Are the ultra high gas prices hurting you hypermilers?

[GasSavers_Ryland]

I find the cost of owning a vehicle to be outrages and gas is only a small part of that $.09 a mile for gas in my car is 1/3 of my cost per mile for a car that is paid for, I don't hear many people complain about the rest of the cost of car ownership.

[VetteOwner]

id kill for 3.79 again lol its been $4.09 ever since last wendsday...

there does need to be some kind of monthy or somehing tax on gas guzzlers, now ookiu brings up a good point, some people NEED a large vehicle. There should be some kind of permit system (like handicapped license plates and tags) that allow you to get around the tax...like lets say you own X number of kids or your a private business owner or handicapped vans, etc

but the people who just want to show off and flaunt thier money around no tax the crap outa em lol

[bowtieguy]

Originally Posted by OokiiMamoru

How nice for those who need larger vehicle's for large family's, or wheel chair accessible conversion vans, or private contractors barley able to make ends meet. They higher gas prices are punishment enough.

yes, i thought of that as i finished my post and ran out the door. all good points, and i can think of another exception...someone "stuck" with an older, larger vehicle that cannot afford a new/different one.

but, in addition to tougher guzzler taxes, there should be a strict(anti-loop hole) policy to protect those that really NEED a larger vehicle(like the affore mentioned).

also more, better tax credits/rebates perhaps beyond hybrids should be implimented. so, when a struggling family does get a new low cost vehicle, they will be rewarded by wise FE car purchases.

[Snax]

The problem is that transportation and driving are not a right. And while I am in favor of helping disabled folks financially to overcome things like the higher cost of transportation, I do NOT in any way support it for large families. Being disabled is not a choice, but having a large family is. Millions of families could save substantially on fuel costs just by planning their trips better.

The one thing that any thinking person should be able to understand is that the price of gas is going up, has always gone up, and will always continue to go up over the long run. I have no sympathy for failing to plan!

[Snax]

Originally Posted by bowtieguy

yes, i thought of that as i finished my post and ran out the door. all good points, and i can think of another exception...someone "stuck" with an older, larger vehicle that cannot afford a new/different one.

I disagree with that premise. Inexpensive, fuel efficient cars are a dime a dozen.

I've had friends drive cars for years that they purchased for $500. If a person cannot afford that, then they probably shouldn't be driving at all. (The majority of people I've talked to in such dire financial straights aren't paying for insurance anyway.)

There is no such thing as being 'stuck' with a vehicle. Even somebody upside down on a loan is not stuck with it.

[91CavGT]

The gas prices are hurting us a bit. My wife drives a 2005 Toyota Corrolla that gets an average of 30 mpg with her driving. I've got a 2006 Chevy Colorado that I'm about to try to sell. Just over a month ago I bought a much older 1991 Chevrolet Cavalier station wagon. It currently gets equal gas mileage as the truck does, but it is improving. Not only that, but once the truck is gone, we will have 1 less car payment and we'll be spending less on insurance per month. This is to try to offset the rising price of food. With 11 year old twins, our food bill is getting higher and higher every week.

[Hateful]

Originally Posted by VetteOwner

id kill for 3.79 again lol its been $4.09 ever since last wendsday...

there does need to be some kind of monthy or somehing tax on gas guzzlers, now ookiu brings up a good point, some people NEED a large vehicle. There should be some kind of permit system (like handicapped license plates and tags) that allow you to get around the tax...like lets say you own X number of kids or your a private business owner or handicapped vans, etc

but the people who just want to show off and flaunt thier money around no tax the crap outa em lol

Hopefully better than the handicap plate system. It seems at least 10% of cars have them and how a handicap person can climb into these monster trucks is beyond me.

[mjswan]

My first car was a Fiat 500 Bianchina Sport http://www.caranddriver.com/news/aut...ina_auto_shows. The Sport boasted 21 horsepower versus the standard model's 18 hp. What a rocket (not!). But it got over 50 mpg with the pedal on the floor all the time (no other way to drive a mini Fiat). As a high-schooler, it was great because with gas at $.25 per gallon I could drive for 2 weeks (200 miles) on a buck's worth of gas. To say the car was slow is like saying a Smart car is short.

There were lots of little cars in those days but cheap gas and the need for power killed the ones that didn't blow up on the freeway trying to keep up with the Detroit iron. I, for one, would like to see some of them come back.

[getnpsi]

If gas prices doubled and everything else remained the same it wouldnt be so bad. America runs on fuel so all of a sudden a week from now milk cheese eggs etc. goes up 50 cents. The transportation costs just to move fuel around goes up. Even if oil companies were honest and need the prices to be where they are, the government hasnt helped. they could find a way to tax other things to offset it somewhat. I don't smoke or drink...tax that higher.

vette there is already a huge tax break for people with kids and disabled people. Where did your stimulus go? Many probably got their nails done with it and didnt shift budgets around for the rising fuel costs.

[DracoFelis]

The price of gas is clearly one thing on our mind.

Even with the fuel savings tricks we have, my wife and I are noticing the price of gas, especially with the long commutes that are built into our respective jobs. The hypermiling is clearly helping (my last tank was 47.8mpg, on a supposedly 29mpg car), but even so we notice the price increase. In fact, at this point my MPG is going up slower than the price of gas is rising. So even with the hypermiling, our monthly expense for fuel is still rising. So we have made some effort to "combine trips", and otherwise save on gas.

OTOH its a balance thing. Even with the price of gas, we still are not hurting enough to cut out all of our driving for entertainment. After all, with my CRX currently (with the warm weather) getting mid-40's for MPG, a short drive somewhere still only costs a few dollars (for gas), and often brings in more enjoyment than the gas costs us. One example of this, is that my wife and I live about an hour's drive away from a moderate sized tourist area. As a result, we have purchased annual "season passes" to a "fun park" (combo water and theme park), and we will often go there "just for fun" (despite the gas costs). Why? Because the drive is still not too costly (in terms of gas spent) for a day of fun together. And as to the park costs themselves, it turns out that while the daily passes are very costly (for a day of fun), their annual passes are only about 3 times the costs of their daily passes (which makes the annual "season passes" a really good deal for locals, such as ourselves, that just like getting out and having fun every so often). Yes, we pay some gas to get there, but I just consider that part of the cost of the entertainment (and even with the costs of the drive, the annual "season passes" make the cost of going to the fun park still fairly cheap for a day of fun)!

BTW: Yes, I know, I need to get my garage entry updated with recent gas logs. Rest assured I have those logs (I keep a paper log book in my CRX, that gets every fill up recorded), but I just haven't gotten around to transferring those entries to my garage entry on this site. FWIW I do know I was sometimes doing as bad as 37 in the winter, however with the warmer weather I'm now consistently getting mid to high 40's with that car.