$3.24/gal for 87 in the stix. Going up a few cents daily this week.
What's up with Fuel Prices ....
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There has been alot in the news lately about poor retail sales during the month of April. Even WalMart reported the worst sales decline in 28 years. It appears many people are cutting back on other things so they can afford to keep driving as much as they want.
Went up another 15 cents THIS week.
Now up to $3.20 lowest for reg unleaded.
STILL, every SUV and Jacked up truck goes by me on the freeway doing 10-15 mph over the speed limit.
Semis going 80 in a 65.
Still gas/fuel must be cheap.
If the reason is there is not enough to go around, I guess we need to close ALL of the drive thrus, make all business go to 4 day work week (which would cut 20% of use right there) and start enforcing the speed limit laws.
Make a speeding ticket $500 for the 1st time. $750 the 2nd time. Right now its over $100 and nots not enough.
I don't know where this is going to end, but the cost of fuel is going to kill our economy.
Its obvious most people can't get a clue.
Take care, Bill
STILL, every SUV and Jacked up truck goes by me on the freeway doing 10-15 mph over the speed limit.
Semis going 80 in a 65.
Still gas/fuel must be cheap.
If the reason is there is not enough to go around, I guess we need to close ALL of the drive thrus, make all business go to 4 day work week (which would cut 20% of use right there) and start enforcing the speed limit laws.
Make a speeding ticket $500 for the 1st time. $750 the 2nd time. Right now its over $100 and nots not enough.
I don't know where this is going to end, but the cost of fuel is going to kill our economy.
Its obvious most people can't get a clue.
Take care, Bill
That point really can't be stressed enough.
And here's a detail that many people don't know. You don't have to wait for a new car to get this "real time" fuel usage info, as you can easily add a 3rd party gauge (with this info) to many (most?) cars on the road! So if people knew how much gas they could be saving, maybe they would be willing to spend a few $$$ now for a good gauge, so that they could keep saving gas/money into the future!
For example, as long as your car's ECU (engine computer) is new enough to support ODBII (which for most cars, simply means that your car is a 1997 or newer model year), there are a few companies making "diagnostic equipment" that plugs directly into the car's ECU port. And some of those gauges are "real time", and cost less than $200 (google "Scan Gauge", for details on one such gauge popular with people trying to get good gas mileage). With such a gauge plugged into your car's ECU (and mounted on your dash, someone easy to see), you can easily get the same sort of "gas saving info" that modern hybrids give you, for a fraction of the cost (and without having to ditch your current car)!!!
BTW: I really would love to have a "Scan Gauge" (or other display with the same info) for my 1991 CRX, because I know how useful that "real time" fuel usage info can be. Only trouble is, my car's ECU model is "too old" to support the interface that the Scan Gauge needs (my car is a 1991, and most of the ECUs that support that interface started in 1997). So unless I want to upgrade my car's ECU (which is a non-trivial task in my car), I am sort of stuck without that extra info while driving. However, if my car were "new enough", I would have already purchased and installed that (3rd party) display (which can show real time gas usage, among it's other handy features)...
Just put a $10 vacume gauge on it and throttle and shift for highest vacume. How many remember the old mile-o-more gauges?
Those vacuum gauges are "better than nothing", but give you much less useful feedback than a modern "instant MPG" type gauge hooked up to the car's ECU. I know when I used a vacuum gauge, it gave me little feedback beyond how hard I was accelerating (which I could already tell from how hard I was hitting the throttle, and how the engine sounded). However, there is more to "fuel economy" than just that info (for example, many cars will totally shut off the fuel to the injectors under some conditions, and a true "instant MPG" gauge will show you that effect, but a simple vacuum gauge won't give that level of feedback).
But perhaps the bigger problem with those gauges, is mounting them where they are useful. Remember, the vacuum line you are splicing into is likely in the engine compartment, and you want to see the gauge in the cabin. So unless you are doing some temp arrangement (such as the time I ran the vacuum line through the passenger side window for temporary testing), that probably means drilling a hole through your car's firewall to allow the gauge to be mounted in the cabin (where you can easily see it while driving) when your vacuum source is likely in your engine compartment...
BTW:
That said, I probably would consider a vacuum gauge (as "better than nothing", since I my car's ECU is too old for some of the newer/better fuel usage gauges) if it wasn't such a PITA to deal with the vacuum line.
Hmmm... Does anyone make a 2-part "remote vacuum gauge" that doesn't require a vacuum line between the vacuum source and the display? i.e. Is there something on the market that would allow you to mount a vacuum sensor permanently in your engine compartment, that transmits that data (wirelessly) to an actual display inside the cabin?
today, 1.21 per litre.
