RSS
Taking my hyrbrid life in my hands (legally)
Sometimes, obeying the law can be hazardous to your health.
Last fall, we beat the Christmas rush in our house and bought a hybrid vehicle -- a Honda Civic from our friends as Piazza Honda to be exact.
Being a research-oriented household, we spent hours on the Edwards.com site and Consumer Reports, checking mileage, crash ratings and the feng shui of upholstery hues (OK, not really on that last one, but sometimes it felt like that).
Anyway, I'm partial to Hondas as the last one we had, referred to with mixed affection as "Frankencar," kept on chugging for 192,000 miles or so with little problems except the body damage that comes from too many New York winters.
(A side note here, as you may have guessed, I come originally from the Empire State and I went to college in Upstate New York. PA may have the legend of Valley Forge, but I have to tell you, from my experience, 10 years and I have yet to see a Keystone winter that matches the mildest in Syracuse.)
Anyway, enough bragging.
As was noted on our Green Pages until this afternoon when I changed it, our feature story had to do with hybrid owners who often compete amongst themselves not for the most torgue or the best pick-up, but for the best mileage.
Given that our economic justification for buying the hybrid calculated how much we would save in gas costs, I admit to gleefully joining this often-annoying and occasionally condescending fraternity.
Contrary to all advertising and intuition, it seems I get better mileage on the highway than the city.
I suspect it's because in tooling around Pottstown, the stops are more often stop signs than stop-lights. The engine on this nifty little car, which I have dubbed "Egbert" because of it's egg-like appearance, shuts off when you come to a stop.
At a stop-light, I suspect this equation works out because of how long you must wait for the light to turn green. But at a stop-sign, shutting down and immediately turning back on again probably saves little gas and in fact, probably consumes more than just running while at the stop sign.
Egbert comes, of course, with all finds of fancy electronic gadgets for showing how smart you are for buying the car and I am not above showing them off to those lucky enough to get a spot in my passenger seat (beige in color in case you were wondering).
The two most significant are a display that tracks your mileage in real time, and another which shows your overall mileage for a trip.
Because I re-set one of the trip odometers every time I fill the tank, it gives me a good idea of how Egbert is doing.
So last weekend, we drove up to New York for my niece's 12th birthday (a shout-out here to Zoe Rae Maxfield. You rock.) and I was, needless to say, watching these gauges almost more than I was watching the road.
This was my wife's first long trip in Egbert and she was amused at my obsession with the mileage, and my obnoxious practice of calling it out as it got better and better.
Soon, however, she became alarmed.
That's because to get the best mileage, I had to set the cruise control around 57 miles per hour.
On I-78 and particularly on I-287 in New Jersey, this proved to be a death wish.
The average speed (indeed my own average speed before I got to see how it gulps gas) is about 75 mph, this being, of course, because the speed limit is 65 mph.
On more than one occasion, I tore my eyes away from the mileage calculator to see some SUV's grill-work in unnaturally clear detail in my rear view mirror.
Finally, Karen convinced me to pick up the pace a little, arguing, convincingly, that our mileage average would suffer severely if we were killed in a car accident.
Sixty-seven mph gave us adequate mileage (we topped out at 44 miles per gallon) and kept us moving quickly enough along to prevent enraged drivers from seriously considering putting a crack in Egbert's thin shell.
It served as an interesting lesson in how having relevant information can change behavior.
Until Egbert's purchase, I was one of those 75 mph guys cursing the slow poke in the right lane, which I justifiably wanted to use to pass the tanker truck hogging up the center lane.
Now that I realize money was on the line -- it being increasingly tight in George W. Bush's America -- I was suddenly a concientious citizen of the road, shaking my fist like the quintessential angry old codger at those who prevented me from puddling along in the slow lane.
I conveyed this annecdote to my best friend, who for mysterious reasons moved his family to Florida a few years ago, and he said in his experience, people are slowing down to save gas in the land of eternal humidity as well.
"It used to be everyone was driving 80, but they've mostly slowed down to 70 now," he said without a trace of irony.
Anyone, myself included, who doubted the strength of "market forces" should take note. Americans have been moved toward more eco-centric driving habits, but not by appeals to their conscience, not by appeals to responsibility or common sense, but rather by a bigger bite out of their wallets.
No matter the reason, it's long over-due.
But as my Florida friend made clear, we still have a long way to go.
Last fall, we beat the Christmas rush in our house and bought a hybrid vehicle -- a Honda Civic from our friends as Piazza Honda to be exact.
Being a research-oriented household, we spent hours on the Edwards.com site and Consumer Reports, checking mileage, crash ratings and the feng shui of upholstery hues (OK, not really on that last one, but sometimes it felt like that).
