$4 a gallon and back to their old ways - already!
 

Well, the slowdown on the highways I drive every day didn't last long.

Most cars passing me are driving faster than the posted 70 mph limit from what I can judge as they whiz by me while I try to stay at 60 mph. Apparently the few minutes they save going faster is worth it to them.

I have no clue now what it's going to take to get them to slow down. Will it be a $100 fill up? More?

People think speed is the most important thing. Why do you think even in this day of "saving on fuel" that all the newest cars coming out in the next 2-3 years tout "MORE HORSEPOWER!! MORE ROOM!! BIGGER THAN EVER!!!" It's all a false image to me.

I don't care how fast it goes. As long as my family fits into it, and I get where I need to go. I'll build my own fast car when I have the time and money.

Depending on the car, we are already at or past a $100 fill up..

If you've ever tried to talk cars to most people, you will have found out that very few people understand cars as well as most of the posters on a board like this one.

Intellectually, quite a few people know that slowing down saves gas, but emotionally speaking, almost no one gets it.

Man is not a rational animal, man is an animal that rationalizes.

And we will rationalize that which we want to do until it is more than abundantly clear that what we want to do is self destructive.

People will not slow down until they see something like a Scangauge right in front of them and it's calibrated in dollars.. When they see the stoplight to stoplight top fuel race just cost them a cool buck, maybe then they will slow down.

Old habits die hard and the fuel wasting habit is going to die a long and extended death.

So I typically have a very heavy foot, partly because I grew up in the country and had a 20 minute drive to civilization. I used to brag that I never or RARELY get passed. Well my driving habits have changed; yesterday, for the first time ever, I didn't pass anyone. I got stuck behind a slow semi going 5 or 10 under and it was perfect! I maybe added a minute or two to my typical 18 minute commute but I'm a recovering speed-a-holic and it was a milestone for me. I’ve been trying to hypermile, not using brakes and super slow starts, for a while but I still worry about the people behind me and my time to get there. In a week I’m taking a road trip 200 miles one way and I’m going to drive 5 to 10 under, hypermile, and mask off some stuff just to see how it does. I typically get 29-31 with my wife’s Corolla drive 80ish I’m going to shoot for a minimum of 35. We'll see. It's a challenge for me to kick the speed habit, but if I can believe me ANYONE can.

Ah, I love the closed minds. Sure, most people ARE stupid, but OTOH, some might get paid more per hour than driving slower saves, and some might be able to save a significant amount of time that they'd rather spend with their family (and are willing to purchase that time).

What does room and size have to do with speed?

The hard part is staying off the stuff.

Well if we are going to have to pay outrageous amounts of money for gasoline at least I dont' have to also loose time driving slowly to where I want to go! . . . is probably what they are thinking!

Current and average fuel economy gauges should become mandatory on all new vehicles. I drive Green with the current mpg showing on the info center and it's a lot easier to work on my driving technique in that van, when compared to Grumpy which does not have the info center. Every time I drive Grumpy I instinctively find myself looking to where the info center is on Green wanting to check my current mpg. Can't wait to get my first ScanGaugeII and see what Grumpy can do.

Oh, living in Chicagoland where the highest national gas prices are and having two vans with 27 gallon tanks. That $100 mark is getting very close. I'm actually thinking about fabricating a 10 gallon tank to put in Green for local driving. It will reduce my range to about 200 miles, but I'll be dropping over 100 pounds.

Bottom line is, people have a life.

I'm usually not a fan of legislating things like that, but I can get behind that idea. It would cost no more than the TPMS that's now required. It would be the most cost-effective, and probably just plain the most effective, FE mod that can be done.

Why fabricate one yourself? You could use a professionally designed, professionally fabricated tank, which ought to be cheap from a junkyard, or you can use a really nice racing tank that can probably easily be bought from Jegs/Summit.

Or, you know, you could just not fill it up when you get gas.

I don't want to think of people driving around with home-made gas tanks...

I'm not really trying to defend the people that drive fast but it's a matter of frame of reference really.

Take for example my car and a couple others. Stock I would only get about 25mpg at 75mph which is kinda poor for a 4 banger(turns 2850 at 75mph). I've taken trips in two cars that astounded me with their mileage. A grand marquis getting 28mpg averaging 85mph(turns 1900rpm at 85) and a corvette getting 27mpg averaging about 95-100 mph for a long few hour trip each way(turns around 1600rpm at 80mph).

If I was to sell my car and buy a corvette, I could not only get places WAY faster than I do now but still pay less at the pump and pollute less doing so assuming I don't drive longer distances.

Also take for example a person that owns a Ford 5.4L truck and gets around 18 on the freeway at 70-75 mph. If he was to sell his truck he doesn't need and go buy a new Civic Si he could go triple digit speeds and haul *** around town all day and probably never even kiss the mileage that truck got. So he's saving money by using less fuel than he was but he's tearing it up all over town.

Compare this guy with someone that drives an 80s corolla and retires it for a new car, this person goes out and buys the same Civic Si because he's wanted one and has a good job now, but is getting close to 10-15 mpg less than he used to driving the car easy.

Who is more in the wrong here? The guy that sold his truck but drives around like a bat out of hell all the time or the guy that got rid of his corolla to get a nice little civic that he babies all around town while getting worse mileage than he used to?

Everyone has their story. Hell, I've made my final decision as to what's replacing the tracker, I'll be getting an 08 Mustang GT during this next winter but it's not going to be my daily driver except for the winter months. The Rebel 250 I'm picking up in a couple weeks is. Yeah, the mustang averages 20-22mpg but the rebel I'll drive most of the time gets 65+mpg. Overall it'll be a gross reduction in consumption, especially after I move, but I've worked hard for what I have and I feel that the savings from the bike(40-45 more mpg) offset the 8-10mpg less mileage the pony will get while I'm at the drag strip or driving like a jerk off whenever I happen to be.

You'd look at me and say 'what a gross polluter, doesn't he care about the environment? stupid american' all without knowing that 90% of the time I'm driving a vehicle that stomps even your cars mileage by probably 2 fold. I haven't gotten it yet but you can bet i'll be hypermiling in that thing.