Why gas guzzlers make sense (again)
As I write this, the price of regular unleaded is hovering around $5 a gallon. Diesel is about a buck a gallon more. All of this is headline news on a daily basis. Fuel prices are affecting every industry, every business, and every consumer.
Yet as of late, buyers seem to be fighting over some immense, heavy-duty, sub–15-mpg gas-guzzling SUVs. Some are even selling for many multiples of what they did a few years ago, when fuel cost a fraction of what it does now. But the people buying these things (including yours truly) might be on to something.
Here I’ve focused on two gas-guzzlers with ever-increasing cult followings: The 2000–05 Ford Excursion and the 1998–2007 Toyota Land Cruiser.
The longest, heaviest mass-produced SUV ever, the Excursion was essentially an F-250 Super Duty wagon. With the optional V-10 gas or Power Stroke diesel engines, they tow up to 11,000 pounds. Never mind how many people, pets, and suitcases you can stuff inside an Excursion at the same time.
J100-series Land Cruisers, however, are not 3/4-ton pickup-based towing machines. Nor do they offer a variety of drivetrain choices. But they do have Toyota’s silky-smooth 4.7-liter V-8 and full-time 4WD. And they were built to last forever. Literally.
The average combined fuel economy for these trucks is about 14 mpg. But their collective inefficiency hasn’t seemed to slow down values. In the past 36 months, Excursion prices are up an average of 46 percent, while J100s are up 85 percent. More telling is the fact that both of these had heavy Gen X demand until the past 24 months, when millennial (and younger) interest came on strong.
Here’s why I think this is happening. First, they just don’t make stuff like this anymore. There were no hybrid powertrains, no kowtowing to CAFE standards, no considerations beyond just being rugged and unapologetic in their mission. Both are old enough to be “cool,” but not so old that they aren’t usable in today’s world.
Then there’s the COVID factor. These are vehicles that allow people to load up the whole family, tow the Airstream, and head out to places that help you forget about reality for a weekend or four. That’s especially attractive to millennial buyers looking to introduce their young kids to something beyond screen time. The work-from-home phenomenon also plays into this, because you can work from that camping spot.
Additionally, there’s a certain satisfaction to the analog feel of these machines—an unplugged vibe with no LCDs and no lane-keep assist or other electronic nannies constantly dinging at you.
As for that awful fuel mileage, let’s pencil that out. A new $52,000 Chevy Tahoe gets 16 mpg combined. A new $39,000 Grand Cherokee is rated at 23 mpg. Driving 10,000 miles in a year, the difference between a 14-mpg rig and a 23-mpg rig equates to about 279 gallons. At $5 a gallon, that’s an extra $1395 a year. Factor in the significant savings in the purchase price, and the additional fuel cost doesn’t seem insane.
Which is why I recently decided to replace our 2020 Ford Expedition with a “vintage” Excursion. The Expedition is a fine vehicle, but a boat or car trailer of any significance drops its comfy independent rear suspension to its knees, and towing in crosswinds was, um, more exciting than I expected. So I went on an Excursion excursion and landed on a clean, 50,000-mile 2000 Limited with the V-10. I paid $27,000 for it. Since then, I’ve done some needed maintenance and installed new tires. I’m currently in the truck for about $35K. We’ve put 2000 miles on it so far, primarily pulling a trailer to my son’s go-kart races every week, which it does as admirably as hoped. Thanks to the towing, I haven’t broken into double-digit fuel mileage yet, but the tank is big, so the refueling intervals don’t rub my nose in their thirst.
I have to say, I’m pleased with the decision to step back 22 years of refinement and technology for a rig that better fits my needs. Who says whistling past the graveyard isn’t rewarding?
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This article first appeared in Hagerty Drivers Club magazine. Click here to subscribe and join the club.
& just how many Wrongs does to take to make a Right?
There is another reason to stay with the “vintage guzzler.” If you look at new full size pick up trucks, the prices range from $50,000 – $100,000 depending on the acouterments. The Mid-size trucks are not much cheaper. When my 15-year old Silverado gets too old, I’m going with a 1-3 three year old pre-ownened dealer certified truck. New trucks are absolutely ridiculous in cost regardless of the fuel mileage.
I bought an older Expedition a few years ago (2003 model) for towing my camper. I only drive it a couple times a month, tow 3-4 times a year. Comes in handy for hauling more than four people or whatever I need to move, but I don’t drive it daily — that’s my wife’s 2014 Escape eco-boost or my work truck — a 2003 Toyota Tundra (which I plan to drive until I either stop doing home repairs or it fails… 286K on it so far!) .