Anyway, I'm partial to Hondas as the last one we had, referred to with mixed affection as "Frankencar," kept on chugging for 192,000 miles or so with little problems except the body damage that comes from too many New York winters.
(A side note here, as you may have guessed, I come originally from the Empire State and I went to college in Upstate New York. PA may have the legend of Valley Forge, but I have to tell you, from my experience, 10 years and I have yet to see a Keystone winter that matches the mildest in Syracuse.)
Anyway, enough bragging.
As was noted on our Green Pages until this afternoon when I changed it, our feature story had to do with hybrid owners who often compete amongst themselves not for the most torgue or the best pick-up, but for the best mileage.
Given that our economic justification for buying the hybrid calculated how much we would save in gas costs, I admit to gleefully joining this often-annoying and occasionally condescending fraternity.
Contrary to all advertising and intuition, it seems I get better mileage on the highway than the city.
I suspect it's because in tooling around Pottstown, the stops are more often stop signs than stop-lights. The engine on this nifty little car, which I have dubbed "Egbert" because of it's egg-like appearance, shuts off when you come to a stop.
At a stop-light, I suspect this equation works out because of how long you must wait for the light to turn green. But at a stop-sign, shutting down and immediately turning back on again probably saves little gas and in fact, probably consumes more than just running while at the stop sign.
Egbert comes, of course, with all finds of fancy electronic gadgets for showing how smart you are for buying the car and I am not above showing them off to those lucky enough to get a spot in my passenger seat (beige in color in case you were wondering).
The two most significant are a display that tracks your mileage in real time, and another which shows your overall mileage for a trip.
Because I re-set one of the trip odometers every time I fill the tank, it gives me a good idea of how Egbert is doing.
So last weekend, we drove up to New York for my niece's 12th birthday (a shout-out here to Zoe Rae Maxfield. You rock.) and I was, needless to say, watching these gauges almost more than I was watching the road.
This was my wife's first long trip in Egbert and she was amused at my obsession with the mileage, and my obnoxious practice of calling it out as it got better and better.
Soon, however, she became alarmed.
That's because to get the best mileage, I had to set the cruise control around 57 miles per hour.
On I-78 and particularly on I-287 in New Jersey, this proved to be a death wish.
The average speed (indeed my own average speed before I got to see how it gulps gas) is about 75 mph, this being, of course, because the speed limit is 65 mph.
On more than one occasion, I tore my eyes away from the mileage calculator to see some SUV's grill-work in unnaturally clear detail in my rear view mirror.
Finally, Karen convinced me to pick up the pace a little, arguing, convincingly, that our mileage average would suffer severely if we were killed in a car accident.
Sixty-seven mph gave us adequate mileage (we topped out at 44 miles per gallon) and kept us moving quickly enough along to prevent enraged drivers from seriously considering putting a crack in Egbert's thin shell.
It served as an interesting lesson in how having relevant information can change behavior.
Until Egbert's purchase, I was one of those 75 mph guys cursing the slow poke in the right lane, which I justifiably wanted to use to pass the tanker truck hogging up the center lane.
Now that I realize money was on the line -- it being increasingly tight in George W. Bush's America -- I was suddenly a concientious citizen of the road, shaking my fist like the quintessential angry old codger at those who prevented me from puddling along in the slow lane.
I conveyed this annecdote to my best friend, who for mysterious reasons moved his family to Florida a few years ago, and he said in his experience, people are slowing down to save gas in the land of eternal humidity as well.
"It used to be everyone was driving 80, but they've mostly slowed down to 70 now," he said without a trace of irony.
Anyone, myself included, who doubted the strength of "market forces" should take note. Americans have been moved toward more eco-centric driving habits, but not by appeals to their conscience, not by appeals to responsibility or common sense, but rather by a bigger bite out of their wallets.
No matter the reason, it's long over-due.
But as my Florida friend made clear, we still have a long way to go.
posted by Evan Brandt at
12:47 PM
2 Comments:
Evan,
I again give kudo's on your hybrid purchase. I can tell you that a VW TDI gets over 50 MPG highway. You chose well over the Prius. The Prius is the one that is perfect for city driving. We both know that diesel is more expensive per gallon. I state that the higher fuel economy, and much longer engine life makes diesel a thing toward the future. It costs less to refine than gas. Look at Europe.
Evan,
I think you could have passed that tanker with ease if driving a VW TDI, and gotten 50 MPG doing it. There is nothing wrong with your purchase of your newer toy Honda. My dad is looking at them. My father will never buy a new car, and neither will I. Are we cheap or frugal?
Post a Comment
<< Home