Originally Posted by zu!

Thanks for the honest opinion DD, much appreciated. Doing stuff to save money has always been one of my priorities. I derive great satisfaction from it. Same reason I collect, split and stack firewood too. I live in a suburban area, and the only other person who takes the trouble to do this is my immediate neighbour. And make not mistake, its a LOT of work indeed...but one that I say keeps me fit :-)

I have thought about this for a long time. One reason is to be less tethered to the teat of petro companies. The other is to save on the immense amount of taxes that we pay here for fuel (I believe, the highest in Canada), and finally, of course, to save money.

Still, to convince the wife (and yes, the significant other is indeed a very significant buy-in) I will need to do more than just say I will save money. A break-even point in 40,000 miles is quite a bit. I put about 29,000 kms a year in the car. That would mean my break-even point is about 2.5 years or so. Quite a ways to go.

Yes, I might have to come up with better arguments in terms of cost. Would you mind sharing your system technicalities? Feel free to PM or email me if you prefer to chat privately, thanks!