The gas stations have changed their profits from 2% to 3%, which overall.. is alot for gas prices.
The gas stations have changed their profits from 2% to 3%, which overall.. is alot for gas prices.
If you're trying to save money by getting better gas mileage, it doesn't make sense to spend $150-200 on a scangauge or similar - same logic of buying a new car to "save" money on gas, vs keeping your older car with less gas mileage. The economics just don't make sense.
If you want to get crazy with cheap mods for better fuel mileage, you could go this route: CARDBOARD WHEEL SKIRTS
http://www.metrompg.com/posts/grille-blocking-part-2.htm
http://www.metrompg.com/posts/grille-blocking-part-2.htm
^ ^ ^
$2.69
Exactly...and the thing is..people probably love it. State then borrows money to cover the lost revenues and the net gain to the taxpayer (even those who might not drive) is a loss.
Oh I don't know..why not make those who drive pay..silly me.
A new car almost never makes sense, just to get better fuel economy. However, a new car costs many thousands of $$$.
But a meter like this is a LOT cheaper than a new car, so the payback time should be a lot shorter. Remember, with today's prices, you would only have to save around 50 gallons of fuel (over the life of the device) to break even on the cost (and everything after that would be "money in your pocket"). So a little money for a decent "fuel usage" meter, could easily make economic sense. It won't pay you back overnight, but it could easily pay you back several times over during the life of your car (or if you trade-in your car, unplug the meter, and take the meter with you for use in your next vehicle).
For example, even if your car already got 30MPG, and such a device "only" let you get 5% better gas mileage (and 5% is a very low/conservative estimate from what I've heard from people who have such gauges), you would still have saved those 50gal of gas after only 30k miles (which happens in under 2 years of driving, for some of us). And if your car starts with lower MPG and/or you do better then 5% better, than the "payback time" would be even shorter. And once the device is "paid for", all savings are money in your pocket.
FWIW:
While it's not exactly the same thing, I spent a little under $150 for a whole house electric meter. I knew it was a "gamble", but I really felt I needed to try to find were our "hidden electrical loads" (which I had been unable to locate in several years of trying) where in our house (and yes, I had already done "obvious things" like using energy efficient lighting before getting the meter, and it wasn't helping enough). Guess what? In under a month after getting the meter, I was able to use that meter, along with some experiments with turning the breakers on and off (which wouldn't have yielded the info it did, without the real-time electrical meter I purchased to tell me what the effect on power usage was), and was therefore able to find the top several "hidden" electrical loads (including both my sump pump and the blower for our central air, among others). With that info, I've been able to save around $80/month on my electrical bill (roughly cutting our electric bill in 1/2), ever since. So that meter actually "paid for itself" in around 2 months time, just in savings to my electric bill!
And while I realize that my $80/month home electrical savings (due to getting our whole house electric meter) may be higher than many would get, it still does a good job of illustrating my point. The simple truth is, you really don't have any idea how inefficiently you are doing things, until you have some instrumentation to give you that feedback (and the more "real time" the instrument, the better). Without that info you are just making "educated guesses". They may be close guesses, or they may be far off the mark. But without the testing equipment, you are really "flying blind"...
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If you want to get crazy with cheap mods for better fuel mileage, you could go this route: CARDBOARD WHEEL SKIRTS
http://www.metrompg.com/posts/grille-blocking-part-2.htm
Cardboard is tacky looking, and will also come off in the rain. But believe it or not, the idea really does have some sound science behind it.
What those wheel skirts are designed to do, is to lower the aerodynamic drag on the car. And especially at highway speeds, that drag can be a significant portion of the work the engine has to do. So anything you can do to help the car push through the air easier, will help fuel economy some.
BTW: If you are really serious about wheel skirts, either plastic or sheet metal should work a lot better than cardboard. Not only should plastic/metal look better (especially if/when you paint it to match the rest of the car), but it would also not turn to mush when it rains. However, as a quick "test" to see how much gas you can save with wheel skirts, cardboard is about the cheapest way to tell if such a car mod would be "worth it".
FWIW: I haven't done wheel skirts yet myself, because I haven't had time to do them right, and I refuse to put a tacky looking mod on my car. But wheel skirts have been shown to produce a useful improvement in aerodynamics (and therefore a useful increase in fuel economy) for others that have installed them in their cars.
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until I'm hit by one of those d**n speeding Prius drivers
I resemble that statement.
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