Editor's Welcome

by David Reed

May 16,2008

My dear old Mazda, totaled by a tailgater, was a gas guzzler. The 929 model—made for one year and then discontinued—took only premium gas, so I was paying $3-plus per gallon well before regular drivers were. High gas mileage was the top priority when my wife and I started shopping for a new car.

We test-drove a Toyota Prius and a Camry hybrid, along with other very high-gas-mileage domestic and foreign models. But there were better deals on not-quite-as-high-gas-mileage models, and we decided to take our time deciding. We'll conserve more fuel by car pooling with our Ford Taurus and riding bikes to work during the summer.

CBT's second-annual survey of Boone County's favorite vehicles shows that the popularity of fuel-efficient cars continues to grow, although nearly half of the top 10 models are pickups.

If we're typical local folks—but not in the market for a pickup truck—we'll likely buy a Camry or a Honda Accord. If we follow the latest trends, we'll likely buy a Ford Escape or Focus, or a Korean model.

It wasn't hard finding a business operator who typifies the purchasing patterns. His crew was working across the street when I went out to pick up the morning newspapers.

Jed Taylor, founder and general manager of Missouri Mowing, bought a pair of Toyota Yarises rather than pickup trucks when the company expanded.

While they need trucks for hauling and towing trailers, they wanted to find ways to be more environmentally friendly and to trim fuel costs when they need to make sales calls and other trips on which nothing is being carried. Taylor considered hybrid vehicles as well, but cost outweighed advantages for the firm.
CBT contributor Dave Walle, a wiz at computer-assisted reporting, examined more than 100,000 personal property records in Boone County for the 2007 tax year to provide our analysis of vehicle ownership.

In our next issue, we'll focus on local dealerships. We're examining a customized Missouri Department of Revenue report of vehicle sales in Columbia and using other data to provide readers with a ranking of dealerships and a more in-depth look at buying patterns.

In the meantime, I'll be kicking a few tires and maybe getting close to a decision of my own.

My dear old Mazda, totaled by a tailgater, was a gas guzzler. The 929 model—made for one year and then discontinued—took only premium gas, so I was paying $3-plus per gallon well before regular drivers were. High gas mileage was the top priority when my wife and I started shopping for a new car.

We test-drove a Toyota Prius and a Camry hybrid, along with other very high-gas-mileage domestic and foreign models. But there were better deals on not-quite-as-high-gas-mileage models, and we decided to take our time deciding. We'll conserve more fuel by car pooling with our Ford Taurus and riding bikes to work during the summer.

CBT's second-annual survey of Boone County's favorite vehicles shows that the popularity of fuel-efficient cars continues to grow, although nearly half of the top 10 models are pickups.

If we're typical local folks—but not in the market for a pickup truck—we'll likely buy a Camry or a Honda Accord. If we follow the latest trends, we'll likely buy a Ford Escape or Focus, or a Korean model.

It wasn't hard finding a business operator who typifies the purchasing patterns. His crew was working across the street when I went out to pick up the morning newspapers.

Jed Taylor, founder and general manager of Missouri Mowing, bought a pair of Toyota Yarises rather than pickup trucks when the company expanded.

While they need trucks for hauling and towing trailers, they wanted to find ways to be more environmentally friendly and to trim fuel costs when they need to make sales calls and other trips on which nothing is being carried. Taylor considered hybrid vehicles as well, but cost outweighed advantages for the firm.
CBT contributor Dave Walle, a wiz at computer-assisted reporting, examined more than 100,000 personal property records in Boone County for the 2007 tax year to provide our analysis of vehicle ownership.

In our next issue, we'll focus on local dealerships. We're examining a customized Missouri Department of Revenue report of vehicle sales in Columbia and using other data to provide readers with a ranking of dealerships and a more in-depth look at buying patterns.

In the meantime, I'll be kicking a few tires and maybe getting close to a decision of my own.

CLARIFICATION
In Mike Martin's column on economic development on Page 11 of the last CBT, two revised paragraphs were left out. Discovery Ridge and Life Sciences incubator enterprises should have been referred to as "university oriented" rather than "university centric," and the reference to the need to develop a knowledge-based economy should have referred to a "privately funded knowledge-based economy in addition to our development-based economy."

In Mike Martin's column on economic development on Page 11 of the last CBT, two revised paragraphs were left out. Discovery Ridge and Life Sciences incubator enterprises should have been referred to as "university oriented" rather than "university centric," and the reference to the need to develop a knowledge-based economy should have referred to a "privately funded knowledge-based economy in addition to our development-based economy."