[AT] OT: Gas story, now gas mileage

Larry D Goss rlgoss at evansville.net
Tue Jul 3 08:51:56 PDT 2007


Nah, they just want to make sure they're going fast enough to coast to the 
nearest service station when they run out of gas.

Larry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <pga2 at hot1.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 11:03 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] OT: Gas story, now gas mileage


> You've once again nailed it, farmer. I see similar driving on the
> farm-to-market road in fromt of my house. I also see folks pass me
> like I was parked when driving on I-35 doing the speed limit. It
> seems that those giant SUVs must be getting nearly 40 MPG at 80
> MPH.
>
> Phil
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>>From    : Francis Robinson <robinson at svs.net>
> Sent    : Tue, 3 Jul 2007 08:52:56 -0400
> To      : Antique tractor email discussion group 
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Subject : Re: [AT] OT: Gas story
>
>
>>    In the process of making dozens of trips all over the eastern third of
> the US over the last year or so (and watching locally) my observation has
> been the same as it has always been... People do a lot of "talking" about
> fuel mileage and worrying about getting shorted at the pump but when they
> get behind the wheel 90% of them don't really give a rats behind about 
> fuel
> mileage. If they did they wouldn't drive the way they do... Just watch 
> them
> putting the pedal to the metal at stoplight after stoplight. They are 
> still
> driving 20 or 30 MPH over the speed limits. As they drive past my house
> (paved country road) I can hear their engine accelerate hard then coast,
> then accelerate hard then coast again, over and over on down the road 
> every
> few seconds. Going south from my drive there is a slight down hill then a
> little creek then a bit steeper (but still not much) little up hill. It is 
> a
> place that any good driver would lift his foot slightly going down hill 
> then
> accelerate slightly going up the other hill. Car after car, everyday the
> drivers put their foot on the brake and brake hard "all" of the way down 
> the
> hill until they get to the bridge at the bottom then they accelerate hard 
> up
> the next hill. The road makes a 90 degree left turn about 700' from the
> little up hill but most drivers accelerate hard until they get to within
> about 100' of the turn then jam on the brakes so hard that their tires
> squeal. Coming out of the turn the pedal goes to the metal again. That is 
> on
> one tiny stretch of road less than 1/2 mile long on a country road. The
> lucky ones are getting about 4 MPG doing that. Multiply that times the 
> miles
> of road in the US times the number of drivers...
>    I have also been struck by the number of drivers running on one or more
> half flat tires out on the interstates. Its bad enough in town where I can
> tell by wear patterns that the half flat tire condition is a more or less
> permanent condition. It is a dangerous condition at high speeds but few 
> seem
> to worry about it.
>    I used to say that the biggest gauge on the dash should be a big vacuum
> gauge marked in red yellow and green and when it gets in the red, lights
> should flash and "hard driving" alarms go off...   ;-)
>    People don't have to go to extremes with fuel mileage... If starting
> tomorrow all drivers across the country would just switch to driving
> "reasonable" the amount of fuel required would drop like a rock. Maybe as
> much as 15 to 20%. That is not small potatoes. Its never going to happen 
> of
> course... but what a difference it could make.
>    The public wants good mileage but they want the car makers to do it for
> them...
>
>
> --
> "farmer"
>
> Francis Robinson
> Central Indiana, USA
> robinson at svs.net
>
>
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