I rented the only car I could get on Maui last week, a two-door Jeep Wrangler. (My teen-age son was thrilled.) We drove 396 miles, using 21.5 gallons at $4 per ($86). That same amount of money, purchasing gas at my local $3.20/gal, would have run our PiP through its first 2821 miles. (Yeah, yeah, not entirely fair, but my electricity costs are tiny, etc etc tetra etc. I sometimes am frustrated with aspects of the PiP, but after a week in a Jeep they seem much diminished. I almost kissed the plug out of appreciation, but then thought better.)
Amazing isn't it? The rental Jeep got 18 mpg.. and those are the vehicles I see blasting by me on the Expressway doing 75+mph Some ppl just love to waste $$. It's hard to comprehend that the basic (non-plug-in) Prius gets better gas mileage than many motorcycles...
Yes I have become very spoiled with my PIP. My motorcycles almost never get out of the garage on weekdays anymore...
Wranglers are flying bricks. Poor aerodynamics and Chrysler Corp engines could be more efficient. But Jeeps are fun. Especially on a trail.
I don't see it as wasting $$, I see it as selling America out to hostile foreign nations, just so we can haul ourselves to the grocery store in a bigger hunk of steel than the other guy.
I agree, but just didn't go into the details... After Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc here in Oct- we had a severe gas shortage on L.I for 2+ weeks. I remember checking the online status of Hess gas stations (they are pretty much the only company that had reserves actually on L.I.) and out of 77 stations- only 5 had 'some' gas. The lines were miles (and hours) long, if you were lucky enough to reach the pump- the gas was up to $8-$10/gal and you were rationed to 5 gallons. Fights ensued, ppl got arrested, one idiot pulled a gun at one station and was arrested- cops were stationed at gas stations that actually had gas after that incident. It was a nightmare (unless you owned a Prius and had a few 6 gal reserve tanks in your shed). Anyway, with all that happening- the one almost universal constant was- on every newscast- you saw huge hunking SUV's , pickups and van's waiting to fuel up. Of course to spread the misery, the news crews had to do "man on the street" style interviews with the poor slobs who had waited 8+ hrs or in some cases overnight for gas.. Mostly everyone they interviewed were SUV drivers who were complaining that 5 gallons wouldn't hardly get them around the block. One guy said 5 gallons wouldn't get him through one day in his SUV. He was miserable and angry... All the time I was thinking- hmmm 5 gallons in the PIP gets me about 440 miles, enough for almost 8 full days of trips to work and back home
I've actually used that line when questioned on why I bought a Prius and I try to squeeze every mile out of a gallon of gas in the PIP... I also say (if the conversation becomes a bit contentious and I'm done defending my choice) "I just don't like sending money to people who hate us and want to kill us". That's usually a conversation stopper right there...
