A while back on the blog hosted at The Chris Jones Group I wrote that I was going to try premium gasoline to see if it gave me better gas mileage. With gas at $1.00 a gallon, there is no way it would make enough difference to make up the 20% extra charge for the higher-octane gas. But with gas at $3.00 a gallon, it only takes a 7.5% increase in gas mileage to make it worth it. So I thought I would try.
No difference. I got 25 mpg with low- and high-octane gasoline. But then someone emailed me one of those internet chain letter things, only this one was not about boycotting gas stations on Tuesday, or something silly like that (as Ray routinely points out, if you delay – or accelerate – your purchase of gasoline to miss buying on a particular day, you have done nothing whatever to affect the total demand for fuel, thus the price remains the same). Instead, it proposed something I hadn’t thought of but was just crazy enough to work.
Drive the speed limit.
Normally, I drive about 75 on the freeway and stay roughly 10 mph over the limit everywhere else as well. Since the amount of fuel expended increases by the square as you crest 55 mph (in most cars), driving 10 mph slower ought to make a big difference. And you know what? It does. Both of the last tanks have been 27.4 mph, or roughly 10% better than normal. That translated to about 28¢ per gallon better mileage, so I’m getting gas at $2.35 now, effectively. In terms of time, I’m filling up about two days less often (8 days instead of every 6), meaning that in an average month I will fill up three times instead of four. That saves $40 a month in gas.
Try it yourself.
The market is processing the fact that the economy is going south in a rush, and that’s causing a tank on the Dow and pulling money back into bonds, which are up for the week for the first time since August. We’re not looking at 5% or anything, but it’s nice to have the trend on the 30-year back toward 5.875 instead of 6.125.
For the weekend, let’s go with the following:
Texas beats Texas Tech by 14 after never trailing in the game.
The White Sox continue their domination of the baseball universe by winning both home games.
Harriet Miers withdraws from consideration for the Supreme Court.
The Broncos beat the Giants to go 6-1.
The Colts win by 28 to go 7-0.
CSU wins the border war with Wyoming by a field goal.
And the biggie – BYU loses to Notre Dame because of a special-teams play.
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