Not long after I purchased my first car in Europe, a friend called to complain about how expensive gas was getting. In some of the ritzier part of our home town the price of premium fuel had gone as high as $1.50/gallon. Across the ocean I was paying about a buck a liter so I could hardly empathise.
With fuel now at $4/gallon in the US hardly a day goes by that I don’t read an article or hear a story about it on NPR. Often from someone that fills up less than twice a month. I need to fill up every three days so I’m not feeling much sympathy for many of these people.
Everybody at work seems to be interested in buying a hybrid car, motorcycle, or even the tiny little Smart to try to save a buck on gas. Regardless of how little they actually spend on gas.
I happen to have picked up a motorcycle myself. It’s a nice little thing and wicked fast and I sure didn’t buy it to save money. If I were to drive it to work every day the fuel savings would be 50% or so but my motorcycle payment and insurance are about double that. I’ve run the numbers on buying a hybrid, VW TDI, and other high-MPG cars as well. As long as my current car remains reliable the cheapest thing to do it to stick with it. When it is finally paid off I will reconsider but gas will have to go up quite a bit more to justify taking on the car payment…
Getting more MPGs out of my car is something that makes sense. My average for the three tanks prior to this week was 17.35. Not great but my car is more extensively modified than Pamela Anderson. After my Tuesday morning fill-up I set my cruise control to the speed limit and kept my foot off the gas pedal until it was time to refill the tank. 21.06MPG. A savings of nearly $10 per fill-up. And that is extra money in my pocket right now, not years later after paying off the hybrid premium or loss on my trade-in.
