Have I Become a Mileage Snob?

Absolutely. On the weekends, when we take short trips, I much prefer to take my wife's car, because I don't want to drop my average.

Of course my wife has a Prius too, so I'm not sacrificing fuel efficiency for my own obsession. My wife drives almost exclusively short trips, so her milage is already down in the low 40's. One more short trip won't effect her milage, but it might drop my 52 MPG down below 50.

Maybe you just need to trade in your wife's car for a Prius.

 

Precisely my dilemma. And I'm still on my first tank of gas! I've been slowly eeking my mpg upward. It's now 49 mpg and I'm trying to get it to 50 before filling up. I'm down to two ticks on the gas gauge. We've had the car for about 10 days and now my wife feels she's ready to give it a whirl. But if she does, she's going to drop the mpg while I'm trying to bump it up that extra mpg. What to do? I keep stalling her but for how long?

 

Tony: You're not a snob; you're just insane!

(But I understand your insanity. I have to fight it too.)

 

Oh, you think you've got it bad. My husband was happy for me when I got the Prius, but he didn't see why I liked it so much. We used it on a couple of weekend trips, and he was amazed at how comfortable it was and how much stuff I could fit. He got to where he'd offer to drive when we'd go somewhere, and he really *tries* to keep the milage up, and he got pretty good at it. He drives a Celica, and it's not good for toting people, so he borrowed my car a few times to help out some friends and such.

I should have known something was up when he stopped calling the cars 'mine' and 'his' - it somehow became 'the Celica' and 'the Prius.' He'd say "hey, what are you doing tomorrow? I've got to drive to .... and I hate to waste the gas. It alright if I take the Prius?" I work from home and many days don't even leave the house, and when I do it's for ::sigh:: short trips, so I always agree.

We were talking about how much we miss being able to tote our tiny trailer, and I mentioned putting a hitch on the Celica. He agreed, and then reminded me that whatever replaces it needs to be able to tow, preferably more stuff. I assumed he was going on about the Ridgeline again, but then he said "I guess the best solution would be to buy you a towing vehicle - and I'll take the Prius. Then you won't have to worry about all those short trips anymore!" He says this like he's offering me something shiny. I just grin =)

I've barely had this car for 3 months, and he's already got it all worked out on how he's going to steal it away from me.

 

Same thing happened to me over the weekend. The husband wanted to drive the Prius to run a quick errand. I told him that he could, as long as he didn't lower my mpgs. During the course of the 3 mile roundtrip errand, he dropped my mpg from 51.0 to 50.8. He said he was scared to drive my car now for fear of further lowering my mpgs and thus upsetting me. LOL! :lol: :lol:

 

obsessive perfectionists!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(barbaram @ May 1 2006, 06:00 PM) [snapback]248167[/snapback]</div>

I agree. Relax, guys! - breathe deeply and repeat the mileage you used to get in your old car three times....

(in my case

32 on a good day... 32 on a good day..... 32 on a good day...

don't you feel better now!

 

Toyota could solve this for us by simply providing two additional buttons on the MFD "home page":

PRIMARY DRIVER

S.O. WHO WAS
GRUDGINGLY GIVEN
PERMISSION TO DRIVE

There would be two MPG readouts, side by side.

Good for dinner conversation on many days.

 

I'll give you my version, and you'll quickly see the similarity:

I often brag that my PV array makes enough electricity to supply my main vehicle AND my house. And it does... or has *almost* done that every year. We use the EV as much as possible - but gosh, it would sure be easy to waste gas to save the electricity that would keep me under that self-imposed electricity balance! Yup, totally silly, but it makes me understand your position entirely. Another way to "solve" my problem is to use more public chargers that are fed from the grid. Would use less of my personally-generated energy, but it would be dirtier energy, and that is counter to my goal as well! For most people it makes no sense when I tell them that I need to use more of my electricity in order to save energy.

Along those same lines, I know there are people on this list who would gladly drive 50 miles at 50mpg to avoid a 10 mile trip at 40mpg... just because their average would be higher - never mind that they're burning WAY more gas in the process of increasing their average. We're all crazy. No two ways about it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ May 1 2006, 05:38 PM) [snapback]248190[/snapback]</div>

If you make an excess amount of PV energy and then charge the difference from a distant electrical charger(from the same grid presumably) then you really haven't used 'dirty' energy.

When you use the energy off your PV's, you really aren't using the same electrons from the PV. Your PV in effect is just turning your meter backwards right? You're still using the energy from the grid. (Unless you're off the grid and store the PV energy in batteries). So whether you charge your car from home or from a public charger, as long as you produce a net amount of energy, you don't have to feel bad about using 'dirty' energy from the grid.