Can people not do math anymore?

[vtec-e]

Originally Posted by trikkonceptz

Since gas hit $3.00 a gallon I gave up my original hobby, building show cars, for this one, saving gas.

I must say, it isn't until now that I realized that I dumped nearly $40K into a $15K car for what? I have the title of 3rd best xB in the country as per Scion. A title ... Now don't get me wrong, getting there was fun, but it was money flushed away into a vehicle that I am going to be burried in.

Whereas now I am investing money into the Vibe, by far not as much and it is saving me tangible amounts of money. Even my wife enjoys this new hobby because of the savings and who knows, if I blabber my mouth off to enough people I may one day use the gathered knowledge here to develop a job that will definately pay the bills ... BOOYA !!

But still I caught my wife asking me why don't we sell the V8 SUV for a new Camry Hybrid or Prius. I responded with; Because they cost $8K more than what we paid for this vehicle when it was new ... Reality quickly sunk in ..

Thats interesting. I wonder if the "fast car" magazines etc. are modding (or beginning to) for aero in an mpg way? And they largely do a tidy job with their mods, apart from the garish graphics etc.!!

ollie

[getnpsi]

Yes all the car enthusiast mags should get some "3 mpg and 30hp for $300" packages going. Items over a $300 tag usually won't pay for themselves in mpg's. Id limit big purchases to smarter wheel/tires and maybe body kit items. However the simple mods that can be taken from vehicle to vehicle are what I'm toying with and of highest priority now, because my car is ass ugly and I'll never love it

[koihoshi]

One phrase to own them all.

"Some people's children."

[Johnny Mullet]

I was at a local Giant Eagle grocery store wanting to get some stamps and there was a really old guy in front of me saying that when he got home, he checked his receipt and found out that he was overcharged for a product and he drove all the way back from the other side of town to get a refund.

I looked on the register when he got his refund and it said $0.61
When I got out of the store, I seen him getting into his Buick Roadmaster happy about his savings.

[Volones]

I've noticed more small & medium sized cars on the road lately, but I've also noticed that the driving habits of the people behind the wheel haven't changed a bit. So, I've come to this conclusion...
People are not saving gas, they're just driving cars that get better mileage.

[ankit]

^I'd have to disagree with you there. I see more people coasting to a red stop light and less people getting frustrated when they are stuck behind me coasting to a red light. I remember around winter time, almost every time I coasted to a red light, the person behind me would gesture or even cut me off on the way to the light :crazy:. I'm not making this up, I've had people cut me off because I was coasting to a red light. (This means they have to accelerate like crazy and then brake right afterwards.) But I didn't mind because that just gave me someone to semi-draft off of.

I work at a grocery/gas store on the weekends and the same person will come in and out 3-5 times a day not even thinking about how much gas they could have saved by just coming once and getting all of their groceries/cigs at the same time.

So not only do people not do math, but some don't even think. Then they come in complaining about gas prices.

[fshagan]

I bought a high mileage car in 2006 when I knew my commute was going to stay at 90 miles a day, round trip, and my 22 mpg car reached 130,000 miles. I did a spreadsheet for the top ten cars I considered, calculated mileage at an "outrageous" $3 per gallon and came up with a short list of three cars.

But in the end, my decision was not just based on dollar savings; a major factor was the comparable comfort of the cars, knowing that I would spend up to 10% of my time behind the wheel each day. So while I average 49 MPG week after week, I could have still been "money ahead" ... even at the $4.24 per gallon I paid yesterday ... if I had gone with the cheapest, but lower mileage car on my list.

Besides bad math skills, there are other intangibles: justifying a new purchase to the "Finance Committee", for instance.

[Chris D.]

I thought this was going to be one of those I bought something after it was rang up 13.01, then I gave them a penny after the fact and they went crosseyed and started counting fingers and toes

I calculate the price of a 24 pack cvs a 12 pack of Dr Pepper to make sure the more I buy is actually a better deal..

I'm silly, SILLY like that!

I was doing 53mph on the freeway, nobody but one trucker got fustraited and hit the horn, of couse I honked back, but it was weak in compairison..

The compressor, tank and train horns are in the works

[NoCO2]

I can't really say anything as I'm guilty as charged when it comes to not thinking about the "actual" cost of something when I get it. For instance, recently, I've been wanting to get either A: a more fuel efficient car so my mpg will go up on my car, or B: a moped so that I can have something to do the majority of my driving on instead of the 4 door sedan I currently have. I never really considered how much I would have to drive it, or use it, etc. to hit the break even point. But I think that more goes into the "hobby" factor that was referred to early. Conserving gas has become such a compulsive habit or mine that it's almost turned from interest, to hobby and now into an obsession with emotional attachments. I'm not going to lie, saving fuel is addicting and I would almost think about spending a little extra unnecessarily to save a few extra mpg...maybe not $2k on all that fancy wizardry you mentioned, but I will certainly spend a few hundred dollars on aero improvements and materials to improve FE and reduce weight on my vehicle.

But after reading your post it did open my eyes to what I have done in the past and I think from now on before making any kind of purchase for the sake of "saving money" I'm going to evaluate if I truly do save by doing it or if it's just in my head because of what corporate America has brain washed me to think.

[bhazard]

Originally Posted by Chris D.

The compressor, tank and train horns are in the works

I was at a car show the other night. There was a guy there that had a train horn setup off a conrail in front of his radiator. He hit that thing and I swear every single person in that parking lot jumped at the same time. There was a small kid maybe 5 years old at the most that started crying. I want one so bad.