best vehicle for courier job?

Does he own a vehicle currently? If he owns a usable vehicle that one till he figures out what he really needs to accomplish job and really wants to do this line of work.

If he needs a company name a magnetic placard works well to look "legit"

You give no description of what he is moving about as courier so hard to recommend anything if his current ride is not acceptable.

That all being said a 2.5 Jetta SportWagen is reliable/durable and has plenty of cargo space and they are not expensive vehicles.
 
Originally Posted by JimPghPA
The number of miles you have to drive a hybrid to financially be ahead of the game (realize a savings) varies depending on if it is mostly city, mostly highway, a mix of both city and highway, and the size of the vehicle. They really save money if use a lot in city driving. In general the smaller hybrids require you to drive 15K miles or more a year to realize a savings, and the larger the vehicle the more miles you have to drive to be saving money.

There are websites where you can look up different hybrid vehicles and find the number of miles you have to drive them per year to realize a savings.


Do you mind sharing the sites that you are talking about?
 
I have a lady friend that delivers medical supplies to several states. She has a Dodge Grand Caravan with the rear seats taken out. She is on her 2nd one in 10 yrs that ive known her.

I would think the comfort and ride would be worth it over a utility van.

US mail is also using Dodge Caravans in my area..
 
Originally Posted by Rand
Originally Posted by dparm
Originally Posted by sloinker
Gas is heading to a buck a gallon. 1970 Buick GS 455 stage 1. May as well have fun at work.


I've been reading that $29/barrel is the price floor and is close to the Saudi production cost so they'll just cut production if it looks to go any lower. Gas prices likely won't go much lower; $1.659 is the lowest I've seen here in the Dallas suburbs, with $1.759 being typical.


Quote
At $2.8 per barrel, Saudi state oil giant Aramco has the lowest production costs in the world.


I think this is more about market share and an oil war to kill shale producers..

Two rabbits - kill off American shale oil and assist with global depression recovery.
 
Always remember. The price of oil is not set by Saudi Arabia. It is set by the Chicago Mercantile futures market, based on the traders' perception on how to make a dollar. Traders got to trade.
laugh.gif
 
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Originally Posted by madRiver
Does he own a vehicle currently? If he owns a usable vehicle that one till he figures out what he really needs to accomplish job and really wants to do this line of work.

If he needs a company name a magnetic placard works well to look "legit"

You give no description of what he is moving about as courier so hard to recommend anything if his current ride is not acceptable.

That all being said a 2.5 Jetta SportWagen is reliable/durable and has plenty of cargo space and they are not expensive vehicles.

He owns a truck. I think a Chevy.

Hmm, wagons.
SO in this line of thinking, I would go for the suggested Jetta Sportwagen, (TDI are cheap, but I don't think he run a diesel until now), Golf Sportwagen, Mazda5 (they kind of eat gas), Prius V (they seem to have problems at 150k, and kind of expensive right now)

I think the already suggested Dodge Caravan/Chrysler minivan could make for a good bigger vehicle.
How are the Nissan Quest minivans? Do all have the trans problem?
 
Originally Posted by pandus13
Originally Posted by madRiver
Does he own a vehicle currently? If he owns a usable vehicle that one till he figures out what he really needs to accomplish job and really wants to do this line of work.

If he needs a company name a magnetic placard works well to look "legit"

You give no description of what he is moving about as courier so hard to recommend anything if his current ride is not acceptable.

That all being said a 2.5 Jetta SportWagen is reliable/durable and has plenty of cargo space and they are not expensive vehicles.

He owns a truck. I think a Chevy.

Hmm, wagons.
SO in this line of thinking, I would go for the suggested Jetta Sportwagen, (TDI are cheap, but I don't think he run a diesel until now), Golf Sportwagen, Mazda5 (they kind of eat gas), Prius V (they seem to have problems at 150k, and kind of expensive right now)

I think the already suggested Dodge Caravan/Chrysler minivan could make for a good bigger vehicle.
How are the Nissan Quest minivans? Do all have the trans problem?


Prius engines are cheap if he knows how to drop one, a GEN IV to Prius V conversion fixes the exploding head gasket issue.

