Just wondering- ask yourself, in all the SUVs you see everyday…how often are they packed with people? Or are there usually 1 to 5 inside- a standard car load?

I never said SUV drivers were evil. Just that SUV marketing gives an illusion of safety that is often not true.

Imagine yourself riding a tricycle, trying to see over a VW beetle in front of you. That is what my visibility has been reduced to- I cannot see over, through, or around many large cars on the road. Call me crazy, but I think that is less safe. But I also do not think that everyone getting larger cars is the answer.

I have also never understood that people think they need an SUV/minivan once they procreate. Many generations made do without them, and cell phones…etc. It is just increased expectations of comfort and convenience, not really a need. House bloat…car bloat..it’s all the same.

Much of my pro life was in advertising, and your “kids=SUV” …safety, cargo, etc….is evidence of true advertising success.

But hey, to each his own. Drive what you want! I’ll be in my Ford Escort wagon. Great mileage, and a danger to no one.

I third, fourth, whatever number that the advice to turn off your car is marginal at best. That is a lot of wear and tear on your spark plugs and starter system (especially the battery!!) that will add up later in repairs. Poor starter systems in themselves cause lots of trouble and don’t provide much warning of trouble unless you pay very close attention as you are driving.

I also worry about what could happen if you are at red lights with your car off. If you are the first at a light, someone could come along and see no brake lights and assume that you are about to turn, then ram into the back of you. If you can’t start soon enough at a red light in a city, chances are high someone will trigger off people moving in the other lane or the change at the light itself, not noticing that you have not moved yet. I feel this could be a safety hazard unless practiced in suburban or rural areas with great awareness as to your surroundings.

You’re kidding, right? I’ve seen plenty of accidents caused by people in big cars, people in small cars, and people in mid-sized cars. I’ve seen accidents with 18-wheelers, motorcycles and mopeds.

Stop vilifying people in SUVs. I have a high-quality SUV that gets good gas mileage. Why? Because I have kids. Because I live in a large, busy metro area and do all of my shopping once a week – need a cargo hold for all of my groceries and stuff.

And because this is still a free country. As long as it fits with government regulations, I can drive what I please.

So sick of the “evil SUV driver” garbage.

I already try to drive in a fuel efficient manner, but this is one my husband and I forget to do. We’ll load up the car with tools, use them, and forget to take them out when we get home. They’re in the trunk – out of sight, out of mind. Thanks for the reminder!

Re: changing oil. Just dispose of it PROPERLY please and have appropriate oil cleanup stuff standing by. Or if you are me…get your dad to change your oil!

I live 25 miles from my office. I will not sell my house (great value, great neighborhood) to move closer to my office. My wife works 23 miles from work, in nearly the opposite direction.

Carpooling is impractical in Houston. My nearest coworker is seven miles away, works a different “shift” (I work 8-6, he’s 7-5) and we have different Friday’s off.

Driving the speed limit is not practical if you’re moving at 20 mph on a freeway in traffic. It isn’t recommended on our tollway system either, where even the Prius drivers go 75… hint, Houstonians want to get to work.

I will not change my own oil when my Nissan dealer will do it for me. Motor oil is $2.50 a quart. An oil filter is six bucks. They lube all of my chassis points and top off all my fluids for $25. I’d save maybe six bucks doing it myself, or about twenty-five bucks a year. Thanks, but my time is worth a lot more than that, and they’ll recycle the oil. (My wife’s Nissan has service as part of the warranty.)

Buying a new vehicle is a good idea, if you need one and it saves mileage. My Maxima is a 2006, so I’m not replacing that one yet. My wife’s Versa is a 2008. That one’s still being paid for. Still, there’s a lot to be said for buying an older, well-maintained lower mileage car for ten thousand bucks less because you’ll never reap those budgetary savings.

Public transportation is impractical in Houston. We have a bus system, and it is pretty comprehensive… for a city of over 600 square miles. The nearest supermarket to me is 2.5 miles, but I can’t take the bus back (the route is a loop whose closest stop is 1/2 mile from my house). To be honest, our mass transit system has two functions: it moves businessmen downtown ( less than 20% of Houstonians work in the downtown area), and moves the poor into wealthier neighborhoods so they can work there. The old saying was, “In the morning, businessmen out and maids in.” It reverses in the evening. I tried to figure out how long it would take to get to work on a Houston Metro bus. Including walking to the stop, and then walking two miles from the end of the line to my office, about two and a half hours.

