Save $2 Per Gallon!

North Star Writers Group ^ | June 16, 2008 | Herman Cain

[Dukes Travels]

Now that I have your attention, here’s how.

Slow down. Stop the jack rabbit starts. Don’t slam the brakes. Dump the junk in the trunk. Use the cruise. Ride on air. And sweat on the way home.

A properly maintained vehicle, plus changing your driving behavior can actually increase your gas mileage by 50 percent, which saves you $2 per gallon on your next gallon of gas. And I have the listeners who have done it to prove it. Here’s the math.

The pain at the pump is now averaging $4 a gallon. If you are currently getting 20 miles per gallon in the hot wheels of your choice and you increase the mileage by 50 percent, then you will be getting 30 miles per gallon. That’s 10 extra miles for which you will not have to buy gas. Therefore, you save $2, since you are paying $4 per 20 miles driven.

[Teacher317]

Why doesn’t someone calculate the amount of money that Americans are spending due to the price increases, and ask whether the caribou’s inconvenience is worth that particular figure?

[FatherofFive]

Only go places that are downhill so you can just coast your way there. This should get you over 100 mpg.

The democrat solution to energy. Everything goes downhill fast!

[mysterio]

Give oil a competitor and you'll probably save even more.

Replace oil now.

[Sooth2222]

Did anyone mention checking tire pressures?

Also, how much is your time worth? The 55MPH speed limit cost a heck of a lot more in wasted time than it saved in gasoline.

[whipitgood]

Sounds like you need to upgrade the audio entertainment system in your beautiful Corolla. Ya gotta love those Japanese engineers!

[econjack]

Forget ANWR, there’s ample fuel and gas right hear in the Continental USA and off shore.

I know what you're saying, but I really don't want to forget ANWR. One reason is because a lot of the infrastructure needed to bring the new supplies online is already in place and it could have a fairly quick impact on supply.

But the second, and perhaps equally as important, reason is because the tree huggers need to know that they no longer run the country. To listen to them, you'd think ANWR was some sort of tourist Mecca where people are dying to get there to watch the caribou feed. Well, it's not on the Top 10 List of my vacation destinations. ANWR is one of the most remote places on the planet with winter temperatures reaching -50 and summer conditions such that the mosquitoes can drive you insane. ANWR has terrific revenue-producing potential, but tourism isn't one of them.

Tree huggers want you to believe that if we drill in ANWR, we'll kill off all the native wild life. Really? That's the same thing you said about Prudhoe Bay and it didn't happen...and that's based on 30-year-old technology. Sorry, Bucko, but you've cost me enough already. Get out of the way and let this economic system solve its problems without your whining voice on the wind.

[swain_forkbeard]

Expressing the savings resulting from increased mpg in terms of $/gl is inherently inaccurate. You can’t figure out how much you’re saving per gallon because you are not saving anything PER GALLON. You CAN figure out how much yuou are saving PER MILE. If adjusting one’s driving style increased mileage from 20 mpg to 25 mpg, you would be saving $.04 per mile at $4 per gl.

[Positive]

"Here is another tip. Only go places that are downhill so you can just coast your way there. This should get you over 100 mpg."

Excellent tip!

Considering tangential matters will help too...

For example, we need to consider all of the costs of driving...if we drive to the grocery store and buy tomatos, the weight of the tomatos increases the fuel cost on the return trip due to the extra weight. Then the trip to the hospital due to the salmanella and the hospital costs themselves are all related to that original trip. So we need to reconsider the food we eat.

I suggest we think about eating only dehydrated foods. We can store a supply that lasts longer, they weigh so much less, so we don't have to go to the store as often and when we do, our load is so much lighter that we save huge amounts of fuel.

And don't buy any corn.

[pctech]

I moved closer to work. Instead of driving 25 miles, I now drive 2. Much better.

[econjack]

Replace oil now.

Great idea and very novel. So what's your plan?

[Paradox]

The most I was ever able to achieve was maybe a 20% increase, not 50. Perhaps that would apply to a total leadfoot...

Since 1979 and the first oil "crisis", I have experimented with way of increasing MPG. Sort of like a hobby. I am known as the guy to put into the drivers seat when the car is low on gas, and there are no gas stations around for miles. I know when to back off on the throttle, when to speed up, when to slow down.

I've experimented with driving at constant speeds with different cars. I could get 26mpg in a 5 liter Mustang GT on the highway. I find that smaller engines are more sensitive to speed changes on the highway.

