I had a discussion with a friend of mine the other day and he told me the story about how he bought the new Chevy Volt hybrid gas electric vehicle. Now this is a person who lives a sort of green lifestyle. What do I mean by that? Well he has cards on his washer and dryer telling the kids at what hours of the day they can wash clothes simply because it's cheaper. So, this friend of mine doesn't live a green lifestyle because he wants to save the earth and get rid of gas guzzlers but simply to save money. So he leased a Chevy Volt hybrid vehicle. Why lease the Chevy Volt I asked well for him the numbers simply worked better. The Volt lease was about $270.00 a month for three years. What really convinced him though was his daily commute from Salinas Ca to Monterey Ca is about 24 miles and in his vehicle that currently gets 18 miles to the gallon that works out to be 48 miles round trip and costs him $10.66 a day round trip to get from home to work. That is 213.00 a month in fuel costs alone that he spends with his current vehicle. So he replaced his current vehicle with the Chevy Volt. So I was asking him well how much fuel do you use in the Volt and he told me that the Volt goes about 40 miles on electric if you charge it up which he does at work for free and at home for a small cost. So basically he is still on his first tank of gas. So, there has to be a downside to all of this. He tells me that there are some downsides mainly that the volt while running on the battery if you use the heater it really eats through the battery so he tries to just use the seat warmers unless his kids are in the car. One of the other downsides is that in a gas vehicle he hates getting gas and with the Volt it's like getting gas every time you stop you need to plug in versus every week you need to get gas. But other than that he is very happy with his choice. Is this something you would think about? 2011 Chevrolet Volt - NRMA Drivers Seat, a photo by NRMA New Cars on Flickr.
Consumer reports recently did an article on several cars that are greener than their regular counterparts. In other words they save gas by using low rolling resistance tires and spoilers on the back and in one case there is a flap in the radiator area that reduces air resistance at highway speeds. The premise of the article and video is that you don't really save enough gas to make it worth your extra money that these environmentally friendly cars cost. The environmentally friendly vehicle usually costs a few hundred dollars more than the normal version of the same vehicle. So Consumer Reports sees it simply as it's not worth it when in one case they say it will pay off in three years. To me three years is not too long. Some people will buy these cars just because they are Eco friendly vehicles and they want to do something to help they environment. Not to mention to stop sending all of our cash to the Middle East. Green Cars For Comparison The green cars that they compared were the following, the Chevrolet Cruze Eco, the Ford Focus SFE, and the Honda Civic HF. The Honda Civic HF and the Ford Focus SFE each got three miles per gallon more than it's regular counterpart. the Chevrolet Cruze Eco on the other hand only got one mile per gallon more than the typical model. So Consumer Reports is correct it will take a few years to pay back. How To Really Save Gas I don't believe the true comparison should be between the Eco friendly car model and the normal model but it should really be between what you are driving today and the Eco friendly model. What do you think? So, say you are driving a Ford Explorer that only gets 20 mpg and you move to the Honda Civic HF that gets 33 mpg. That's 13 mpg better. So at the end of a normal 15,000 mile year, what would you save? Well, when you do the math for a year it looks like this 15,000 divided by 20 equals 750 gallons of fuel. Wow, more than I thought. So 750 times $4.00 equals $3,000.00 for one year of gas in your Ford Explorer. Now for that same year in the Honda Civic HF with 33 MPG the math looks like this. 15,000 divided by 33 equals 454.54 gallons of fuel for the year. So 454.54 gallons of fuel times $4.00 equals $1,818.00. Wow That's $1,182 less in gas costs per year. So, it doesn't have to be these cars in particular but pick the car that gets at least ten miles per gallon better than your current one and let people tell you it's not worth it. You can laugh all the way to the bank or just know that you are driving a greener car than you were. Whether that's green for the environment or for your pocket the reason doesn't really matter just the outcome does that we all use less energy to go the same distance. That's how you really save gas.
