RE: Americans should stop whining about gas prices

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RE: Americans should stop whining about gas prices - 7/17/2008 5:47:00 AM

fluffypet61

Posts: 28879
Joined: 12/25/2006
From: New Jersey
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quote:

ORIGINAL: defiantbadgirl

I drive an 05 Cavalier with a 4 cylinder engine. It takes a fourth of a tank of gas just to drive to a city only an hour and a half away. I tried driving slower (60 mph) because my father thought it would take less gas. I saw no difference. It still took a half a tank to go there and back.

Did you start with a full tank and then after the trip fill it up again to see the number of gallons used? Compute the gas mileage by dividing the miles driven by the number of gallons used. Don't count on the dash board gauge.

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RE: Americans should stop whining about gas prices - 7/17/2008 7:27:56 AM

jlf1961

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Joined: 6/10/2008
From: Somewhere Texas
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A fuel injected engine will ALWAYS get better gas milage than an engine with a carburator.

Cars with an overdrive gear will get better milage on the highway than one without.

Shutting off the AC and driving slower will save gas but probably get you run over by Joe Shouldalefttenminutesago driving at 80mph.

Better communter transit systems between cities and suburbs would drop fuel usage considerably. The simple fact that all that money we put into Amtrack to provide high speed, dependable rail transport was wasted. It has been 30 years and the nationwide, every city on the mainline will have a station has not happened.

In some countries, people live as much as 200 miles from work and due to high speed rail, they have shorter commute times than the average american.

The american car, as it is now is an unneeded luxery. Converting to electric short range cars for shopping etc, H2O2 cars for long distance driving or commercial off road work and rethinking our priorities is what is needed.

Not more oil wells. Lets face it, if we took away all the cars in America, every citizen would be taking up arms and going into full scale civil war.

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RE: Americans should stop whining about gas prices - 7/17/2008 8:24:56 PM

petdave

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quote:

ORIGINAL: fluffypet61

i disagree. Some cars these days have a readout of fuel efficiency. As you drive you can see what your gas mileage is doing. i drive in West Virginia where the posted speed limit on the interstate is 70. Even going 68 saves me 2 mpg. i'm sure that a reduction from 75 to 70 would save me at least a couple of mpg. If going 70 or more requires your vehicle to down shift on the upgrade, you are wasting gas and putting strain on your engine.

Here's an experiment: try approaching that same grade at 55 MPH, and see if the transmission downshifts as the car starts climbing. Bet you a smiley that it does... Most modern automatics are programmed to hit overdrive as early as possible for better mileage when traveling at a constant speed. However, the net torque output is lower in overdrive than in the lower gears, so if the engine experiences significantly increased load- the effects of gravity as the car starts to climb- the tranny kicks down.

And just think of all the gas you'd save at 30 MPH! Wouldn't that be wonderful?