There are several priuschat threads on the swap
 
This Transit 250 is a good size to walk inside. The question to me is can you make a decent living using a new truck.I've seen mom and pop coutiers using much older trucks. My Rock Auto Parts typically make it to the town 20 miles away using Fedex but the last 20 miles are in an independent courier in an older but probably well maintained truck. All the Fedex and Purolater Partner trucks I've seen look very new, possibly this is a requirement?


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Saudi Arabia has very low production costs, but I saw that they need to clear $80 to pay for the entirely oil-dependent society. They haven't diversified!
 
As many have already mentioned here, it depends on the size of whatever it is you plan to haul around.

First, feel free to go here.

http://www.dashboard-light.com/

The USA is almost entirely automatics. The cheapest vehicle you can use for courier if, and only if, you have very long runs of highway driving would be a stick. If you run around the cities or thru traffic get an automatic.

Then go here.

https://www.facebook.com/48-Hours-And-A-Used-Car-327864380887174/

It's my own little monster that has been mentioned in Car And Driver and Yahoo, and it has several thousand followers including Rideshare and courier companies. The wholesale dealer auctions are liquidating a lot of vehicles at the moment thanks to the current health emergency.

All the best!

Steven Lang
 
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Originally Posted by diyjake
Originally Posted by JimPghPA
The number of miles you have to drive a hybrid to financially be ahead of the game (realize a savings) varies depending on if it is mostly city, mostly highway, a mix of both city and highway, and the size of the vehicle. They really save money if use a lot in city driving. In general the smaller hybrids require you to drive 15K miles or more a year to realize a savings, and the larger the vehicle the more miles you have to drive to be saving money.

There are websites where you can look up different hybrid vehicles and find the number of miles you have to drive them per year to realize a savings.


Do you mind sharing the sites that you are talking about?


OP, with the way gas prices are dropping now a hybrid very well may not be a good choice.

If gas prices go back up and look like they will stay up then you might want to reconsider a hybrid if you are driving a large number of miles per year. You can do google searches for Hybrid payback miles and find many different sites to look at. Some of them are

www.fueleconomy.gov

money30.com/does-fuel-efficient- car-save-money

moneysmartguides.com/are-hybrid-cars-worth-the-price

there are many more. I did research on this about 5 years ago. Some of the larger vehicles like large luxury vehicles have an extremely long time that you have to drive them before you are ahead of the game (realize a savings). The smaller vehicle have a short amount of time you have to drive them before you are ahead of the game.

However the price of gasoline enters into the picture big time, and when gasoline prices are very low a hybrid is NOT a good choice. So until gasoline prices go back up you should not consider a hybrid.
 
Originally Posted by JimPghPA

However the price of gasoline enters into the picture big time, and when gasoline prices are very low a hybrid is NOT a good choice. So until gasoline prices go back up you should not consider a hybrid.


Check your states title + registration fees, if a hybrid is higher or there is talk of making it higher you are better off with a reliable econobox

Aka in my state first year title + registration is $555 in this county but my truck is $85 for the same, that buys a lot of gas.

Insurance is huge as well, some hybrids are much more to insure than a standard car.
 
It was $1.499 last weekend in South STL County on Saturday.

I've seen it at 1.899 here in IL, which is a shocker.

I'm still taking service calls, but like that parking and traffic is much easier right now.

Originally Posted by dparm
Originally Posted by sloinker
Gas is heading to a buck a gallon. 1970 Buick GS 455 stage 1. May as well have fun at work.


I've been reading that $29/barrel is the price floor and is close to the Saudi production cost so they'll just cut production if it looks to go any lower. Gas prices likely won't go much lower; $1.659 is the lowest I've seen here in the Dallas suburbs, with $1.759 being typical.

To answer OP's question: as long as you aren't transporting anything enormous or messy, I'd say any reliable midsize sedan would be fine. You can get a surprising amount of equipment and comfort in the D-class.
 
We had a 2017 Ford Transit 350 and loaded it to the max every night. It had many issues like brakes every 6 months (especially the rear for some reason!) Front wheel bearings once a year. Rear diff went out. Overheating because of cooling fans issues (I thought they figured that out in the 90-00's!) It ate tires too being loaded to the max all the time too. Wasn't a great experience at all.
 
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