Economics of Austin Commuting

I was talking to a friend today about the economics of commuting from Killeen to Austin. It made me put pencil to paper (so to speak).

First, what's the motivation for driving 75 miles to go to work, anyway? Well, I calculate I make about $50,000 more per year in Austin than I could make in Killeen. And I have opportunities for advancement in Austin that would not be available in Killeen. So without doing any more arithmatic, I can justify commuting.

But what if I lived in Austin? My modest house in Kileen could be replaced within a 15-mile radius of my job in Austin for about $250,000. If I invested the equity I have in my paid-for Killeen house, my monthly payments would probaby be no more than $1,000. A gramd is far more than I spend in gas, so this looks like a non-starter as well. (I leave out the property tax situation: in Austin I would pay about 7 times the amount I pay in Killeen.)

But if I have to commute, why do I drive a gas-guzzling pickup truck (Ford F-150) rather than a more fuel-efficient vehicle? I've looked seriously at a VW Jetta, which gets 43 MPG. My truck gets around 18. A 43-MPG vehicle will cost about $25,000. It will last (with any luck) around 5 years or 250,000 miles. Amortizing the cost of the vehicle over 5 years, I get $5000/year. My cost for fuel in my paid-for truck is about $4000 per year. Even if I get more than twice the mileage with the Jetta, it doesn't come close to paying for itself.

So I'm stuck. The economists are right: it's going to take a huge increase in fuel costs to get me to change my behavior (at least for another 2.5 years until this truck wears out) because it doesn't make economic sense to change.