Using bike or foot to get somewhere. Not really. We walk every evening in the neighborhood, but we never leave it. Outsiders get a little overwhelmed by the scale of this town. I could walk to the local CVS pharmacy, which is two miles away… maybe on a Saturday when I didn’t have anything to do. Because of the size of this town walking is a huge timewaster. In my old Memorial Bend neighborhood things like Blockbuster and a few restaurants and a supermarket were a five minute walk, but not in Fleetwood.

What do we do to save a few petrodollars? Combine trips to save time and gas. While I can easily afford it, it galls me to pay $2.70 for a gallon of premium unleaded. We grocery shop once a week, and usually combine that trip with as many errands as possible, like trips to Home Depot, haircuts/styling, the fabric store for my wife, et cetera. It may take a Friday evening to go to our three supermarkets (bulk items from Costco, everyday things from Kroger, produce from a Korean market… all within a mile of each other), grab a bolt of fabric for a headboard, some paint for the bookshelves, and drycleaning, but it is worth it.

Wow, another War and Peace from me. Sorry.

I was assuming that the car remained in top gear from 55 MPH to 85 MPH. The gear ratio remains fixed, the load increases from drag, you consume more fuel.

Re: saving costs on gas (getting back to topic) there’s another little savings potential to consider, which is, don’t buy anything at a gas station EXCEPT gas.

I will disagree with you both and side with KC.

Thermodynamics aside, your assumption of increasing energy and exponential resistance, while somewhat accurate, is incorrect.

It is quite possible that a vehicle with an overdrive transmission can use simalar amounts of fuel at varying speeds. Although the resistance exponentially builds, the revolutions do not increase at the same exponential rate.

Your assumption assumes the fuel consumption rises in proportion with the energy needed.

But engines at static levels use fuel based on revolutions, not resistance.

So while in theory the engine may use more fuel at a higher speed, which creates higher revolutions, the vehicle is also traveling at a higher rate of speed, covering more distance, and theoretically running less time.

I can assure you driving 60 mph will yield greater fuel efficiency than driving 15 mph.

Why

Gearing.

I was behind a huge SUV that flipped over changing lanes in the rain, on the expressway. They were not going fast. SUVs have in fact, a pretty poor safety record.

Smaller cars have a lower center of gravity, and flip less. If you are worried about being hit in a small car- get a Volvo, or discontinued SAAB.

Smaller slower cars make the roads safer. Driving a larger car for the illusion of safety makes you a danger to everyone ELSE.

I’ll confer with Kevin, getting the same mileage at 55 and 85 would violate the laws of thermodynamics.

As for shutting off the car rather than idling, any benefit is exceedingly small. Using the ScanGauge on my car (as well as on other cars in our carpool) reveals that an idling four cylinder engine consumes about 0.3 gallons per hour. Idling for one minute would use 0.005 gallons of fuel. At $3/gallon, that’s 1.5 cents you might save.

The big ways to increase fuel economy are gradual acceleration, driving slower, maintaining speed, coasting up to red lights and keeping your tires inflated properly, as well as doing things like chaining trips so you have the car at proper operating temperature for longer. A car that’s “cold” uses significantly more fuel than one that’s already reached it’s operating temperature.

Consider switching your phone plan, and your car insurance.

We switched from one T-mobile plan to another, and are saving about $20/month now. We gave up texting, but we only sent a handful of texts per month anyways. After paying T-Mobile’s plan-transfer fee ($35/plan, two plans), it will take us 4 months to break even.

Car insurance, we will be saving about $300 over the next 6 months. The company we were leaving said that breaking our contract early will lower our insurance score…but the $300 is worth it to us.

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A few smaller ones…

We are replacing the dimmer switches in our house with on/off ones so that we can start using CF bulbs instead of incandescent.

We are paying an extra $30/month into my wife’s student loans. This will save us $370 in interest. (Bonuses etc. get added in too, so total savings will be slightly greater)

AJ (#39) – While 55-60 may have been the “sweet spot” a couple decades ago, newer cars can be optimized for fuel efficiency at higher speeds. All depends on the engine tuning and most efficient RPM range, the gearing, etc.

The point you bring up, however, is a perfectly valid question on the cost-benefit analysis of the money you save by driving slower versus the time you save by getting there a half-hour earlier.

It’s probably outside of the scope of this topic, though.

“I can drive my car at 55 or 85 and I get the same mileage.”

That’s physically impossible. The air resistance alone grows exponentially as speed increases. Ignoring the rolling resistance of the wheel bearings and tire friction on varying road surfaces, it’s a mathematical certainty that your engine has to expend more energy pushing the same vehicle through the same mass of air at a higher velocity. More energy means more fuel. Your claim is provably false.