OK, so it's no Proud Mary, but this is a blog, not a song writing session and I'm not paid to write either, so deal with it!
On to business! In two of my previous posts (stupid car, and kill-a-watt) I wrote about my constant attention to gas mileage and how I track it. Well, I was refueling my car this evening on my way home from work when, as I always do, I checked my gas mileage with my odometer and compared it to the car's computer because, strangely enough, they do not always reflect the same miles per gallon value.
In this case, the mileage between the two was spot-on with both coming to what you see here (51.3 mpg). For those that own Prius's, you know that your fuel economy can be impacted by many things like (especially) the outdoor temperature, the way you drive, hills, how much you use the air conditioner, and even wet roads. Because of the ridiculous, recent heat, my fuel economy has been down around 48 mpg and while I've run the AC a bit less over the last week or so, that would not completely account for the rise in fuel economy I was able to realize. Mystery, right?!?
Not exactly. What I didn't tell you is that I've got an interesting (at least to me) little experiment going right now that seems to be working out well and it's one that might help all of you save some coin. Even more so if you DO NOT drive a hybrid, have a low mpg rated vehicle and drive alot.
My car was recently up for inspection and emissions and unfortunately my car was sporting tires that I knew were beyond their useful life. So, I did a little research to see what was out there and what I could drone on about on this blog. Good news! I found some and made sure that I knew what I was buying before the dealer called me and told me that I needed new tires and had to buy whatever brand hey had on hand or my car wouldn't pass inspection. I have to say, though, my local Toyota Dealership worked hard to bring the tires in quickly from their warehouse and I would like to specifically thank Joe Bechtel from New Holland Auto Group for his help in making this happen quickly and the great customer service!
I first learned about "low rolling resistance tires" a few years back and decided to look into them a bit further. In complete honesty, I thought the concept of your tires saving you fuel was complete marketing crap, but hey, I've been surprised by much lesser things. As usual, my research lead me to Consumer Reports as it does for pretty much anything I buy these days and it turns out these things are for real.
Actually, according to Consumer Reports these tires can not only save you money, but actually perform better, over time, than traditional tires, all at little to no cost premium and no compromise in safety. Seems like a great deal, right? Well we'll see, and I will let you all know how it goes as the experiment has just started.
For the record, I went with the Continental ProContact (TM) with EcoPlus Technology (Sounds fancy!) tires (shown above), which have an 80,000 mile warranty and I was able to pick up for $96/tire plus installation. Doing the math, if you drive 15,000 miles/year and the tires improve your fuel economy from 30 to 32 miles per gallon, you would save $109/year if gas is at $3.50/gallon. That allows the tires to pay for themselves in less than 4 years or 60,000 miles, which is less than the tire warranty. Tires that pay you?!? But only if you rotate them regularly.
One other quick detail I wanted to mention that was completely overlooked this past week during all of the adult daycare, debt ceiling BS. An agreement was made to raise corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Considering that current standards for cars is at 27.5 mpg and that I just saw that the Chevy Volt can achieve up to 270 miles per gallon, I think this is a huge opportunity for the American car companies to innovate, rise from the ashes, and return to dominance. That would be good for all of us for a number of reasons!
Happy motoring!
On to business! In two of my previous posts (stupid car, and kill-a-watt) I wrote about my constant attention to gas mileage and how I track it. Well, I was refueling my car this evening on my way home from work when, as I always do, I checked my gas mileage with my odometer and compared it to the car's computer because, strangely enough, they do not always reflect the same miles per gallon value.
In this case, the mileage between the two was spot-on with both coming to what you see here (51.3 mpg). For those that own Prius's, you know that your fuel economy can be impacted by many things like (especially) the outdoor temperature, the way you drive, hills, how much you use the air conditioner, and even wet roads. Because of the ridiculous, recent heat, my fuel economy has been down around 48 mpg and while I've run the AC a bit less over the last week or so, that would not completely account for the rise in fuel economy I was able to realize. Mystery, right?!?
Not exactly. What I didn't tell you is that I've got an interesting (at least to me) little experiment going right now that seems to be working out well and it's one that might help all of you save some coin. Even more so if you DO NOT drive a hybrid, have a low mpg rated vehicle and drive alot.
My car was recently up for inspection and emissions and unfortunately my car was sporting tires that I knew were beyond their useful life. So, I did a little research to see what was out there and what I could drone on about on this blog. Good news! I found some and made sure that I knew what I was buying before the dealer called me and told me that I needed new tires and had to buy whatever brand hey had on hand or my car wouldn't pass inspection. I have to say, though, my local Toyota Dealership worked hard to bring the tires in quickly from their warehouse and I would like to specifically thank Joe Bechtel from New Holland Auto Group for his help in making this happen quickly and the great customer service!
I first learned about "low rolling resistance tires" a few years back and decided to look into them a bit further. In complete honesty, I thought the concept of your tires saving you fuel was complete marketing crap, but hey, I've been surprised by much lesser things. As usual, my research lead me to Consumer Reports as it does for pretty much anything I buy these days and it turns out these things are for real.
Actually, according to Consumer Reports these tires can not only save you money, but actually perform better, over time, than traditional tires, all at little to no cost premium and no compromise in safety. Seems like a great deal, right? Well we'll see, and I will let you all know how it goes as the experiment has just started.
For the record, I went with the Continental ProContact (TM) with EcoPlus Technology (Sounds fancy!) tires (shown above), which have an 80,000 mile warranty and I was able to pick up for $96/tire plus installation. Doing the math, if you drive 15,000 miles/year and the tires improve your fuel economy from 30 to 32 miles per gallon, you would save $109/year if gas is at $3.50/gallon. That allows the tires to pay for themselves in less than 4 years or 60,000 miles, which is less than the tire warranty. Tires that pay you?!? But only if you rotate them regularly.
One other quick detail I wanted to mention that was completely overlooked this past week during all of the adult daycare, debt ceiling BS. An agreement was made to raise corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Considering that current standards for cars is at 27.5 mpg and that I just saw that the Chevy Volt can achieve up to 270 miles per gallon, I think this is a huge opportunity for the American car companies to innovate, rise from the ashes, and return to dominance. That would be good for all of us for a number of reasons!
Happy motoring!
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