OT - personal choices - SUV and gas consumption

[Howard Rosenberg]

Hi all -

Zooming around on the net made me think -

What are YOUR thoughts/opinions on fuel consumption and (per-gallon) pricing and your big vehicle - SUV and pickup.

Do you intend to change out your thirstier vehicle for something more frugal?
Drive less?
Not let foreign governments tell us how to live our lives and just keep doing what we've been doing?
Do you get heat from strangers about your choice of vehicles?

Not trying to start anything heated.
But I AM interested in starting a debate,
And I am curious about how we as REGULAR people feel.
Not the sensationalist garbage in the newspapers.

Are we where we are where were in the mid-70's?

Thank you - I look forward to hearing back.

Howard (who defintely doesn't think 1.37$C a litre makes ANY sense ay all)

[Ronald Kellison]

It's even more troubling when you think of it as $ 5.25 a gallon! My wife would probably kick me out of the house if I told her we had to get rid of her Acura MDX , and I love driving my 4.2L German hot rod too much to part with it unless Armageddon arrives. Perhaps I'll address the childhood obesity issue that's getting so much press lately and just cut back on food for the kids!

Regards,


Ron

[Pat Germain]

As I see it, if a driver really needs a large vehicle for hauling kids, hauling supplies or towing trailers, it makes sense to stay with it.

For a lone driver who just likes being behind the wheel of a big SUV, I think it makes no sense whatsoever. It's wasteful and foolish. I also think it's none of my business if people want to be wasteful and foolish.

[Alex Carrera]

S4 Ron? So about 14mpg? Well worth it if you ask me...

I don't drive anything big unless I need to, and at this point I just borrower a friend's truck. However, I'm addicted to power, so I still get poor mileage, and the current price hasn't detered me yet.

[Chuck Wintle]

Hi all -

Zooming around on the net made me think -

Are we where we are where were in the mid-70's?

Thank you - I look forward to hearing back.

Howard (who defintely doesn't think 1.37$C a litre makes ANY sense ay all)

Howard,
I think it boils down to what the market will bear. If we get used to paying a$1.50/liter then it means the consumer has made the mental adjustment and our world continues as it once was. If more efficient vehicles are needed they will be bought. I foresee $2.00/liter next summer and so on. There is no end to the greediness of big oil and the government. The only way to fight back is to consume less gas.

[glenn bradley]

Even though I drive a Civic, I was looking into scooters or an electric vehicle for my grueling 4-mile-drive-on-surface-streets to work. If you play with the math I think you'll find you can buy a lot of gas for what it costs to buy a motorcycle and insure it. YMMV (pun intended). Besides where would I keep another vehicle? I don't care if its a Segway . . . no vehicles in my gara . . . er, shop!

I would have to drive something that gets 10 mpg or less to even think about it at this point.

[Scott Vigder]

I bought an 08 Buick Enclave in August 07 and opted for FWD vs AWD because the FWD was advertised to get 2 mpg better on the highway (22 vs. 24).

In real life I'm eking out 25-26mpg if I drive like granny on the freeway. For a 5000lb vehicle hauling four folks and their gear, I think 25mpg is remarkable.

We have the Enclave for hauling people and an Avalance for hauling stuff. Were not changing anything except to be more cautious about frivolous trips that can be combined into one.

[Jason Beam]

Even though I drive a Civic, I was looking into scooters or an electric vehicle for my grueling 4-mile-drive-on-surface-streets to work. If you play with the math I think you'll find you can buy a lot of gas for what it costs to buy a motorcycle and insure it. YMMV (pun intended). Besides where would I keep another vehicle? I don't care if its a Segway . . . no vehicles in my gara . . . er, shop!

I would have to drive something that gets 10 mpg or less to even think about it at this point.

I went ahead with this same thing. Ordered my scooter a couple weeks and hopefully will be getting it soon. I start the MSF course this friday. You're right, though, it'll take a good few years to come out ahead. Especially since I started hypermiling in the car and am up to a solid 22mpg in the car.

But, I'm not doing it to only save money so much as I am to be more responsible. Why am I pushing 2500lbs of steel around just to move my body? Of course, I have my own limits - I'm not quite to the point of riding a bicycle yet ... heh. Plus, a scooter's much more fun than a '05 Stratus.

It WILL pay for itself in the end. And faster than some may think. The costs of upkeep go down dramatically if 80% of my driving is shifted to a less-costly machine. Maintaining the car is quite a bit more costly than maintaining a scooter, too. So I think in the end, I was able to swallow a little up-front cost in favor of longer term savings.

[Curt Harms]

As I see it, if a driver really needs a large vehicle for hauling kids, hauling supplies or towing trailers, it makes sense to stay with it.

For a lone driver who just likes being behind the wheel of a big SUV, I think it makes no sense whatsoever. It's wasteful and foolish. I also think it's none of my business if people want to be wasteful and foolish.

