The Energy Trap...what does driving cost you?
 

Studying the Energy Trap | Energy Trap

How do Americans cope with high gas prices? What are the keys to driving costs down? The Energy Trap did scores of interviews, scrutinized historical spending data, and surveyed 2,000 households. The stories on this site share what we've learned.

What high gas prices? gas prices here are cheap and always have been.
That guy is spending a ton on vehicle ownership, his monthly budget is nearly my yearly budget, as I figure my car is costing me around 20 cents per mile including full coverage insurance and vehicle up keep, of course I only have one part time job and my vehicle ownership is not 50% of my income, it might be 10% of my income, 15% of my income if you include all of my vehicles.

I agree with Ryland. My eye's popped-out at the realization he spends each month or two what I spend each year to operate and maintain my 1998 Civic. It seems amazingly irrational for someone to be willing to spend so much...

So this is where a cultural analysis of economic choices becomes important. Several things about his choices exceed "normal" lines: car payment is damned large, daily commute is twice the US average, miserable gas mileage of maybe 14 MPG (pickup?). The way he tells the interviewer these things often suggests he's aware his choices are unusual. Since many economic decisions are actually made on emotional/social assumptions based in biographical and cultural histories rather than "economic" grounds, I would want to explore how he got into this situation with discussions of which decisions came in what order, why he made those he made when he made them, how he felt about the situations. Would reveal a lot. But at the center, I think we would find local variations of the American dream, of manliness, of community history--all run through the meat grinder of infrastructure planning that emphasizes sprawl.

I think the street interview tactic of the camera, white board, and market is smart. Sets up great testimonies and establishes contact with interesting people.

BTW, part of examining it and helping the guy too would have to be unequal power and how it enforced some of these choices. What were the job requirements for him in terms of vehicles? Does he need the truck to keep the job? Had it better be a reliable (read "new") truck?

I'm young and stupid (well, not so young anymore), but I'm smart enough to realize that I am rich by global standards. In most other countries, I could easily live for a year only on what I make in a month.

Interesting that they present the case as if he is "trapped" in his situation and "has" to pay that much in order to commute.

How about providing some solutions for his problem such as:

1. Get parttime jobs that are closer to home.
2. Dump the pickup and get a car or motorcycle that gets far better fuel mileage.
3. If the pickup is necessary for his line of work, dump the current pickup for an older and/or smaller pickup that costs far less in payments and to insure and gets better fuel mileage.
4. Move to where the jobs are.

I agree about providing solutions but I think to really solve these problems we need more systemic solutions. Each of your recommendations has pitfalls. 1) the unemployment rate is up over 12% in some parts of the USA and part-time jobs never have benefits and might require as much or more driving depending on distances between them. 2) Is answered by three. 3) I totally agree but it's not hard to imagine this guy's seven-day per week job plus family life making that switch significantly more difficult to actually accomplish in his favor, with a reliable second-hand vehicle. 4) And if his house is underwater? If the jobs are in an area with poorer schools? If moving would take him far from elders to whom he's beholden, or would have to commute back to look-in upon?

There's a lot left unanswered by the video, stuff that matters. There is a need for the kind of systematic thinking and planning that our politics seems incapable of now.

Maybe they should have interviewed me as a counterpoint: haven't made a car payment since sometime in the early '80s, telecommute to work, when I do drive it's mostly in a car that gets over 70 mpg - heck, even the truck gets over 25 mpg, and that's loaded with firewood.

It's all about choices: if he's stuck in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging :-)

I think he said his job was as a security guard, no need for a truck for that job and even if he owes more on his house then it is worth letting it get foreclosed on is still an option then rent a house or an apartment closer to work and you are debt free and saving money.
AAA did a cost brake down a while back and figured that for a brand new SUV or truck that your cost per mile was up just over $1 per mile, I think that people get in situations where all their money is being spent on their vehicle because they can't do math, if you had to put $1 bills in to a slot in your dash for every mile you drove you would rethink all of those little trips you take, you would rethink your whole driving pattern!
I'll have to pull out my gas log note book, but after putting down some figures I think my cost per mile is closer to 10 cents, not 20 cents per mile and I figure my car should last me another 10 years before it wears out.

It's all about choices, sure, but within constraints. Nobody is absolutely free. There is a systematic issue about development and relative power that is irreducibly part of our consumption problems. Agreed, though, if he does not need a guzzler, then get rid of it and its loan!

Ryland, I laughed out loud at the "dollars in the dashboard" idea. Awesome!! There is a great premise for an efficient car ad campaign in that image too.

Hi there,

this guy should live in Europe, perhaps in good old Germany, where a litre of premium unleaded (no cheaper gas on the market any more) costs 1,50 Euros at the moment if you can get it cheap (monday). Thats 7,86 USD per gallon.

Anybody buying a guzzler around here has the money to spend, nobody in his right mind would buy such a thing if he cannot afford to support it. People who like american cars or other makes with big gas engines convert to lpg to save some euros.

In my opinion, instead of whining people should drop their fuel monsters and get an older but fuel efficient car to replace it. Or go hypermiling :-)

so long

tinduck

They pretty much lost me right away, at that line^. :rolleyes:

I'm sure it isn't isolated to my neighborhood: look around, what do you see? I see lots and lots and lots of recreational tearing around in guzzler-type vehicles- new guzzler type vehicles, with big loans on them. Yes, it goes way beyond the need to commute. This is not what "people struggling to find the money for gas" do. This is what lazy-arse, ignorant slobs do.