I would drive other drivers CRAZY, by driving my souped up 300ZX TwinTurbo at a constant 55 mph. It was kind of funny, all the stares, and no, I didn't cause traffic to back up, I made sure of that, drove in the proper lane for slow pokes.

All in all though, as others have pointed out, this article fails in veracity, and in math. I feel sorry for the author.

[Red_Devil 232]

See my post #28. I guess I aint so stupid!LOL

[angkor]

I think a motorcycle (I’m just not into scooters) would save me a bunch of money, but I’m afraid I’d be a hood ornament in less than a month. People just don’t pay attention.

I've had a few street bikes in the US (Triumph, BMW, BSA) and smaller bikes in SE Asia.

And I worked "professionally" for an urban messenger service with a fleet of 25 or so BMWs (circa 1980).

I'm convinced that American drivers simply don't cognitively register motorcycles in the same way that they see cars or trucks. It's happened too many times that a car driver obviously saw me and then proceeded to pull right into my lane or to cut me off or whatever, as if they hadn't even seen me.

The solution is to drive your bike aggressively. Assume that auto drivers are out to kill you (they are). Drive as if they can't see you (they can't and don't). Never assume they'll treat you like any other vehicle (they won't). Do assume they'll do the stupidest thing possible (they will).

In SE Asia there are so many bikes on the road that you're on a level playing field even with an 85cc Super Cub. There's a certain unwritten code to learn, but once done I think it's much safer than anywhere in America for bike transport.

I keep wanting to buy a new Vespa PX, but I don't really like riding in America.

[OldMissileer]

I think a motorcycle (I’m just not into scooters) would save me a bunch of money, but I’m afraid I’d be a hood ornament in less than a month. People just don’t pay attention.

I have ridden to work year round for nearly 15 years on my three motorcycles. I have well over 250K miles on my bikes and get between 47 and 50 MPG. I even performed my business for three years exclusively on them, year round, at about 60K miles per year. Only one accident since I started riding at the age of ten and I was stopped at the time and did not get hurt myself but my bike was damaged badly.

I also wear armor even in the hot Virginia summers.

That said, you MUST watch every driver out there and expect them to do something stupid. Keep an opening if possible and keep to a lane that is next to the shoulder since it is an alternate to slip into in an emergency.

Even riding in the rain, heat, cold, and snow (sometimes) I enjoy the rides and when I get home I feel better than when I left work. You just have to be VERY CAREFUL!

[nikos1121]

I’m told that ANWR oil would go to Japan and Pacific NW. It would not be pipelined across the Rockies. California prohibits pipelining of oil through it’s state.

I can let McCain have his ANWR argument since it’s federal land, but there is no excuse for not drilling off shore, in the Dakotas, Wyoming Coal etc. But you even had a Florida Republican Gov against off shore drilling. I think if there were term limits on ALL politicians, we would get more accomplished.

[Paradox]

The solution is to drive your bike aggressively. Assume that auto drivers are out to kill you (they are). Drive as if they can't see you (they can't and don't). Never assume they'll treat you like any other vehicle (they won't). Do assume they'll do the stupidest thing possible (they will).

This is exactly what I do when I ride my bicycle to the train station. Its the advice I will give to my son when I learns to ride a bike. Drivers are STUPID, and what with cellphone use increasing, they are stupid AND not paying attention to the road.

[TLI]

Not to stereotype, but the mothers driving their kids to school were some of the worst for making dangerous driving situations.

You left out yakking on a cell phone. I have seen the most ignorant and dangerous maneuvers ever in the past few years and almost invariably they have that cell phone in their ear and no idea they just nearly had a wreck.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

You may save money per mile, but not any money per gallon.

[pas]

Not true. Myth Busters did this one and the windows down was actually more fuel efficient.

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Second, rolling the windows down will only help during stop and start driving. For highway speeds, turning the AC off and rolling the windows down actually creates more drag and uses more fuel than the windows up and the AC running. For those of us in the muggy southeast, running the car with the AC off simply isn’t an option.

I posted about this before in a different thread on hypermiling. They did a whole bunch of mileage studies using a Toyota Camry as their test vehicle and they found that:

1. Using the air conditioning shaved off less than 1 MPG, and

2. Opening the windows had no measurable effect on mileage at all.

I also live in the muggy Southeast and I would only run with the windows open if I was down to fumes.

What was the biggest improvement on mpg? Slowing down.