June 27, 2008
Well, I experimented with driving slower this week and found I can definitely save money.
My 1999 Volvo has readouts that tell me my miles per gallon at any one moment and also for a preset trip. I found I could average 32 mpg at around 60 mph over the 30 mile trip from Jamestown to Providence compared with 27 mpg on a more normal, faster run.
(Even at 60 mph, I guess I was exceeding the speed limit. But that is the speed in the slow lane and cars drive were driving around me.
It reminds me of the time an officer pulled me over in a 25 mph zone. I make no defense for the speed I was going, but have you actually tried driving at 25 mph? It is remarkably slow!)
Getting back to my experiment, I should point out that I was driving most of the time on the highway. City driving in a heavy Volvo quickly brings the fuel economy down.
But all in all, there is no question that a lighter foot on the pedal will save money – and lives.
Meanwhile, as if to confirm that fuel economy is on all our minds, J.D. Power and Associates announced that “drivers of new cars were less satisfied with their vehicles this year for the first time in at least five years due mainly to rising fuel prices.”
It noted in its annual survey of vehicle owner satisfaction that part of the problem is that gas prices have risen dramatically over the last 12 months while fuel economy has basically stayed the same.
And the latest Auto Pulse Survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center shows more than 77 percent of consumers cited the government’s failure to implement an effective energy policy as a root cause for high gas prices.
It also found that nearly 80 percent of car shoppers intend to buy a vehicle with better fuel economy, with 80 percent considering a diesel, flex-fuel, or hybrid vehicle.
Indeed, 31 percent of new-car shoppers said fuel economy was the most important consideration. That is nearly double the share recorded in 2007.
And 54 percent said they would pay more for a more fuel-efficient vehicle while 74 percent are driving less due to fuel costs.
- Peter C.T. Elsworth
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth 
at 2:54 PM | Permalink
June 23, 2008
Gasoline prices in Rhode Island have dropped by one cent this week, according to AAA Southern New England and reported by projo.com.
It's not much, but it follows 12 straight weeks of price increases, for a total of 93 cents, according to AAA.
AAA’s survey of prices found self-serve, regular unleaded averaging $4.099 per gallon in Rhode Island.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 10:10 AM | Permalink
June 19, 2008
If it was difficult to swallow $4-a-gallon for gas, try digesting $8 — the current price you'll pay at some car rental locations if you return your vehicle without a full tank.
A USA Today survey of eight car rental companies found prices of $7.99, or $8, a gallon at all 10 airports surveyed.
The prices were levied upon renters who return a car without a full tank of gas or don't prepay for a full tank at the car rental company's set price.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 9:57 AM | Permalink
June 18, 2008
It has been an open secret for quite some time: with skyrocketing gas prices, small, fuel efficient cars – new and used – are all the rage.
And as for hybrids, forget about it. As my colleage Bruce Miranda found out in his search for a Toyota Prius, the few used ones entering the market are snapped up right away and buying a new one means a wait of two to three months.
So credit local auto dealer Ernie Boch for having the foresight to see where gas prices were going and the moxie to buy up some $2 million’s worth of small Hondas from dealers around the nation, according to Automotive News.
“We could see it coming,” he told the authoritive industry trade paper of the run on small, fuel efficient cars.
As a result, sales at Boch’s Honda dealership in Norwood, Mass., which is the top-selling Honda store in the nation, are “brisk” while many other dealerships are staring at clogged lots and little foot traffic.
“Civics are going like crazy,” Boch is quoted as saying below a front-page photo of him leaning out the front window of a Civic with a big grin and a thumbs up.
- Peter C.T. Elsworth
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 12:14 PM | Permalink
June 9, 2008
Idle trucks trucks at the La Jonquera border crossing between France and Spainin Girona, Spain, during a protest against rising fuel costs.
MADRID — Gasoline at $4 a gallon? If that was America’s nightmare at the weekend as fuel prices reached a record national average, pity poor Europe, where the price of oil and taxes levied at the pump combine to push prices to about double the United States’ level.
In the latest show of distress, Spanish truckers Monday began a blockade of their country’s border with France, lining up their rigs and slowing them to a crawl to protest the cost of diesel fuel, according to The New York Times.
The strike blocked the highway in both directions in southwestern France. The protest turned ugly when would-be strike-breakers in Spain found their windshields and headlights smashed and their tires slashed.
But the Spanish drivers were not the only ones feeling the pinch. French drivers slowed traffic near Bordeaux to demand lower fuel prices, offering a foretaste of a planned national strike by truckers next Monday. Portuguese drivers blocked roads and in Belgium thousands of labor union members demonstrated in Liege to protest the rising cost of living as a result of fuel costs.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 1:43 PM | Permalink