OK... I did go back- for perhaps the same reason we like to gawk at accidents? Those testimonials are giving me a severe schaudenfreude reaction! :thumbup:

AAA said the cost works out to about $1 a mile for someone buying a new car over the life of the vehicle? That is not my experience. Six of the seven vehicles I've owned I purchased brand new. For my last one, a Ford Ranger, I drove it 147,000 miles in 11 years and put less than $45,000 into owning it, which includes the purchase price, gas, maintenance, registration fees, car insurance, and everything else I could think off. That is less than $0.31 a mile. That is for a vehicle that averaged between 22 to 23 mpg.

They must be assuming people get a new vehicle every four years. That may have been the norm 30 years ago, but not in the past decade.

I must be doing something wrong. I spend a LOT more money to fuel my body than I spend to fuel my vehicles. I spend nearly as much on ethanol as I do on gasoline. :p

I don't know where they're getting their assumptions about what my costs are, because they seem way off the mark for me, and a lot of people I know. First, no one with any sense buys a NEW car: you buy used, and let the fools take that first big hit of depreciation. Buy what you can afford to pay cash for, and there's no finance cost. Then there's the purchased warranty: another waste of money. Same with repairs & maintenance: do it all yourself, and it doesn't cost much. Then go with just liability insurance, and that cost is cut by maybe 2/3.

At current prices, it's costing me about 7 cents per mile for gas in the Insight. Amortising the purchase price over the 100K miles I've driven it so far works out to 8.5 cents/mile (but I expect to be driving it for years yet). Add a generous 10-20 cents/mile for maintenance, registration, & insurance, and I'm still way, way under their numbers.

The last two Honda Rebels I bought for $800 and $500 and sold them for $1400 and $1200. Even after all expenses I made a little money including fuel and insurance. 6000 miles for free excluding my labor and some change left over.

I did the same thing over the last 35 years with salvage vehicles. In most cases I made enough money to pay all costs of ownership, probably for over 200 k miles.

When I retired the wife stopped driving rebuilds and bought a new car. Paid cash for it. At 60 k miles we sold it to her daughter, whose husband drove it another 80k miles. I just sold him my Altima and took the 1999 Maxmia in trade for $2k value. At 140 k miles it still runs great. We drove it to the mountains for a day trip vacation, 322 miles. I refilled the tank today. 14.254 gallons-460.7 miles-32.3 MPG in a car rated at 21 combined on the new EPA. Has not dropped a bit of oil level using 5W-30 Mobil 1.

We left her 2012 Sorento in the garage. She is averaging 27 MPG in the Sorento. I had it up to 32 on the highway, great mileage for a 3800 pound SUV. She is still working at 65 and if she wants a new car she gets a new car. I drive old recycled stuff and make money selling them. In some cases enough to pay all of the driving costs.

Last year combining all expenses I would estimate we spent less than 6% of our income on transportation. Our largest single annual expense is property taxes.

regards
Mech

We paid 18.1k for the wifes Rogue. At 32 k miles we got 14.3k in trade. Cash offer was 14.1k at Car Max.

Works out to $3800 for her to drive a brand new car, under warranty, for 3 years. About $127 a month.

Not having to worry about her breaking down driving to either of her daughter's houses.

Priceless.

regards
Mech

James you know we are not "typical". As one example (I've mentioned before) 1.5 years ago I drove x-country in a 1998 automobile and with very few exceptions, it was the oldest car on the road. Ha- and it's "too new" for me! (too many computer controlled things)

I'm going to start pretending I don't know the difference between a lug nut and a spark plug. Then I will get to drive the fancy new car and GF can drive the beater. Men everywhere should join me and make this a national movement. :p

I just bought a 2012 Focus over my guilty pleasure choice of a 2012 wrangler. I made the conscious descion to buy the higher mpg vehicle.

When it comes to buying the right car for the job it's often difficult for some to come to the right decision. Emotions come over them and drive them to buy something more of a guilty pleasure than a tool to accomplish the task. Financing can hold people back on buying used cars ( vehicles older than 5yrs or 100k are harder to finance).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jm_eNfT8l4


10-12MPG. Cute, but she makes the vane on my temple want to pop.


From Darren's story:
"Inspired by a $6000 rebate that appeared to offset rising gas prices, he bought an SUV."

Hey whaddaugonado? *throws hand up*

I was curious so i made a poll:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ion-19290.html

;)
I get to drive them, but don't have to pay for them, being the 99% driver when we travel together. Although she hates radical hypermiling techniques, she still manages to beat highway EPA consistently in every vehicle she drives. Her last accident was in a 73 Volkswagen over 30 years ago.

regards
Mech

The disgusting thing is these people who make such pitifully flawed decisions are driving the car companies to provide the same pitiful choices in vehicles.

regards
Mech

That was my point: if you have to finance a car, you probably can't afford it. Which is a big part of why so many people in this country are in such financial hot water: they bought more than they could afford, financed the purchases, and never thought about how they'd pay them off if their income took a dive.

There's more conspiring to peoples choices than the supposed virtue of frugality on an individual basis. Inflation and near-zero interest rates on savings, plus cheap credit (and a culture of consumption) the past thirty years drove things to what they are today (not good before, but insane after).

I always love it when folks tell me they are "independent" (despite all the external clues to the contrary). As Joe Bageant had it (roughly), "How can 300-million individuals still wind up with the exact same range of choices, every time"?

You'll note that few even consider the cost of house (a non-income producing property) that yet requires enough land and a building for cars as being part of this (zoning premium, construction cost plus financing, maintenance and repairs, higher insurance and taxes, etc).

Can't leave that out, as it is huge. A direct energy cost.

.