Driving for Fun or for Economy?
 

Given the price of gas, I recently tried taking it really easy driving my Boxster ('03 w/Tip). Drove with the roof up (AC on), 5 mph or less above the speed limit, easy accel, cruise control as much as possible, avoid surface streets as much as possible, anticipate lights and kept rolling, etc.

I just put gas in it, 9.275 gal for 201.5 miles at $4.279 per gallon ($39.69), 21.7 mpg. Before I started driving this way, I drove fairly hard, usually 80+ on the freeway, a few hard (WOT) accelerations per drive, and I was getting about 19 mpg, so my mileage is up by about 1.7 mpg. If I'd driven 201.5 miles at 19 mpg, it would have come to 10.61 gallons, so I saved about 1.34 gallons, which works out to $5.71 - more than I thought, but still not a really huge savings.

Maybe I'll drive just a little harder....

I drive my car for fun on the weekends...I don't drink Starbucks, so look at how much I save anyway!

I drive for entertainment/enjoyment and therapy! Some people play golf or see a shrink.

I think I come out way ahead of them! :)

(Similar tan lines though!)

I don't even try to drive economically. If my car's computer is correct, I'm getting about 15 mpg. I do mostly city driving though consisting of a lot of very frequent starts and stops and a good bunch of sitting in traffic.

I don't go to starbucks much either and I hardly ever go out. Got to get my thrills somewhere.

What i do to save gas and get alittle more power for about a week is disconnect the battery for about 10 minutes so the ECu has to relearn the prefered fuel map settings and it always selects the strongest map settings first then goes from there which in my case, living in sunny southern california with temps ranging from 63 to 100 degrees outside... seems to yeild the most mpg for me. Then after about a week's time the car eventually selects a slightly less agressive or powerful feul map setting and my mpg starts to drop. :(

MPG, excuse me? When you testdrove your car before you bought it was MPG even a thought? If that is a concern buy a Prius. My wifes 97 gets 27mpg when she drives it, 24ish with me driving. My MB is mid 20's and I stopm the crap out of it every day, 70 mile round trip in the foothills. I know gass is outa sight but don't look at your car as a car, view it as your break from life, and just drive it like it was designed to be driven. And don't forget to smile.

Your on the higher end of the mpg when compaired to most of our boxster and to tell you the truth, while disconnecting my battery does give me more mpg, its merely a by product of my true intention of trying to have more HP, cause in my book HP + Handling / 2 Seats & a Rollcage, then carry the 2 = WHOOO HOOO!

I drive for entertainment. I dont go to the movies or anywhere else for that matter. So my car IS my pleasure. Gas is out of control but we cant let the government control ALL in our lifes. Enjoy your car while you can!!!

AMEN. I'm taking it a little easier in my DD (Mazda CX7) and I'm getting 23 instead of 21 mpg. Big deal, I get one more trip to the shop per tank. The black spider is for fun and I don't care what mpg it gets. When it gets thirsty I give it a drink.
We keep each other happy. :D

I couldn't agree more. I honestly get more peeved about the price of parking than the price of gas. At least I have fun burning up the gas.

I yelled at some greenqueen in his Prius this afternoon. I had my top down and he gave me this little uppity smirk, so I motioned for him to roll his window down.
I yelled, "Hey, thanks for saving all that gas, I'm enjoying the hell out of it!"
He rolled his window back up and turned the other way until the light turned green. I chirped the rears when I grabbed second gear passing him. :D

I've always wondered if Priuses are just really slow cars or if the people who buy them are just really slow drivers. Every single one I get behind I feel like I'm behind somebody's great gramma.

HAHA thats hilarious, well done :cheers:

I rented a Prius once. I HATED every minute of it.

:dance:

I tend to get 25 with mixed cruising/wot but is mostly highway. When I first got it I drove reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly conservatively and got 30! Not gonna happen again though.

But honestly I prefer driving for fun!

And also for the record, I have been passed numerous times on a downhill by Prii. I also have passed them right back when the road went back uphill. That 1.1L motor doesn't like hauling all those batteries around.

And if anyone has seen the latest Top Gear, They flogged a Prius around their track as hard as possible and it was followed by a V8 M3. The M3 got better MPG! 17 vs 19 IIRC

haha i can relate, when i dropped of the benz for service i was given one :barf:

greenqueen.... so funny and so true. a prius is a big fat waste of money. buy a VW Jetta TDI or just a cheapo civic 4 banger.. it will take the greenqueen years of driving to make up the difference... they just want to look like they are saving the world...

i'm on this forum researching boxsters... and what mpg it gets is really not a big concern. the car is for fun. screw mpg.

i can see if you drive an excursion of H2 as your DD and you commute 200 miles each way... mpg becomes a big deal.. but if you commute a short distance or drive the boxster as a weekend fun car - screw mpg. just rev it up, listen to that motor wail and love every second of it.

life is too short to drive a piece of crap and worry about mpg.

let the greenies save the world by driving a prius and a smart for two.

funny - other day i saw a Smart Fortwo and license place said "NOTDUMB" :)

I sometimes get concerned about gas prices since my Boxster is my DD. But since I only drive about 500 miles a month I don't get too bent out of shape over it. Let's just say the price of gas has not stopped me from enjoying freeway onramps.

