD sits at home most of the time now.

There's also the convenience of having that second car. We too have a Cruze (Eco, 40mpg) that we use exclusively for grocery-getting and local travel at home. And it's available for children/relatives when they fly in to visit. Also the truck is just more painful to maneuver and park in the city. If that's all we had, I'm sure I'd be driving my wife around to all her affairs.But when we're in Florida over-winter, and elsewhere camping, we gotta use the truck for getting around. Ends up only about half our truck's mileage is towing. Total mileage about 13K miles per year.The gas costs in Canada are much higher than in the States, so it makes even more sense here to have a second vehicle, but still I don't think that we're saving any money if we consider the initial cost of the second vehicle. For high mileage commuters though, it sounds like a good financial idea.

brulaz wrote:There's also the convenience of having that second car. We too have a Cruze (Eco, 40mpg) that we use exclusively for grocery-getting and local travel at home. And it's available for children/relatives when they fly in to visit. Also the truck is just more painful to maneuver and park in the city. If that's all we had, I'm sure I'd be driving my wife around to all her affairs.But when we're in Florida over-winter, and elsewhere camping, we gotta use the truck for getting around. Ends up only about half our truck's mileage is towing. Total mileage about 13K miles per year.The gas costs in Canada are much higher than in the States, so it makes even more sense here to have a second vehicle, but still I don't think that we're saving any money if we consider the initial cost of the second vehicle. For high mileage commuters though, it sounds like a good financial idea.That's the thing, I don't even consider my commute high mileage. I travel 17 miles each way.

It's all about miles driven. We've been lucky of late that the commute is zero miles in the winter and 10 miles roundtrip in the summer, so we would be losing money buying a seperate car.Of course if we are going purely for the financial benefit, buy a 5yr old car for $10k. Assuming you don't abuse it, you should be able to get 10yrs out of it with it being reliable and your lease payment would have it paid off in around 7yrs. Your insurance will likely be a bit cheaper as it's worth less.Unless you are talking crazy high miles, I wouldn't put much emphasis on wear and tear for the truck. Regular use is actually good for mechanical devices, so modest use likely will result in a longer lifespan than sitting for a month or more at a time between hard use towing.

valhalla360 wrote:It's all about miles driven. We've been lucky of late that the commute is zero miles in the winter and 10 miles roundtrip in the summer, so we would be losing money buying a seperate car.Of course if we are going purely for the financial benefit, buy a 5yr old car for $10k. Assuming you don't abuse it, you should be able to get 10yrs out of it with it being reliable and your lease payment would have it paid off in around 7yrs. Your insurance will likely be a bit cheaper as it's worth less.Unless you are talking crazy high miles, I wouldn't put much emphasis on wear and tear for the truck. Regular use is actually good for mechanical devices, so modest use likely will result in a longer lifespan than sitting for a month or more at a time between hard use towing.I agree that the tow vehicle still needs to be driven regularly and mine gets used every weekend for home depot runs or going fishing and things like that, it just made financial sense for me to get a separate car to commute. The nice thing about leasing is you always have a new car that is always under warranty. I was just curious how many people daily drive their tow rigs and how many have trucks dedicated to towing/hauling. I daily drove trucks for 15 years before this.

Daily Driving Tow Vehicles | Good Sam Community

63 Replies

2500HDee
Explorer
Jun 13, 2014
brulaz wrote:
There's also the convenience of having that second car. We too have a Cruze (Eco, 40mpg) that we use exclusively for grocery-getting and local travel at home. And it's available for children/relatives when they fly in to visit.

Also the truck is just more painful to maneuver and park in the city. If that's all we had, I'm sure I'd be driving my wife around to all her affairs.

But when we're in Florida over-winter, and elsewhere camping, we gotta use the truck for getting around. Ends up only about half our truck's mileage is towing. Total mileage about 13K miles per year.

The gas costs in Canada are much higher than in the States, so it makes even more sense here to have a second vehicle, but still I don't think that we're saving any money if we consider the initial cost of the second vehicle. For high mileage commuters though, it sounds like a good financial idea.

That's the thing, I don't even consider my commute high mileage. I travel 17 miles each way.
brulaz
Explorer
Jun 13, 2014
There's also the convenience of having that second car. We too have a Cruze (Eco, 40mpg) that we use exclusively for grocery-getting and local travel at home. And it's available for children/relatives when they fly in to visit.

Also the truck is just more painful to maneuver and park in the city. If that's all we had, I'm sure I'd be driving my wife around to all her affairs.

But when we're in Florida over-winter, and elsewhere camping, we gotta use the truck for getting around. Ends up only about half our truck's mileage is towing. Total mileage about 13K miles per year.

The gas costs in Canada are much higher than in the States, so it makes even more sense here to have a second vehicle, but still I don't think that we're saving any money if we consider the initial cost of the second vehicle. For high mileage commuters though, it sounds like a good financial idea.
gmw_photos
Explorer
Jun 13, 2014
If the numbers work for you, then sure, it makes sense. My buddy has a V10 F250 he uses to pull his horse trailer. So yes, for him it made sense to have an economy car to commute in. He bought an older Civic. I have another friend that is leasing a Nissan Leaf electric car, and he tells me the numbers work out on it as well, since the 2500HD sits at home most of the time now.

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