I got over 20mpg!
 

I know, some of you are saying "so what I get 35+ regularly" but I got my first over 20 tank today while traveling back to Albuquerque. It was 20.51mpg in a 5000 pound SUV sporting a 5.9L V8.

It was an ideal tank to be honest. No hills or anything, keeping with the speed limit (holiday weekend so no speeding), and I got 86 octane at the lowest altitude I could find it.

There were, however, a bunch of small towns requiring me to slow down to 35 and then speeding back up.

Still is a damn strange vehicle choice for solo commuting.

Well, I tried to borrow the Jetta from work (6 speed turbo) which would have averaged more like 35 the whole trip but because he 'might' find a buyer this last week he refused to let me borrow it even though it's just sitting there(he wants about 5k more than it is really worth) not being used and fiscally speaking renting an econo box or flying between the 3 towns wasn't great.

In the past I've shown coworkers the math that proved getting an economical "beater" (just cuz it can be bought cheap doesn't automatically mean it's a POS) paid for itself in much less than a year and after that it was all gravy. Unless one lives in an urban environment with no parking available for another vehicle, I don't know why anyone wouldn't do that.

Excellent it's always fun to beat the EPA numbers by a wide margin. Been doing that with my vans as often as possible. I managed to get Grumpy to pull 22.9 mpg on my ScanGaugeII yesterday heading home from work.

Maybe one day I'll get an econobox for commuting, but since I have three vans currently my wife isn't letting me bring anything else home.

I would be unhappy if my car got 22.9.

I'd be unhappy getting 22.9 mpg in a Tempo too.

EPA says Grumpy should be getting 17 mpg hwy. 34.7% better than EPA, while needing an alignment, and with a cylinder 2 misfire, I think is pretty darn good.

Can't wait to fix the fuel tank leak and be able to top off the tank again. Really want to start updating my log again.

OK... I would be unhappy if my solo commuter got 22.9.

Seems like the OP isn't unhappy about it. It's nice that it works for him.

This vehicle works for me. It had stupidly low mileage on it for the year (just hit 40k at it was 9 years old) and it was in my price range. Unless I own two vehicles I would have to give up my weekend activities because I can't get where I need to in a car without tearing it up. If I was just a city dweller that didn't ever goes off the highway I'm sure a Mazda 3 hatchback would be perfect for me, but that isn't the case.

I'll admit, I didn't need the 5.9 and I could have probably done okay without the 4wd but at the time I purchased this thing the better the mileage the higher the price. 2wd 5.2 was an extra 1.5-2k premium. Even smaller SUVs were more expensive.

Hell, a decent condition Suzuki economy car at the time ran 6-7k.

I also have to enjoy what I drive. If I buy a crappy beater I won't enjoy it and I'll end up driving the Durango a lot again. That's what happened with the Rebel, I didn't enjoy driving it to work in traffic so instead of 85mpg 5 days a week it got reduced to 3, then 2, then I just stopped riding it except on the weekends.

So yeah, I COULD do better but it is a cost I don't feel like having right now and didn't feel like having then. Especially with my move coming up.

Don't strain anything trying to justify SUV commuting!

A bit of a commuting snob? You know you could be driving a Geo Metro, Ford Festiva, VW Golf TDI or riding a motorcycle instead of that gas wasting Tempo. For shame. :p

Maybe DK can't add the expense of another vehicle at this time.

I've been watching CL for the Golf and hope to get one ASAP, but I'll only buy cash as the credit market sucks. I'll have the cash to get one as nice as I'd like maybe sometime fall of 2010. Till then I'll try to get the best MPG I can with my vans.

Or a Chinese-made scooter.

My commute is between the bedroom and the home office! :p

I just can't justify using 5,000 lbs of equipment to move a 200 lb payload.

Can anyone?

Since when do people in America have to justify anything?

When our government starts, I will. Until then :p

To each their own :) we should be inclusive here, not exclusive. I would be ecstatic to get 20mpg in my car as well, and I make no apologies for what I drive. Good job in the Durango!

That's impressive for vehicle that big!
:thumbup:

well i'm no where near 200! :p

I think we should be more encouraging. Let him do the math, and maybe he will see a better way to commute.

How many years does that take?

Well, the Fiesta goes on sale early next year according to everywhere I've been able to read, so I guess then. The Durango becomes a second vehicle then while I rip that 1.6L buzz machine a new A.

