I ride my motorcycle a little more to work now. I still enjoy mashing the gas pedal in the Mustang every now and then but I think about it first a little more now. I love the sound of the Flowmaster American Thunders though!

 

I bought a Civic Si instead of another truck to drive everyday.

 

For the record, I haven't put gas in my car (91 Acura Integra, 4cyl, 5spd) since May 4th and still have over 1/2 a tank.

 

My Ford Aspire gets me 45 mpg and thats being used around here for all our store trips etc..The Mustangs are show driven/weekend fun ONLY!

I have been driving a gas miser like my Aspire over 10 years now, so I can't say I have changed anything..been doing it a long time already.

 

ok...so earlier this week I started drving 55 on the highways to see if there were any milage gains...and there was...so..I got intrigued...

Since then...I have been driving my Taurus 40 mph at every chance i get..It is where overdrive kicks in and I only pull 1300 RPMs...I have used almost a half tank and I have driven 230 miles...OMG! I think I might get 500 miles out of the tank...my last tank I only got 415. I know this sounds rediculous...but I do a lot of night driving when there is little traffic, so it humors me.

If I get 500 miles...and I run the tank dry..thats 27.77mpg..if I only use 17 gallons to do it...thats almost 30mpg

 

Nice Cody - I've been doing the same thing.

 

Same here. I've always had 4 cyl cars, the only exceptions been the Cherokee and the Mustang. The one that had the best mileage of all the cars I've owned was an 84 Nissan Sentra 5spd. That thing really was economical. I still regret that I sold it.

 

Lucky guys over there, in Europe we swash over $20/gallon.

 

I've always had conservative driving habits and my wife and I car pool to work so it really has not affected me. Although it still enrages me to see the ridiculous prices.

I clock somewhere in the range of 27-28 mpg (city/highway combined) on my Olds. If I do more highway driving I can get up to 33 mpg. Pretty cool for a 3100 V6.

 

Sorry, I used the wrong exchange rate.

Here in Europe we talk about $8.4/gallon.

 

I have a 25 mile round trip commute to work, but other than that, I am really thinking twice about driving anywhere. Not really any joyrides anymore, that's for sure.

I still love the Mustang more than ever, but two weeks ago my daughter got a 2003 5-speed Mini Cooper, and after I drove it a couple times, I said to my wife that I would actually *consider* getting a Mini for myself if the gas situation gets any worse! I mean the Mini gets 37 mpg highway, averages 33 mpg overall, and it's FUN. The steering response in that car is sick - it seems to be twice as quick as the Mustang. And its handling is really flat with very little body roll, and no doubt it could kill my Mustang on a slalom course.

I don't know if I could actually do it, since I've had nothing but RWD V8 manual transmission cars ever since I started driving, but the Mini Cooper isn't a bad way to get economical if I had to. Of course I would only consider the turbocharged S model if I was really serious about this, but just the fact that I'm thinking about it is actually blowing my mind.

 

I wonder if Ford has something under their sleeves for newer Mustangs. A V6 hybrid sounds like a good idea, since a V8 hybrid isn't really worth it, like the GMC trucks are using. The hybrid V6 should have similar or better performance than the current GT. If they do something like that, that would make the Mustang (and our wallets) survive this nightmare.

 

Wow, you guys there are screwed really badly
that's more than double the price!

 

We're all gonna be feeling the screw soon.

Unfortunately, we were warned. But it's often human nature to ignore a difficult problem until it reaches critical mass. And we're beginning to approach that point now.

 

Comparing gas prices in Europe to the US is like comparing apples to oranges.

 

Not for long.

 

At least Europeans have plenty of 60-80 mpg cars so paying $6-8 for a gallon isn't as bad as it sounds.

 

We need to find a viable source of energy for vehicular transportation aside from oil. It's inevitable that we'll have to make the switch by the middle of this century anyway (if not much, much sooner), why not be technological innovators right now and develop a new market segment...not to mention nip climate change and dependence on hostile regimes in the bud?

Will it cost money? Yep. Will it mean enduring a bit of pain during the transition? Sure.

Is the alternative much, much worse? Absolutely.

We put a man on the moon in less than a decade, for crissake. That was considered science fiction back then. Where's that good old American (North American?) know-how?

 

I'm not talking about the amounts, I'm talking about the reasons for the differences and their effects. Differences such as a main factor in the price of European gas being extremely high taxes in fuel as their governments raise revenue through fuel prices instead of other taxes which we regularly pay. Effects as their infrastructure is made to function with high gas prices, ours are not. (Compact cities, short commutes, etc)

 

Agreed.

What I meant by "not for long" is that one way or another, we will soon all be in the same boat >> increased global demand for dwindling supply; dependence on hostel regimes; environmental degradation. No one is safe from these common denominator factors anymore.