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Automotive News & Views How does gas at $4 and higher impact you?
2183 messages, Last post on Nov 21, 2009 at 5:13 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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I paid $650 to have my hot-tub repaired (includes new cover), bought $30 of chemicals, and pay for the electric to run the pumps and heaters; so I can stay home rather than spend $15 each trip to drive to a lake or river. I also invested in some requisite tiki-torches and citronella oil. Well if I'm not saving anything, at least I don't have to worry about how much I drink, or having an auto-accident. 
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I never used cruise control before but now I set it at 62 in the 65 zone. I try to stay right as to not inconvience the 6000 pound SUVs that blast by at 80. The only problem is the hypermilers doing 45. They slow you down then you have to gun the gas, get up to 80 as you pass and then slow down and re-engage the cruise. Well, at least THEY'RE saving gas. 
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Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Jul 14, 2008 1:15 pm) However, no-one is doing 45 in my area, no-one at all. In that case, set it at the speed limit and live in the next lane over whenever there is a hypermiler on the horizon (I'm assuming 8-lane freeway here; if it's a 4-lane, then you're out of luck) |
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using the cruise control on my '79 NYer this past weekend when I drove it up to the Mopar show in Carlisle. However, I just couldn't do it for long. Every blessed time, no matter what speed I set it on, I'd end up creeping up on someone in front of me. And I'm not the type to just pass them on the left at one mph above their speed, thereby impeding the flow of faster traffic. So I'd end up having to give it some gas to get on around them. Or I'd get sandwiched in, if the left lane was heavy with traffic, and have to hit the brake. Still, I tried to drive as gently as possible, keeping it at 60-65 for the most part. That car doesn't have a lot of power off the line, but out on the highway, it can creep up on you, so a couple times I found myself doing 75-80. Haven't calculated the total mileage yet on this trip, but last year, making this trip I got around 15.5 mpg. I'm driving that car to work tomorrow, and I'll fill it up on the way in. I started off with a full tank and when I got within about 10 miles of my destination, just off the highway, I filled up at a place that had hi-test for $4.099. Roughly 114 miles, and it took about 5.3 gallons to fill up. So presuming it really did fill up, and not just shut off early, that comes out to 21.5 mpg! Which I find a bit hard to believe with that car. Guess I'll get a more accurate reading when I fill up tomorrow, and combine the miles driven and gallons used for both tanks. Other than driving a bit more gently though, $4+ gas really hasn't affected me too much. I started cutting back on unnecessary driving and tried to consolidate trips, and stuck mainly to my more economical cars once prices started staying above $2.00 per gallon. I have made it a point though, to start checking the air pressure in my tires a bit more religiously. My roommate recently got a membership with the wholesaler BJ's. There's one about 5-6 miles away. He plans on going there instead of Costco, which is about 15-16 miles away. He cited fuel prices as one reason. Oh, and earlier in the year, I started consolidating my trips to the liquor store. I used to go twice per week, but now just go once, and double up on the order. So far it's worked pretty well. I was afraid with more beer around the house we'd just drink it up faster, but it hasn't happened yet! 
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No real impact for me...I combined trips when gas was $2/gallon. I live relatively close to work. I've been thinking my next car likely won't have a big V8...but who knows. I've noticed higher grocery prices more than higher gas bills.
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Replying to: fintail (Jul 14, 2008 3:57 pm) I've noticed other bills affecting me worse than gas bills, too. Groceries, for one. And home heating oil's going to be real killer this year. My current contract is at $3.55 per gallon and renews at the end of Oct. I called the other week though, and the guy said that people whose contracts were renewing at the time were getting locked in at $5.62 per gallon! I'm seriously considering converting to a heat pump.
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Replying to: andre1969 (Jul 14, 2008 3:50 pm) i used to put super unleaded in the mustang, but a couple of years ago, i switched back to regular. the gas mileage hasn't seemed to suffer. checking the book, since october 2002, it has gone 1700 miles and averaged 20.1 mpg. anyways, 17 years, 33k miles, no tuneups. can you top that? in my fusion, i drive with the mpg readout front and center. that is one of my concessions to high gas prices.
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Replying to: explorerx4 (Jul 14, 2008 4:16 pm) I've tried switching to a lower grade, but the LeMans will spit it up almost immediately. Now if I started off with a full tank of hi-test, and then around a half tank put in some 89, it might be okay, but it will clatter running on a full tank of 89, and would probably go menstrual on 87. The New Yorker can tolerate 89, but seems a bit happier with hi-test. Sometimes I'll try to just let it run down to a half tank, and then alternate fill-ups between 87 and 93, which should stabilize the mixture to around 90. What kind of economy have you been averaging with your Fusion? |
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Replying to: andre1969 (Jul 14, 2008 4:12 pm) I am glad I live in a small place with electric heat, and it faces south. I think I ran my heat maybe once or twice last winter. The tradeoff is that I am running the AC a bit now, but it's much cheaper to run than heat. |
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Already I see a pattern here; people have cut back a little here, sacrificed a little there ..... but they say that it's no big deal. I say it IS a big deal because we're not only lowering our standard of living, but we're also paying more for everything we still buy and still do because fuel prices are creating inflation everywhere. We're all going backwards on both scales. When we forego a distant vacation for an in-state one, or we forego a trip to the lake in favor of an evening in the hot tub, or we forego a drive to a friend's house in favor of a phone conversation with him, at a basic level we're surrendering our freedom. Traveling around our own country, enjoying recreation, and associating with our friends when and where we like is the essence of freedom. We can't just give it up easily, even a little bit at a time. That's how many once-thriving societies wound up losing all their freedom -- a little bit at a time. I'm not saying I know how to stop this giant oil scam, or even how to fight it. I'm just saying that we can't get complacent about it. If we do, we're working against ourselves.
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Automotive News & Views How does gas at $4 and higher impact you?
