I made my first trip up to Tahoe in a few years this past Sunday/Monday, and aside from the snow (2′+ fresh), the weather (beautiful), the mountain (Alpine rules, as always), and the company (good friends and more on the hill), I was really happy with how the Element handled the snow. Granted, the conditions were fairly favorable, with snow on the roads but no ice, and temps in the 20’s that make for good snow tractions, but the AWD worked really well and we had no trouble getting around in the snowy twists and turns of Tahoe Donner. The Element also did much better than I expected up and down the I-80 grade, and overall mileage wasn’t any worse than it is around the Bay Area. Overall, a good snow car - although it ain’t no Scout, it worked well.

A year or so ago I got the idea into my head that I “needed” a car, and what’s more, needed some sort of big truck, because I have some land in Baja, and, you know, a guy needs a truck for that. A Baja rig, that sort of thing. And so when I saw a clean ‘96 F250 around the corner with a for sale sign on it, it just seemed like the right thing at the right time. Serendipity.

So I became the owner of a 1996 Ford F250 Super Cab 4×4, with the 460 V8. That’s 7.5 liters - the largest V8 made, more or less. Huge. Powerful. Heavy. Lots of fun on a sandy track in Baja, as long as you don’t run out of gas (easy to do at 10 mpg), snap an axle, or pile the thing into an arroyo. None of which I did, and the big truck made it down to Pescadero and back without a problem.

…and then mostly sat in front of my house, used for occasional grocery runs and trips to the beach or across the bridge in the rain. I drove it back and forth to the south bay for paragliding lessons, and more recently down to Waddell to go kitesurfing, and every time I got it on the road, I couldn’t help but think about how much gas it was using. And how expensive all that gas was. Last fillup I maxed out the credit card limit at the pump at $75 and still hadn’t actually filled both tanks. Yeah, two tanks.

So I started thinking about selling it and getting something more practical. I do like Audi’s, and I drove the A3 a few times and almost bought one, but I just couldn’t justify that much money for a car that I wouldn’t be driving every day. Last week I went and drove the Honda Element, and I thought, OK, this is cool, and not too expensive. So I bought one of those, put the truck on Craigslist, and sold that two days later. Now all those little things that needed to be fixed on the truck are on someone’s else’s list, and I’ve got a new car that is super fun to drive, uses way less gas, and gets lots of “hey, cool looking car” comments. True enough, it was another impulse buy (like the truck in the first place), but in general my impulses are good ones.

The big truck served well, and I will miss its rumble, but it’s time to say out with the old

and in with the new!