Trukz: Let's buy things (or not), pt 2

New Air Filter - $500.00 - Increases fuel economy +5%. Good until 2/17/2008. Item sells with truck.

This is a tough one because it really depends on your truck, how much you normally pay for gas, and the weather. See, I travel about 1353 miles a day and my truck gets around 10.66 mpg (with the filter). So, I burn through about 127 gallons of fuel a day. I buy fuel at $2.50/gal since I more often than not am able to buy fuel at a company terminal, where I don't lost FPs for filling up.

This costs me $317.52/day in fuel, on average, or $9657.99/mo. But, if I didn't have the filter, my fuel efficiency would only be 10.15 mpg. And that equals 133 gallons of fuel per day. At $2.50/gal that means it costs me $333.25/day, or $10136.39 per month. So what does the air filter save me? $478.40.

It's hard to say if that's a rip-off, though, because of how the weather affects your mpg. I can sometimes get over 11 mpg with a strong tailwind. In that case, the filter would be saving me $783.27/mo, if the tailwind persisted. So let's just take the average of the high and low savings and say the filter saves you $630.83/mo. Minus the $500 to buy it, of course, and you're left with an extra $130 to do with as you please.

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New Tires - $3,000.00 - Increases maximum truck condition +15%. Reduces chances of bad weather accidents -5%. Increases top speed in bad weather +5%. Good until 2/21/2008. Item sells with truck.

This is probably one of the best deals in the game, after the trailer endorsements. The extra mpg and speed you get from having a crap truck in better condition will make you back this money easily. On top of that, when you go to sell your truck, especially if it's a nicer one, the better the condition, the more you'll get. Definitely get tires when you can. Though I will say if you tear through trucks pretty easily, maybe wait until you get a truck that you know you'll hold onto for a few months, to make the purchase worth it.

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Fog Lights - $1,500.00 - Increases top speed in bad weather +5%. Reduces chances of bad weather accidents -10%. Good until 3/3/2008. Item sells with truck.

I don't trust the Fog Lights. I mean, if my top speed is 48mph in thick fog, how much good is another 2mph going to do me? Maybe a little, but $1500 worth of good? I just don't see it. On the other hand, if you tend to throw caution to the wind and go the legal limit or over no matter what the weather, $1500 is probably cheap for the insurance it brings.

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Warning Lights - $700.00 - Reduces chances of bad weather accidents -8%. Good until 4/21/2008. Item sells with truck.

Pretty much like Fog Lights except way cheaper and they don't affect your speed. Again, if you play safe then you probably don't need these. But if you think sliding on ice is a good way to conserve fuel, rock the Warning Lights.

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Four more down, and a good many to go. Tomorrow: fuel injectors & filters. Oh it's exciting stuff.