Hopefully much less if we don't chase him away. After all, its his $$$ he is wasting. I mean, I agree with you. Driving a GIANT SUV to work by yourself everyday is a huge waste of gas, and $$$. I have never owned a truck or SUV. and Iv only owned ONE minivan. I have been driving 4cyl cars since the 80's! :eek:

Hey, I'll be doing my part again soon! Over the winter I'm building my 1.0l fuel injected metro engine motorcycle and then plan on buying an economy car. Yeah, it'll be a loaded economy car and it'll most likely get a turbo but it should still attain good numbers!

I'm waiting for hydrogen. It might take 30 years but oh well. In the meantime I'll roll my...

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...1bbc910b94.jpg

heh heh couldn''t resist

Blame insurance rates, seriously, some cities people are paying $4000 a year, the difference in cost between having a truck for your leisure pursuits and having a truck and a commuter car, will more than pay for the gas just to run the truck as a commuter.

I have compromise vehicles. I don't want to get rid of either of them, I am "working around" not having Marvin running at the moment, Wile-E was supposed to be the econobox, but if I didn't have to pay insurance at the insane rates here, I would have 2 real econoboxes, bare minimum vehicles, don't care about passenger carrying, a full size highway cruiser, a sporty "toy" AND a towbeast truck or large RV. The average in use year average MPG of that fleet would probably be over 40, as it is with compromise vehicles I might get 27. Most people who need/want use of a truck would do 30-35 with that an an econobox, but if the insurance for a year costs more than the gas it won't happen.

For as little as I use my truck, I call up the insurance co when I'm gonna use it, then cancel after the job is done. Sometimes it costs ZERO to insure for a day or so. So basically the pickup insurance is free and I maintain continuous coverage on the econobox.

Ya just hafta be a little smart about this stuff.

What insurance company accepts that behavior?

I wish I could get insurance on me as a driver, then supplemental insurance for each vehicle for vehicle-specific concerns and for the rare other driver. I'd love to keep a variety of vehicles. As it is I haven't been keeping the Buick insured (it doesn't get driven :() and have been considering uninsuring the truck, but I drive it to the dump once a week.

Any of them? All of them? I know I'm not the only one that does that.

Your lucky you could do so.
Some states/locals require insurance on vehicles that just sit in the driveway.
Insurance companies in NJ only sell 1 year min. policies on motorcycles.

In RI, any registered vehicle has to be insured. I'm not sure if it's actually illegal to be registered and uninsured or if it's only illegal to drive on the road uninsured, but they begin enforcement with registration; they won't renew it without a policy.

I don't think they check often (or at all) to make sure it's really insured.

Who's gonna check?

In California they have the ability to run the plates of any car they pass automatically. I don't know if they have done it there yet but in Texas the cop knows before he even pulls you over if you are insured or not because the TXDPS database has that information.

Ouch. Big brother is watching you, in CA.

Yah, I bet they scan plates on cars sitting in driveways. Put a cover on it or put it in or behind the garage.

It may have have started in areas has a way of protecting 'property values'. As long as your neighbors are fine with it, you should be fine.

The two states I've lived in required proof of insurance for registration and inspection.

The point is that if if something works for you, doesn't mean it works out for everyone.

Are you guys not listening?

I can't imagine a state where this wouldn't work.

My state requires insurance when you register and inspect too.

Soooo... insure it when you register and inspect!!!

Insure it when it's on the road!

Don't insure it when it's NOT!

Just to be clear: even I don't do this if it's going to be used often enough. However, my truck only gets used for hauling/towing (the point of my comments in this thread) therefore it sometimes will sit for several months without being used.

This also presumes you keep a policy full time on at least one vehicle. Yes, insurance companies frown on intermittent policies where the driver has nothing covered. That's opens up a whole can of worms... you don't want to go there.

Insure it full time if you like... but don't complain that having a 2nd econobox will cost too much.

Yup, they've had it for a couple of years in my city here in TX too. It really irks me when they tow sh!t in front of your house that's non-op anyway, and I don't see why they should be able to do it if it's in your driveway.

Maybe that's they cant balance their budget! :eek:

PS - back OT, I just got my first tank over 20 as well :D

I thought here at Gas-savers we generally did not endorse illegal behavior, no matter how easy it is to get away with.

Is it now the suggestion that in order to save gas ignore stop signs if you don't see anyone around?

Who's going to catch you if there's nobody around? Might as well blow through the stop sign.