It seems like a change beyond hybrids--i.e. better batteries, fuel cells, real ethanol, biofuel, synfuel etc. might be in order. The problem would be to assure those investing megabucks in such things that oil isn't going to drop to $30/barrel (wasn't it there recently?) and render those megabuck investments impractical. I did hear where the air force flew an aircraft (B-1? not sure) on synthetic fuel with no surprises. I think they figured that if the fuel were produced in quantity, it'd cost $1.25/gal. No sure of the feedstock but I think it might have been coal.

[Montgomery Scott]

There are several people around here who bicycle to work up to ten miles each way. You get to save on gas, wear on your car and get lots of exercise. I would probably get mowed down on any route I took so I don't.

I belong to a van pool but I rarely ride it now. I figured working an extra hour a day to make an extra $25,000 a year trumps saving $1600 in gas each year.

[Sean Kinn]

Yeah, I used to be an SUV guy (2 Jeep Cherokees, 1 Wrangler, 1 Grand Cherokee, 1 Isuzu Trooper) but four years ago I came to the conclusion that a commuter in the DC suburbs doesn't need an SUV. I purchased a diesel VW Jetta (42mpg lifetime average over 60k miles...reall world driving, not babying it for mileage. On long trips I hit 50 mpg driving at 70-75mph) I haul two 18 foot kayaks on a roof rack and have stuffed 100 bf of lumber in there several times. My next purchase will be a hitch and small aluminum trailer to haul bigger items.

Right now with Diesel being so expensive it's really coming out to be a wash against the wifes Focus that gets about 27mpg. But, it's paid for so I'll be keeping it for a long time. Some folks do need SUVs for kids and what not, but I don't have much sympathy for the ones that don't have a real need yet gripe about the gas prices.

[Mike DeHart]

I opted for a car instead of truck suv the last vehicle purchase. Bought a Toyata avalon mostly for the interior size (big guy, head bangs into friends Jeep roof at entry exit if not careful). Put a trailer hitch onto it for tool gloat runs.....

I'm averaging 26mpg, and have gotten as high as 33 on a highway only trip doing about 70-75.

The motorcycle sees a lot of the commuting these days, but that won't work too well in the Buffalo winters .

Mike

[Ron Kanter]

There is another piece of this topic that should be factored into the discussion. In addition to the personal cost of driving an unnecessarily big, gas guzzler, there is the cost to our society and planet. (Sorry if that sounds to grand, but I don't know how else to say it.)

Cars are a major contributor to:
Pollution
Global warmng
Dependence on foreign oil/balance of payments.

Big cars are bigger contributors to the problem than small cars.

It might not make economic sense to buy a Prius if you don't drive a lot of miles, but it would still be a good thing. Framing the discussion only in terms of our personal willingness to pay for the gas doesn't address what burning all that gas means for our future.

Just my $.02 which won't do much to fill the tank on my motorcycle, let alone either of my two cars.
Ron

[Travis Rassat]

I've tried to do a few things to offset the costs:

1. I try to bike to work as much as possible - just over 14 miles each way. Considering my daily driver (a 98 Acura Integra) gets about 27-28 mpg, it saves me a gallon of fuel each day I ride. In my case, because of scheduling, my family, and my level of fitness, I usually can only manage to ride 1 or 2 days a week. But, every little bit helps.

2. My wife drives a Camry hybrid, which has been great for our situation. With her route to work, she can average over 40 mpg. If I take it to work, by choosing the right route I can get over 55 mpg.

3. As someone else mentioned, I try to be a lot smarter about being efficient with my trips. I do all my errands on the way home from work, and it's getting to be quite rare that I leave our house/yard on weekends.

We had also recently looked into replacing the Acura with a new vehicle, since it's starting to show its age, and isn't the most family-friendly (not so much the size, as it is the 2 door coupe is hard to get our small kids in and out). After looking at cars that got decent mileage and were in our price range, we didn't anything that we both liked and felt was a good buy. I think now that the manufacturers are now starting to respond to the consumer demand for more efficient cars, we'll probably have some better choices if we can wait another year and a half or so.

[David Axmann]

I've found that, in general, being too reactionary ultimately comes back to bite you, sort of like chasing returns in the stock market.

I'd have to guess that the economics of switching vehicles or adding a more efficient vehicle to one's fleet don't usually make sense. Every day, the value of poor MPG vehicles drop more and more. For every dollar the value drops that's more efficiency you need to gain in another vehicle to break even.

I can't even pretend to understand scooters. Are scooter buyers ones who were never had a car with ABS, airbags or seatbelts? Fuel prices go up so MPG trumps all other factors in a vehicle? Hate to tell you but no matter how high fuel prices get I'm not riding a 45mph scooter and my son's not riding in a tin can econobox.

As far as the impact on society and the environment, that's a separate issue, and probably not one that can be discussed without arguments. Why didn't I see scooters out and about 5 years ago? How come folks only want to 'save the planet' when gas prices go up? I feel that it always comes down to personal economics, unless you are a Hollywood type or politician who says one thing but does another.