I guess I’m the only one farting in jars. Bumperstickers in the 70’s suggested it, and it seemed like a good idea.
Dad, is that you?
[Yes, he had that bumper sticker!]
I take the train to work, so that’s a big +, but I also own a big gas-guzzling V-8 weekend fun car… Of course I put a grand total of about 2,000 miles a year on it, so not sure how bad that is.
Although the OP premise was about saving money, I will say that I now only buy gas at Hess and other companies as do not buy arabian oil – but that’s a whole different motivation, now isn’t it?
Right now I drive about 50 miles a day roundtrip to school and work. This summer I won’t have to go to college and I’ll only be driving about 10 miles a day. That will save a lot of gas/money especially since I won’t be doing any city driving. My car is a 2000 Olds Bravada, which just yesterday replaced my 96 Blazer. If I drive it right, I can get 18-20mpg, but I usually only get 16, sometimes 17 mpg.
I considered buying a cheapo saturn or something that sips gas but I only have to endure a long commute for another year and then I’ll only have to drive 5-10 miles a day to work.
If gas prices were to hit 3 dollars I would start drilling for oil myself. 
I wouldn’t pay that much per gallon, no matter how fuel efficient my car is.
I’d like to know how I’d fit two adults, four kids (with carseats), and groceries in one of those cars. I don’t know if your cars are as small as the tin cans they drive in France, but there is no way I could drive one of those things.
Hey broys! Watch those mischaracterizations of us Americans.
My north american V-8 car gets nowhere near 18 MPG thank you very much!
Any yes, I’ll keep it if gas hits $5.00 per gallon. $5.00/gallon * 2,000 miles a year at 10 MPG = $1,000… I can swing it.
Oops! Sorry, broys, I meant Coldfire.
No offense meant, my American friends - just asking. 
Cessandra, I’m not expecting you to fit 6 people in a Renault 5 (and yeah, cars in Holland are more or less the same as in France - in fact, I drive a French car). And I did say “6 or 4 cylinder”. Don’t know what you drive now, but you could get everything you want inside a Subaru Legacy station car, with a 4 or 6 cylinder engine.
DrLizardo, I can see how 2,000 miles per year means gas prices matter less.
Dagny said: “My V4 was a gas hog, it didn’t have enough power at high altitude.”
You either drove a fantastic Saab 96, or you meant to say “4-in-line”.
I drive less and I try to get my friends to drive me around more since I’ve done it a lot in the past.
I only run my gas lawnmower at night.
(You know, flex your power and all that.)
I’ve very seriously considered getting up at 3AM to go grocery shopping. We have to take this conservation thing seriously.
Since I don’t really drive very much, there’s not much to do to reduce my gasoline expenses. I do make the occasional weekend road trip for Dopefests, and I’m not going to cut them out. And it just so happens that I bought a car about a month ago like gatopescado’s that doesn’t get quite the mileage that my old one did. I am using the old one for some errands.
If you don’t watch the energy markets you might want to know that oil is hovering around $36/bbl. and natural gas, which had climbed to the $5 range over the last few months, spiked to $9+ last week and is now ~$7. We’ve only got a few weeks worth in storage. Rig rates (the number of drilling rigs actually drilling new wells) have climbed modestly, and only in the last couple of weeks; they remain far lower than what is needed to replace consumption.
It is beginning to look like a serious energy crunch might be on the near-term horizon.
As a Dutchman, I can only feel happy about your low natural gas reserves. We’ve got plenty left.
Although this site estimates US natural gas reserves at 3.3% of the world total… hardly “a few weeks” worth, right?
I have to buy a new car soon, so I am actually taking what you are saying into consideration.
I pulled up some pictures of Subaru Legacy station wagons, and it doesn’t look like I could fit four kids in one. Keep in mind, four kids in carseats means that I MUST have four backseat seats with seatbelts. Even if we only have one adult in the car, it is against the law for the kids to ride in the front seat. This means two rows of backseat at least.
Since I can’t find anything that specifically tells me if the Subaru Legacy has two rows of backseat, please tell me if I am wrong.
(BTW, I currently drive a Jeep Cherokee, which is not big enough. That’s why we have to buy a new car before kid #4 is born.)
Let’s see… the family “gas guzzler” is the pick-up, at 23 miles/gallon (which is good for a truck, yes?)
But lately we’ve been using the Toyota Echo, which gets about 42 miles/gallon (no, it’s not hybrid or diesel, just a very efficient gas burner)
We tank up about every 3 weeks. If we really consolidated the errands, and when the weather gets warm enough for me to bike down to the airport, we might be able to stretch that to once a month.
I ride a commuter train to work. Electric powered – presumably nuclear generated electricity, since we’ve got a number of nuke plants in the area, but possibly also coal-fired as well.
That works out to about 30-40 gallons of gasoline a month for two Amercians - pretty thrifty by US standards.
Ah, but those airplanes…! 30-50 gallons a month in aviation gasoline, weather permitting. The weather hasn’t permitted for about four weeks, so I’m really conserving this month. (But the airplane STILL gets better gas mileage than many SUV’s!)
Cessandra, child number four? I’m outta here, I can offer no more advice. Buy a Peterbild, or something.
I drive a Honda Civic. I think I get about 30 in town, and upper 30’s freeway. My commute is 9 miles round trip, and the only thing that’s not on the way is the gym, somewhere I haven’t been going much lately… yeah, that’s to conserve gas, that’s it!
Actually, premium here is 1.77; when I left Oregon it was pushing $2, so gas still doesn’t seem expensive here. I spend about $30 per month on gas, except for the occasional road trip, so if gas prices continue to rise, my driving will probably stay about the same.
I’d like to ride my bike, but the drivers here are just plain scary, and I don’t want to die (it’s not just my paranoia. A friend of mine was hit on his bike, rolled off the lady’s hood, and she just said “sorry!” as she sped off. A pedestrian was struck and killed on campus a few weeks ago.)
Codefire, some people really do need big cars, don’t we?
I take the bus to work and ride my bike to the grocery store. I would like to ride my bike to work, but unfortunately there are no good routes where I feel safe from maniac Houston drivers.
I hear your point there, but speaking as a single person with no kids, I would love the option of driving one of those tin cans, but they are not available here 
Nothing! I just drove 1500 miles last week. I went home on leave and had the cruise control set on 87mph the whole way! Woohoo! One day the gas will run out, but for now, it’s burnout city!
I’m building a chopper from a KZ1000. Just got a fat ass wheel for a 250mm rear tire. I may put a supercharger on it. That sure would look wicked 