News item - its expensive to fill up a hummer

And, in fact, you ARE seeing commercials for smaller commuter type cars... Besides the Prius, there has been comercials for Smart cars, the Minis and Fiat 500 which isn't exactly a 'big' car either.

You will also notice for some of those Trucks, most of the truck commercials focus on their 'awards' and 'towing capacities'. People who driving some of those trucks that aren't doing it for those reasons are the ones similar to the people driving hummers and suvs as a commuter type vehicle. These are the people who don't know any better or have money they can throw around.

The other thing is that it isn't necessarily the 'sellers' putting the most money to get the most return out of it. Otherwise, Tesla and Fisker should be going out of their way promoing theirs as well, but aren't. The thing is, the automakers are going to promote what they can to sell different lines that will appeal to whatever market is in the buy.

 

I believe the posturing is mostly the general mudslinging to lower the standing of the current president, for the reason that the original reason Obama became president was his stance of turning the economy around due to the way the economy tanked around 2008.

Unfortunately, the thing this complaint has done, is shown how our fuel problems are not so much who is running the country in general, but the fact that as a whole, we are in the grips of a very wasteful society in general and if our concerns over the price of gas to fuel up a gas guzzling car such as a hummer is 'apalling'... It does not bode well for us in general when we are griping about a known dwindling resource and not doing more about encouraging alternate sources of energy, knowing that the prices of fuel will continue to go up over time.

 

/sarcasm on

It's expensive to fill up my wife's minivan. It will cost us $80 to fill it up next time. <disclaimer: Of course, she is filling it up about once every 3 weeks or so, but still>

$80 is outrageous!

/sarcasm off

I spend about the same on gasoline per month than she does on her minivan. She drives about 600 miles per month and I drive about 1600 miles per month. Just depends how you want to spin it.

 

This is entirely incorrect. Look at gas buddy for historical charts or any other source. National average for regular unleaded peaked at 4.12 mid July 2008. By December, the average was 1.61. On whole, for the entire year, regular unleaded averaged around 3.00.

This year has seen a much higher average than for 2008. In fact, not adjusting for inflation, gasoline hit an all time average high for 2011.

 

Ah yes, the Hummer: the vehicle for the man who wants the economy and reliability of a Chevy Tahoe but demands that extra dash of fugly. But we already knew that Congressman West is not the sharpest hammer in the box.

Thank Goodness the government subsidizes the oil industry at the rate of $4 billion per year; otherwise gas would be even more expensive.

 

LOL, never heard that before!

 

EXACTLY! Why's he complaining, he's a Congressman. He's the man with the power to do something.

 

In 2008 there were two reasons for gas prices to be that low, the world's economy was in a meltdown, and the oil companies were desperately trying to keep the White House in Republican hands!

 

Actually the specific Hummer in question costs less to purchase than a Chevrolet Volt. The model shown with him standing beside of is a 5 cylinder (only the Alpha model has the V-8). So all politics aside he could have been complaining that it is too expensive to fill up the Chevrolet Colorado or GMC Canyon.

Not all SUV's are gas sucking monsters.

 

Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon with I-5 engine => 17/23 mpg. Not the worst but not good by any means.

 

That is true but the point that I was making is because he drives a Hummer H3 many mistakenly believe it is a very expensive, gas guzzling beast. When as SUVs go the H3 is one of the more conservative vehicles both when considering price and mpg.

SUV's tend to have a stigma about them. There are families that SUV's are really the only choice that makes sense. Minivans don't have the towing power that an SUV has and sedans don't have the seating.

 

The same could be said and is often is about my SUV, the Lincoln Navigator. However, it is hard to find a vehicle capable of hauling a squad of 9-year-old cheerleaders with gear... then go to hauling sheets of plywood for a home project... then go to pulling a trailer... The fact is, that the only real drawback to SUV's is the mpg.

