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Automotive News & Views Are gas prices fueling your pain? 
10042 messages, Last post on Jul 12, 2008 at 3:07 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: bumpy (Jun 11, 2008 6:02 am) |
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Jun 11, 2008 1:51 pm) Because it's the Windy City.  However, it got that moniker because of the longwindedness of politicians, not because of the breeze. Windy City |
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Replying to: steve_ (Jun 10, 2008 7:54 pm) Good question. I fear the answer might not be so simple. Back in the early 1990's Quebec Hydro hatched a plan to build several massive dam/hydro projects. This would involve damming several rivers that flowed north and were pretty much useless for navigation or irrigation. To make the plan work they needed a big customer south of the border who would consume the massive amounts of clean energy. They offered New York State the power at something like 2 cents/Kwh. A bargain even then. Well, the deal was all set when a couple of native people sailed down to Albany in a canoe and complained that all this progress would disrupt their way of life. Bingo, deal cancelled. The result? NYS now pay some of the highest electricity cost in the country. The hydro project up north sits half finished. Welcome to radical enviromentalism.
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Replying to: bergyone (Jun 11, 2008 12:49 pm) I'd say the only way to really find out is to try it and see what happens. It'll vary from car to car, but most cars will probably get better mpg as you drive slower. I'm sure there's an exception or two, though. I go up to Pennsylvania a lot for car shows. If I averaged 65-75, with occasional bursts to 80, I'd probably see around 27-28 mpg. It was EPA-rated at 29 highway. Back in early October though, I took it a bit slower, more like 55-70, rarely going higher, and got around 31. This past weekend, on the trip up I was only running 58-65, with a rare jump to 70, and clocked 32.1. Also, it's not just the speed you drive at, but how fast you get there, how fast you brake, how hard you try to maintain a speed on the hills, how quickly you try to pass slower moving traffic, etc. Just to throw another example out there...I've also made that trip in a 1979 New Yorker with a fairly thirsty 360-2bbl. Running 65-75, it would get around 15.5, I'd guess. I had to take it up to Carlisle in April, when my Intrepid died. Took it fairly easy going up, and had to go REALLY slow coming back, because of brutal rains. Probably averaged 45-55, rarely getting to 60. Got about 18 mpg. IIRC, the '02 Camry 4-cyl is EPA-rated around 33-34 on the highway. If you slowed down to 55-65, let it lose a little speed on the hills, don't floor it unless absolutely necessary (like you go to pass a slower car and didn't notice that tour bus bearing down on you), etc, you might see mid-to-upper 30's, I'm guessing. |
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Replying to: bergyone (Jun 11, 2008 12:49 pm) Anyway, what I saw was that the MPG increased as you got to 55 and then decreased as you went past 55. Meaning that going much slower than 55 is going to be detrimental to your mileage as well as going above 55. Now for me I recently found that all things being equal, for me, if I travel at 65 in my 03 Accord 4-cyl I get about the same mileage as I do going 55. What does this mean, I don't know, but I like it because 55 is a hard speed to maintain especially on the freeway, I can't take the monotony and all the dirty looks.
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Replying to: no_one (Jun 10, 2008 7:26 pm)  http://www.permanent.com/ Are we off topic or what..... RUG is up to $4.10 here. 
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Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Jun 11, 2008 3:38 pm) Hydro Quebec is like the TVA; they won't be happy until every last stream and rivulet is dammed up. Going nuke would avoid more of that. I remember some reservoir was getting to full pool up that way on my trip (in Labrador, iirc). Folks were suing because the engineering was screwed up on that one and full pool hit the contour lines some 20 (?) feet higher than what their permit allowed. Welcome to radical common sense and distrust of the easy engineering fix.  [ok Avalon - gas is holding at $4.07 RUG at most places here ]
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Replying to: gagrice (Jun 11, 2008 5:03 am) Yeah, that isn't really fast enough to be called a breeze. We need 20 to 25 mph to be called a breeze here in ND. Maybe that is why ND has the highest wind energy potential in the U.S. The windmills are growing like weeds. http://www.awea.org/pubs/factsheets/Top_20_States.pdf Makes me think I should buy one of those Zenn electric cars and be gasoline free.
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Replying to: bpizzuti (Jun 11, 2008 4:38 am) Every news article I can find says that the state run oil companies are loosing millions of dollars a day with the way fuel prices are now. Even with the recent increases in fuel prices they are still losing money. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C06%5C10%5Cstory_10-6-2008_p- g5_32 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aj.xKO5fCqSc&refer=india |
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Gas is up another $0.08 at my usual place overnight, to $4.55 for regular. That is a rise of $0.18 in a single week, as it was $4.37 when I filled up last Wednesday. I think I will just amuse myself around the house this weekend, the car can just sit until Monday morning.... These gas prices make the whole owning-a-car thing a lot less fun. 
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