To start with, I drive a car that gets pretty good mileage - 35mpg on average. (it’s a diesel)
I have started to consider my driving habits. Like if I’m going to meet a group to run, I want to pick a spot close by. Or if we go out to dinner, picking some place close to home.
My SO and I work at the same company, so we usually try to carpool at least once, possibly twice a week. We’d do it more, but I have a second job that I drive to from the first job on a few days a week.
Of course, that will be blown all to hell and gone by the fact that I’m driving up to LA and back this weekend. At least when I’m on the highway, the mileage per gallon will approach 40-45!
Nothing really. Then again when the snow melts I might start taking the motorcycle again, I still have a foot or two of snow around my bikes. Then again when the snow melts I will stop taking the train so I will pay more in gas. I think it’s time to get a bike that gets more then 50mpg anyway, I’ve been wanting a new bike!
All right, all of you North American V8 driving non-gas savers. An honest question.
Would you still buy a car that gets 15-18 MPG when gas was 5 bucks a gallon? Or would you opt for a 6 or 4 cilinder, smaller car?
I’m pretty well off in terms of income, my car is not a gas guzzler (as said, about 28 MPG), but I end up paying about $185 a month for my gasoline, at about 12,500 miles a year. I think it’s on the high end of the scale of what I’d be willing to pay for gas.
If I had a V8 Cherokee or something, I’d pay $300 a month for gas, which would definitely be too much.
I’m not counting the gas I buy for the motorbike: that’s all for fun. The car’s pure necessary transportation.
Where would your upper limit be? And would you buy a more economical car if you passed that limit?
To answer your question, I wouldn’t mind having a 4-cyl., 5-speed Toyota Tacoma extended cab pickup. It would be just the thing for carrying the bike to the shop or for any other hauling. And it gets decent mileage. But the Cherokee’s long flat roof is better for carrying the kayak.
I guess I think twice about errands that can wait or can be consolidated with other driving. I now usually use a car that gets 29 mpg in the city and 35 on the highway. The downside is that I must use the most expensive, premium gas. FYI, there is a site that gives cars’ mpg at:
Ivar, I once lived 2 miles from work. It was wonderful.
Unfortunately I now work in the “Golden Triangle” and housing costs in the nearest neighborhoods are about twice what I can afford. I guess it was good while it lasted.
Funny enough, at lunch today, our Accounting Manager was bitching about his gas guzzling Dodge Dakota. He lives in Oceanside and commutes here, which is easily 25 miles one way. I wanted to just snicker because, well, what did he expect? It was costly at $1.50 per gallon, but I guess at $2.00 he’s sick and tired of it.
So then he said he was almost considering a hybrid, but “the cost of electricity is going up, too.” I had to remind him that a hybrid was self-contained and did not need to be charged.
So help me, my next car will be hybrid. But I said that when gas was only $1.30-$1.40/gallon.
I moved my business into my house, so my commute is now: put on shoes and go downstairs.
In truth this was a result of the overall economy (had to give up the rented office space) and not to save gas, but it’s a nice additional benefit. Now I buy about $20 worth every 10-14 days or so.
I’m also getting a MINI next month, which gets better mileage than my current car. OK, so that’s not for the fuel savings, either.
I do think about trips and how to consolidate them, if possible, but don’t really let (current) gas prices stop me from going where I want to go.
When my gas heating bill hit $500 last month (!!!), I installed that new programmable thermostat I’d been thinking about since the start of winter. Hopefully next month’s bill will show the results.
Well, the easiest way (at least in NJ) is to be sixteen, so you don’t have a car or a license yet. But as the byproduct of a chem project on air pollution, I’ve ceased getting rides to and from school from the NinjaParents and started walking. It’s just over a mile, so it’s good for me and doable in short amounts of time. Bikes are good, too. Many moons ago, the NinjaDad biked to work. That was before he busted his knee up on a bad trail, though. Well, a bigger factor in him switching to driving was he switched jobs, so instead of working under a mile from our front door, he works in Delaware, which is about an hour commute.
But y’know, a really, really easy way to conserve gas? Don’t drive. If you’re in a city, take mass transportation, bike, or walk. Suburbs are harder. Unless you’re like me, in which case you’re lucky, because you’re in walking or biking distance of school, the mall, the movie theater, and the public library. And the best pizza place in the universe.
Nothing so far–gas prices have fluctuated between $1.58 and $1.68 here, so it hasn’t been a problem. I drive a '97 Jeep Grand Cherokee, V8 engine, that gets about 21-26 MPG (the roads on my typical route don’t exceed 35 MPH). If prices were to get super high, I would seriously consider a motorcycle, and just drive the Jeep on bad-weather days. I’m too far away from campus to ride a bus or my bike, and my friends either live outside of Raleigh or close to/on campus, so car pools aren’t an option either.
I bought a new car. My V4 was a gas hog, it didn’t have enough power at high altitude. The new V6 uses half as much gas. It’s also a five speed.
I live in a rural area, the nearest grocery store is 17 miles away (I am not going to walk or bike) and we have no public transportaion. It just isn’t cost effective around here. I can’t carpool to work, I do traveling sales. So I’m stuck and will ride it out. Lowering taxes an a gallon of gas would help alot.
I did call in sick today. Saving alittle there.
To save on natural gas I only use the pellet stove. That burns compressed sawdust and puts out enough heat so I don’t have to run the gas heater. When the pellet stove was broken there was a $700 gas bill.
