The Price of Gas

[riverc0il]

Wow, seeing that truck makes me think of a certain song by Dennis Leary...... :wink:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[ctenidae]

I did a wholly unscientific experiment driving on the highway last night. My car has a computer that calculates gas mileage (as do many). i always thought it was a cumulative, averag-over-a-long-time kind of thing. Apparently, it's not. It actually refigures it every 15 seconds or so, based on distance travelled and fuel used since the last time it updated. Pretty snazzy, I think. Anyway, I wanted to see the mpg differance at various speeds. I was surprised at how little difference there was. 55 mph gave me 34.8 mpg, steady over about 5 miles. 80 mph (the speed traffic was moving, even in the right lanes, on 93 last night) gave me 33.6 mg, again over about 5 miles. I really expected a bigger difference. The shocker came when I was accelerating onto the highway. From a 20 mph entrance (I hate slow minivans merging onto the highway), accelerating to 80 mph, fairly rapidly, mpg dropped to 19.7. Which leads me to think, for any particular vehicle, maximizing your mileage is not so much a factor of the speed you drive as the consistancy of your speed. Aside from being dangerous, it seems the fools who zoom by in the slow lane, then have to brake because they don't realize the car in front of them is going slower, then jump over a lane, and zoom ahead, only to brake again, are using the most gas. Particularly interesting because they never seem to actually get ahead of me travelling at a steady speed in a single lane.

 

[David Metsky]

They're close to getting the Smart Cars approved for US safety standards.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/04/19/043267.html
I'm not sure they'll ever be a big hit in the States, but it's good to have more options. Smart cost MB $1Billion in losses last year, not sure it will survive.

-dave-

 

[riverc0il]

ctenidae: how long were you driving and did you perform your test using the same stretch of road for both variables to keep extraneous factors neutral? hills at different points on the highway could have had an impact. driving 200 miles to a ski area, you definitely see a far bigger difference in MPG between speeds that far apart. i see a big differece just between 60-65 and 70-75... nearly a quarter of a tank for a round tripper to cannon.

fast acceleration definitely eats the gas. keeping my RPMs below 3k tends to be how i measure if i am eatting gas too quickly. when the RPMs get over 3k, the gas starts going fast regardless of which gear the car is in, highway or city.

 

[ctenidae]

Naw, riverc0il- there were no controls for variables in place. The stretch of 93 from Exit 40 to Boston is pretty level, though, and traffic was steady. I agree, over the long run, even 1 mpg makes a difference, but all I was going for was quick snapshots.
I'm going to have to try it with cruise control, to avoid accidental lead foot. One day, I'll even test the window-down vs air conditioner difference, too, though I think in my entire driving life I've used the air conditioner about 10 times, and even then not for long- I like windows open more.

In other gas price news, this morning was the first time I saw a talking head on TV actually say that higher gas prices have effects across the entire economy, and the Fed's statement on Tuesday left out a line that had been there previously, saying that they hadn't seen energy prices have an effect on inflation yet. I guess now they have. That's not a good sign.

 

[riverc0il]

air conditioner kills gas in my car. pushing the A/C button, i can even hear my car putting out more energy.

 

[ctenidae]

Interesting effect of gas prices- GM adn Ford bonds got reduced to Junk status by S&P yesterday, partly because of poor sales figures, driven in a drop in demand for SUV's caused by, you guessed it, persistently high gas prices. It's going to be tough for GM, what with their $292 billion (yes, with a B) in debt, and less than $45 billion (yes, another B) in cash. Ford's a little better off, with only around $190 billion in debt. Ouch.

 

[thetrailboss]

As Tom Friedman said last week on NPR, it would be great if Toyota stepped in a bought GMC to straighten it out....it's too bad that an American Company can't do it, but they just are too big and lazy. I hate to admit it :flag:

 

[ctenidae]

Heh. Toyota's doing their part to help, though- They're planning on raising their prices in order to boost GM and Ford's sales. That's so nice of them. Defensive, strategic, and cynical as hell, but nice of them.

 

[thetrailboss]

Toyota's prices are rising?

 

[ctenidae]

Maybe. Their chairman said so on 4/25, then the company said it wouldn't on 4/26. I think they will, but won't say so, and won't say why.