I've thought about this since when I was growing up, my family always bought only the more fuel efficient Toyotas though not the most ('86 Tercel, '94 Corolla, '02 Camry, '07 Rav4, and '07 Camry) because that was their concern. And for a while it was mine too. Then things changed and we bought the Runner because of the lifestyle I live, in my case being outdoors, camping, surfing, biking, bird dogs, out of town guest hauler, road trip vehicle. Was I less than thrilled about the gas, sure. But the capabilities it provides trumps that not to mention the smile it brings to my face.
The other factor in this is how long do you think it will take you to hit 200k miles. I just hit 20k right at a year of ownership last month (which is toning it back from the days when I drove my '05 Corolla 62k miles in 2 years). So that means 10 years before I hit 200k. If you have a 60 month loan and don't pay it off early that's still 5 years worth of truck payments before you hit 200k (and who's to say you wouldn't try to keep it even longer) and 5 years of no car payments is $40k-ish that I could spend on other things like down payment on a house, vacations, a condo in Belize as a vacation home or what have you. It's all about perspective. (Sorry for being long winded)
Cheers.