Of course, people that know me realize that I'm as fuel conscience as the come. I was one of those that leased the GM EV-1, I've owned an S-10 EV. More recently, I've had a 2000 Honda Insight, a 2008 Toyota Prius and now my daily driver is a 2011 Toyota Prius.

That said, first impressions are really misleading. SUV's have a bad rap. Since GM discontinued the Astro/Safari minivan there is no comparable vehicle to the SUV.

I can empathize with his feeling when he tops that H3. I fill up my Navigator and I really feel the pinch.

 

Gas Mileage of 2010 Hummer H3

Fuel Economy of 2010 Hummer H3
EPA MPG MODEL
City Comb Hwy Fuel Cost 2010 Hummer H3 4WD 5 cyl, 3.7 L, Automatic 4-spd, Regular Gasoline
14 City
16
Combined
18Highway
$3488per year
2010 Hummer H3 4WD 5 cyl, 3.7 L, Manual 5-spd, Regular Gasoline
14 City
15
Combined
18Highway
$3722per year

15 to 16 MPG combined... 22.8 gallon tank... Max possible range == 18x22.8 == 410.4 miles... This is for the 5 cylinder engine, NOT the v8 engine. I hate to say this, but the Hummer is still a gas guzzler, regardless of how you want to play it.

Twice the tank size for most vehicles for the same range. Even my old 15 year old Nissan Sentra for 13 gallons had a much better MPG, and yes, it was a 4 cylinder engine and is smaller and lighter than the hummer 3, but I could do a lot better with it than I would with a hummer, sadly. With the Prius v, doing even a bit better with less.

 

Hate to say it but the soccer mom SUV market was created when gas was cheap and people wanted the toughness of the Blazer and Bronco but with the size for a family. Vans can/do the same thing with more room and better MPG most of the time unless we're talking Navigator, Excursion, etc... granted if you had to regularly carry 8-9 people AND all their crap, the Excursion with 7.3 diesel is hard to beat, 22mpg is easy not the highway

Growing up we had a 86 Nissan Sentra Coupe, 90 Nissan Stanza, 98 Honda Accord, 02 Honda Accord, 04 Avalon. Only reason we have a truck now is because it was $18k brand new plus it doesn't get driven as much but it does hurt to fill it up even though it gets a pretty respectable 17mpg combined, best i've got was 20 all highway from SD to Phoenix with a stop in Yuma and thats a 4.7 without the 5.7 HEMI's cylinder deactivation. Bottom line is don't buy something because you want it, then turn around and complain that its too expensive to maintain/run. Thats like buying a Ferrari and complaining when service is $150....everything is a choice and everything has consequences, everyone has free will to choose what they want be it good or bad.

 

To be honest, I originally was looking at the Ford Explorer when I was looking for a first car back in 97... Then looked at the mpg. I went with a Nissan Sentra for a car that was reasonably roomy, cheap and decent MPG at that time. I went with the Prius v for that reason. But I have to admit, the Prius v does give me a bit of a 'SUV' like feeling that I wanted back in the day, but with decent mpg.

When I saw the posting from Rep West about his woes about the filling up his Hummer 3, I had no real sympathy, mostly because the cost to fill up SUVs are going to be high. The SUVs are using heavy powered engines and should be used for certain things, but heavily using an SUV just to drive from point A to point B, just for yourself or just cause you happen to like the car is just not practical, and this isn't being prissy Prius or Pious driver, just that the SUV should be used for literally practical reasons, like serious outings that need the engine to tow loads or take advantage of the power of the vehicle. But you don't need major horse power to do standard driving around or commuting, it just isn't practical, in my opinion.

 

This poster proved my point. Everyone assumes the Hummer H3 has a "heavy powered engine" because it is an SUV. The H3 that this individual drives is a 5 cylinder engine. The same engine that is in GMC's small truck the Canyon.

 

When I graduated from college in 1972 you could still find gas in Houston for .17 cents a gallon. To say I wasn't worried about fuel economy back then would be a huge understatement.


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