Have you changed your driving habits due to gas prices? (1 Viewer)

[Clark Green]

I filled up last night and gas was $4.01 and this morning I drove by gas station and it was $4.30. It is really hurting filling up twice a month at $60+ per tank and that's just my car. I use my car 7 days a week for work and weekend errand running. Not much I can really do to change that right now, but there are nights I scour Carmax app looking at little higher MPG coupes but with used car prices being way too high, I just resign to the fact that I just need to suck it up.

Seems there is no end in sight to this madness.

So what have you done to alleviate the pain at the pump? Less driving? Working from home more? Bought a hybrid car or similar?

 

[Jeffrey D]

I have been driving my backup car a little more often, due to the better gas mileage than my primary vehicle.

I am fortunate in this regard- I put maybe
7,000 miles on both vehicles combined in a year, so I spend well under what most spend for fuel.

 

[John Sparks]

I think California has the highest prices in the nation. There's a Chevron in downtown LA that has Diesel for 9.99 per gal. Venezuela, here we come!

 

[Clark Green]

That is nuts!

 

[Malcolm R]

A few around here went up to $4.87 today. Still a couple "low" ones at $4.69.

Fortunately the car I bought two years ago is pretty good on gas (30-32 MPG), so I don't use a ton of gas just getting to work and around town. Just have to decide if it's really worth it to drive any distance anywhere for non-essential purposes.

 

[John Dirk]

47 MPG and also a whole lot of fun.

 

[jcroy]

For stuff that is not food, clothing, cleaning supplies, etc ...., I don't bother driving around town anymore to go shopping.

No more shopping trips to record stores, bestbuy, bookstores, etc .... which are further away in town, than the nearby grocery stores, wallyworld, dollar stores, homedepot, etc ...

Easier and less expensive to just order non-essential stuff online, especially when gasoline costs are taken into consideration.

 

[Clark Green]

Hearing the experts talk, I fear this may go well into 2023.

 

[TonyD]

Yes I have drastically changed my driving.

I do Grubhub and DoorDash for some extra cash into the house but it’s not worth it right now.
It’s $4.75 here in sw Florida and what I can make here just doesn’t make it worth the driving.
No casual driving.
No “Sunday Drive”.
Only essential driving.

 

[BobO'Link]

It's pretty difficult to impossible for me to reduce any further. I drive to/from work (almost 2 miles each way), to my mom's a few times a week to check on her/give her PM medications (about 4 miles each way - and the cheapest gas in town is on the way to her house making *that* somewhat of a win), and the *very* occasional short trip for misc. supplies (Big Lots if they have it as they're 1 mile from my house - WM is 2 - closest grocery is 1 - pharmacy is on the way to/from work as is PakMail for dropping off Amazon returns when necessary). I drive a smaller car and get ~24mpg in town.

I have no desire to own an electric at this point as it'd cost *more* to run it initially (due to retrofitting the house to charge it and no easily available charging stations in town - there are exactly *2* run by the city and are downtown, well outside any trip area I ever use). Over time it *might* save money as we currently have one of the lowest local electricity rates in the country - but... Once the nation gets the infrastructure in place to better support them I *might* go for one but by that time I likely won't care as I'll be retired and driving very little - if at all - since I can just order in almost anything I need. If I don't move I'll still have my daughter across the street and if I move to where my son lives there'll be him to use for any necessary support stuff. And his area of the state is likely to get better electric vehicle support before we'll get it where I currently live.

Anyway - my wife and I are entering that phase of life where having a vehicle for transportation is a minor need and are likely looking at what we currently own as being the last vehicles we'll ever need/own (as long as they can be kept running for little expense).

 

[Desslar]

Try to drive only a couple times a week for shopping, plus the occasional trip to the office and weekend outings. Usually under 100 miles per week.
Our hybrid gets about 50 mpg, so that helps. Would be better if we had a convenient place to charge it.

 

[Nelson Au]

I’m in Silicon Valley California, so you guys paying $4 are lucky. I’m going to fill the tank this morning and I estimate it will be $100. My Chevron is charging $6.89 a gallon for premium. I have an older BMW six cylinder with manual transmission and it gets decent mileage, about 400 miles on one tank If all highway.

I mostly work from home and go into the office once a week maybe every other week. And it’s 50 miles round trip. My company has been very good to us In that regard due to Covid.

And I used instacart for groceries. So my driving has dramatically been reduced.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

My wife and I are both retired, but we still do a decent amount of driving. She volunteers at a local retirement home three days per week, I am playing golf 3 days per week, we visit my mother (6 miles away) and take her places (she no longer owns a car), and we still go out to eat and to socialize with friends. With the warmer weather, though, we can at least ride our bicycles to our downtown area -- which we would do a lot anyway due to lack of abundant parking.

We try to drive my wife's Buick Encore around town, as it gets better mileage than my GMC Acadia. We are also planning on taking her vehicle on one of our northern Michigan trips this summer, even though it's smaller and less comfortable than mine. We are stuck taking my Acadia on our two scheduled trips to Mackinac Island this year, though, as we take our bicycles and my vehicle is the only one with a trailer hitch for the bike rack. That bike rack costs me about 3 mpg (must be wind resistance), too!

Our drive back to South Carolina this autumn will probably be more expensive, but we will still take my Acadia, as the Encore is just too small for such a long trip. Fortunately, I get 27-29 mpg on such a trip, which I consider pretty good for a vehicle that size.

 

[titch]

I filled up last night and gas was $4.01 and this morning I drove by gas station and it was $4.30. It is really hurting filling up twice a month at $60+ per tank and that's just my car. I use my car 7 days a week for work and weekend errand running. Not much I can really do to change that right now, but there are nights I scour Carmax app looking at little higher MPG coupes but with used car prices being way too high, I just resign to the fact that I just need to suck it up.

Seems there is no end in sight to this madness.

So what have you done to alleviate the pain at the pump? Less driving? Working from home more? Bought a hybrid car or similar?

$ 4.01 a gallon? You have no idea where you're headed. Yesterday, in Norway, 95 octane fuel was 28.74 Norwegian kroner per litre. Want me to convert that into dollars per gallon for you? That's $11.50 per gallon. Diesel $9.90 per gallon. And it will only increase.

 

[Clark Green]

Wow!

 

[mark brown]

Only a mile away from work! Go home and watch movies!

 

[DaveF]

No. Nothing to change. My commute is my commute. And I don't drive just for the sake of driving.

 

[DaveF]

$ 4.01 a gallon? You have no idea where you're headed. Yesterday, in Norway, 95 octane fuel was 28.74 Norwegian kroner per litre. Want me to convert that into dollars per gallon for you? That's $11.50 per gallon. Diesel $9.90 per gallon. And it will only increase.

View attachment 140569

What was your price last year? Europe has always had much higher prices than the US even when gas is cheap.

 

[titch]

What was your price last year? Europe has always had much higher prices than the US even when gas is cheap.

Under half.

 

[DaveF]

Under half.

Your normal prices are higher than most of our highest prices right now.