Quote of the Day
While going the speed limit (in an effort to increase gas mileage) on the LONG drive home from church (25 mi):
Sharon: "One would have to wonder if we're actually moving."
Kris: "You really would."
Sharon: "Why, we may have to start packing a picnic lunch."
I thought we should start holding up a sign for the benefit of the annoyed motorists around us that says "Gas $3.49/gallon." I guess I'm going to have to start leaving the house earlier so that I can putz down the road. This thing of consuming $40 every time I fill up with gas is really getting on my nerves. I found myself "hiding my eyes" last night when I filled up.
I have a small economy car; I fill up approximately once a week. I cannot even fathom what it is like to fill up an SUV or van. Even if I had plenty of discretionary funds, it would still take my breath away.
How much does it take to fill your car and how often do you have to do the deed?
posted by Kris at 4/20/2008 07:08:00 PM
1 Comments:
$47, once a week. I've drastically changed my driving style over the last couple months after reading an article on hypermiling. Just by making some small changes I'm getting approx. 6 MPG better than driving like other traffic. Which, at the current gas price, saves me around $250 a year. And that's without driving slower. I'm sure I could get quite a bit more savings if I would do that too.
Some of the things I've been doing... when coming up to a traffic light that's red, but will change w/o you tripping it (either from other traffic or a timer), slow down and keep slowing down so that you are still moving when the light turns green and you don't have to stop & start again. The faster you are going when the light turns green, the better your savings. In other words, slow down more, sooner than you think. Also, take off slowly from stops. Go at least 10 MPH slower up hills than down hills. The easiest way for me to do that is to concentrate on holding the gas pedal in the same place, up the hill and down the other side. I've heard that it takes 10 seconds of fuel to start your car, so if I'm at a light where I have to stop for more than 10 seconds, or waiting on a train or something, I'll turn off my engine. That goes for waiting on people or whatever in my car too (not sure how that will be when the weather gets hot). Sometimes I shift into neutral on down-hills, but you have to careful with an automatic because that can wreck it if you go too far that way (the transmission doesn't get lubricated properly when it's in neutral).
Anyway, I enjoyed reading your blog, I came upon it from a comment on IcedTeaForever. (I used to live in Oregon).
I'm not maintaining a blog at the present but you can reach me at jesse (at) spark4me (dot) com.
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