The Expy WAS NOT really set up for towing a 30′ camper (7200# without load — so I’m right at or a little over the 8400# tow rating) — nor my previous 26′ 6400# camper. Yes, it has the heavy duty tow package from the factory. As the author noted, the IRS sways too much with a load on the tail. A quick peek under showed why — the little sway bar is only 1/2″ diameter!! I added a 1.25″ aftermarket sway bar and most of that “squishyness” went away, making it much more comfortable to drive when towing wither camper.
I later added some Sumo spring helpers. I really didn’t notice much effect from the Sumo inserts, but they do appear to have helped a little. The sway bar was the big issue!! That and I run the rear ties with 40 psi instead of 36 psi when towing. I leave the 40 psi in while driving around after I get to a camp ground and really don’t notice any change in ride, but the extra 4 psi does seem to help with a load on the rear.
TITLE: ” Why over eating makes sense” Lets count the many benefits!
You nailed it. That should’ve been this piece’s title.
Wow! What an idea: A vehicle used as an escape from the daily ____ ! More surprising is that Millennials are embracing these older vehicles to get away from the “tech” world. This begs the question then: Why are manufactures packing bigger screens and more nannies than one could ever possibly need into their new offerings? Government edicts? Misguided surveys of said buyers? It’s what all the competitors are doing? Very interesting. I would have thought that younger folks would be throwing tomatoes or whatever at these behemoths.
The Hagerty scale is always tilted to ‘want’ instead of ‘need’. We need a tow vehicle to haul the cars/karts etc we want and we somehow convince ourselves we need both as part of an ever expanding collection. Fuel economy has no lasting influence on the buying decision or the market price.
Does anyone know a good site which is dedicated to politics? I want to find a place I can make snide comments about cars.
The Excursion was oversized and cumbersome when new (a family friend had one, and had difficulty finding a parking place most everywhere he went). For the heaviest towing, while carrying people or cargo, they were good. For most any other use, they were just too much.
The age-old adage here applies: drive a new car off the lot, it depreciates like a rock. The argument here is not really “for” a classic SUV beats out a new one, it’s that buying into any vehicle that has already had 15-20 years of depreciation driven out of it will be cheaper than new. I’m sorry, but I don’t think you’re a winner because you already took the depreciation hit on the newer Ford before disliking the high cost of ownership and buying something older. Who is smart? The buy and hold owner, the one that paid off their old SUV 15 years ago. You are, however, incredibly lucky to find one with that low of miles. Even so, you can count on repair costs being higher than the new one, simply because of its age and long since being covered under warranty. Yet, if you take care of it and don’t go crazy trying to modify it, you’ll definitely put more money in the bank, even if gas prices are high.
I would love to find a 2005 Excursion 6.0L 4X4 in the condition of my 2005 F250 I bought new that has 61,000 miles on it. Great vehicles! It is just so hard to find them as nice as I keep them!
I have an Excursion and a Land Cruiser. The Excursion is a 2000 with a 7.3 diesel and Land Cruiser is a 1993 70 series KZJ78 with a 3.0 turbo diesel. The 70 series was never imported to the US and it is right hand drive. I really like both vehicles but if I had to choose one as a daily driver I would pick the Excursion. I have my teenage son driving the Excursion because of its size and slow acceleration. Much safer than most cars.
To use a title “Gas Guzzlers make sense” is horrific in light of the climate crisis.
Have 2 Lexus “Land cruisers” 2000 w/335k , owned 21 years hands down best vehicle ever owned , last year looked and drove an Audi Q7 ( wife said ‘what a joke’) light weight and plastic interior parts , bought a 2006 LX “land cruiser’’ with 186k instead spent $1200 in recon now another tough, safe, comfortable ‘last forever vehicle’ with $22k invested…i can buy a lot of gas!!! Have a better ride and a serious 4 wheel drive ..the prices are going up because people are catching on..
My son has a ‘99 Excursion with the 7.3 diesel. With no trailer, he gets 17 mpg around town and upwards of 20 on the highway. I borrowed it to tow a 5’x8’ implement trailer 100+ miles to pick up an 850 lb. 1970’s GE ElecTrak electric garden tractor with a couple of hundred pounds of attachments. Averaged 18+ round trip. Highly recommend the diesel over the V10 given the fuel mileage more than makes up for the diesel premium.
I can totally relate to this story I have a 1998 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer edition that I purchased 2 years ago for a beach vehicle but it has been my daily driver now and my 2021 F150 sits in the driveway. There’s definitely something to be said for going back to a basic workhorse without all bells and whistles and although it hurts a little to fill the tank if you don’t let go to fumes it’s really not that bad. Thanks for a good read and enjoy your old school brute I know I will have mine for many years to come
Love my 1997 Chevrolet K2500. 8 foot bed, V8, stick shift, no a/c. My son prefers the hand crank windows, “because YOU can’t control them…”