Plus, enjoying the gas I burn makes me feel better when I fill up because I am not just, spending money on a disposable commodity but I am buying some fun in the Boxster. I'd rather pay a little extra to have fun going from point A to point B, than doing it in say a prius. (I won't even get into the problems with the prius like $5k battery replacements, and the low MPG unless you drive like an old lady (no offense old ladies))

I should also mention that I was shocked today when I checked my average MPG and it was reading 24.5. That is about 50/50 driving, and I haven't reset it in a few weeks. It is one of my highest non road trip MPG.
:cheers:

Those geeks try really hard to compete on who gets the most gas mileage out of their cute hybrids.

Who the hell drives their Porsches for economy? That's like taking a porn star to see opera.

I didn't need that coffee sprayed all over my monitor!!!!

:cheers: :dance: :cheers: :D :D :D

As you guys clearly know, I have all kinds of issues with the greenqueens.

I am all for efficiency and I certainly try to keep waste of all kinds down here in Casa La Carlsbad.

Having said that, I DON"T feel that this moves me to some moral high ground. It is just what I do and I don't expect everyone else to follow my "virtuous path."

Not so with the greenies. They FEEL very strongly about saving the earth and want you all to share their pain.

To each his own. As for the Prius, it is certainly not much of a car as we define it.

Bring back the old Civic Hatchback and the 45 MPG it had.

PS-You couldn't really do that today. To many safety regs here in the US.

Can
 

As Demand Shifts, Supply Constraints Hold Back US Car Makers

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
July 2, 2008 7:36 a.m.


By Sharon Terlep
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
(This article was originally published Tuesday)

DETROIT (Dow Jones)--U.S. auto makers can't keep up with surging demand for fuel-efficient small cars, a further complication for an industry already reeling from a dramatic shift away from profitable trucks and SUVs.

General Motors Corp. (GM) and Ford Motor Co. (F), in reporting another steep decline in overall vehicle sales in June, said Tuesday that their sales of cars fell 21% and 14%, respectively, during the month compared with a year ago.

The companies said they couldn't move fast enough to satisfy consumers who are clamoring for fuel-efficient cars amid $4-per-gallon gasoline. GM estimated vehicle shortages cost the auto industry 40,000 sales last month.

"They're pumping out vehicles as fast as they can, but everybody's fallen into this trap," said Rebecca Lindland, an industry analyst with Global Insight in Lexington, Mass. "Every new plant built in recent years has been a truck plant. There just isn't a lot of capacity out there for cars."

GM, Ford and Chrysler LLC are scrambling to reinvent themselves into leaner companies far less reliant on the hulking trucks that have long driven profits in Detroit. The companies have slashed pickup and SUV production while adding shifts and overtime at car plants.

The shift toward small cars is hitting U.S.-based auto makers harder than Asian rivals, which have more robust supplies of cars and deeper pockets to withstand a stagnant U.S. economy.

Honda Motor Co. (HMC), for example, has the capacity to build 400,000 Honda Civic small cars annually, while GM can build only 250,000 Chevy Cobalts, according to Global Insight data. Honda's car sales rose 19% in June from a year ago, helping its overall sales inch ahead 1.1%.

Supplies remain tight even as virtually every factory that builds small cars for U.S. consumers is running at or above capacity.

GM reported an 18% overall drop in May, despite significant sales increases for vehicles such as the Cobalt and the Chevrolet Aveo subcompact. In a noteworthy twist, the decline in car sales outpaced the decline in truck and SUV sales during the month at GM.

The auto maker, buoyed by a month-end promotion to offer six years of free financing on many models, managed to prevent Toyota from taking the U.S. sales lead for the first time in June.

"With higher availability on some of our in some cars and crossovers, we would have had more sales," GM Sales Chief Mark LaNeve said. "We've been outright constrained in some cases where dealers were just out of cars."

Jim Farley, head of Ford marketing and communication, said capacity constraints created an "artificial barrier" for the company last month. Ford reported an overall 28% decline from a year ago, as its SUV sales plummeted 55% last month.

John McEleney, a Clinton, Iowa, auto dealer, has almost run out of small cars at his Chevrolet, Toyota and Hyundai stores. He's down to two Chevrolet Cobalts between two Chevy dealerships. Usually, he said, each store would have at least 20 in stock.

"It's quite a departure from what we're used to," he said. "When people are ready to buy, they move pretty quickly. I'm sure we're losing some of those customers to another dealer or another manufacturer."

The rush on cars may provide an opportunity to U.S. auto makers to win over new buyers, analyst Lindland said. Car buyers, if they're faced with wait times or higher prices for Asian-brand vehicles, may weigh a domestic nameplate, she said.

"It's so hard to get on consumers' radar screens," she said. "This could provide a benefit."

Toyota, which saw its overall sales fall 21% last month, said that it's down to a one-day supply on its Prius hybrid and two days on the Camry hybrid.

"I yelled at some greenqueen in his Prius this afternoon. I had my top down and he gave me this little uppity smirk, so I motioned for him to roll his window down.
I yelled, "Hey, thanks for saving all that gas, I'm enjoying the hell out of it!"
He rolled his window back up and turned the other way until the light turned green. I chirped the rears when I grabbed second gear passing him."

- Quickurt

"Those geeks try really hard to compete on who gets the most gas mileage out of their cute hybrids.

Who the hell drives their Porsches for economy? That's like taking a porn star to see opera."

- ekam

Best thread in awhile !

Nick

Hey, it was only a 1/2 tank experiment! :)

Sanity prevailed, I'm back to using the car as it was intended to be used, driving like a grandma isn't worth a few mpg, even at $4+ a gallon.