The Observer Newspapers |An Eye on the Fuel Gauge

April 17, 2008

An Eye on the Fuel Gauge

When I was living in Falls Church as a child, I remember waiting in the car with my parents for our turn to fill up with the few gallons we were allowed at a gas station on Broad Street. It was probably 1979 or 1980, when the United States went through its second oil crisis amid political and military instability in the Persion Gulf.

One thing I remember particularly clearly about that period was how closely my parents tracked our car's fuel consumption. They kept a small spiral notebook in the glove box along with a pen. At each fill-up, they would record the mileage on the odometer and then put in as many gallons of gas as they could.

The next time they filled up, they would record the numbers of miles they had traveled since they last got gas and would calculate to tenths of a mile how many miles to the gallon the old Volkswagon van was getting.

It was like religion. Whether my mother was getting gas or my father, each of them recorded the statistics in the book, every time, without fail. Mileage. Gallons purchased. Then they would make the calculations and discuss in detail what they found.

Over time every dog-eared and dirty page in the little notebook was filled with writing. We checked the air and made sure not to drive around with extra cargo. We didn't drive unless we had to. Any small thing that could be done to reduce our consumption of gas, and therefore keep more of our money in our wallets, was done. We only had one car, and it probably wasn't the most fuel-efficient car we could own but it was the car we were stuck with through the time of the crisis.

The situation we currently face with skyrocketing gas prices is not near the extreme conditions my parents faced in the 1970s, but I'm much more aware of the fuel I consume today than I was two years ago.

About 10 years ago, I decided to have a little adventure, so I sold off my perfectly reliable car and bought a cool-looking MGB convertible car that was about 20 years old. It was a blast. Such fun. The thing was the only car I owned, and it spent a lot of time broken. However, I could walk to my office and loved to work on cars, so it didn't bother me too much. But the one indulgence that the car forced upon me was fuel. That MGB was terrible on gas. Because it was old and had problems, and because it was simply made in a time when fuel consumption was not a big concern, it just sucked down the fuel.

I thought the car was doing well when I got about 15 miles to the gallon, but sometimes that mileage was down near 10 miles per gallon. That's like SUV mileage, so you can imagine I was not very happy. And I remember during the two-year period in which I owned the car that gas prices spiked.

I bought the car when gas prices were not too far above $1. But during the time I owned the car, prices went up to over $1.50, and I was getting really pinched for cash. Today, my family uses two cars, one that gets about 30 miles per gallon and one that gets a bit better than 20, and I'm again feeling pinched.

So this week, I'm tracking my fuel performance with my trip odometer to see what mileage I'm currently getting. I'll check the air in my tires and clean out my cars so that I'm not carting around extra cargo.

Two years ago my little Honda Civic was reduced to being pretty much just a run-about. I would use it to go to work and back, but on Friday evenings I would park it and it would sit unused until Monday morning. The family always traveled in the much larger and comfortable van.

Now, we're making the choice to take the smaller car on any trip we can and leave the van at home to make the most of our gallons of gas, and to keep more money in our wallets.

Our cars are reliable and as efficient as possible given the service for which they were designed. If gas prices are going to continue to increase and our economy is going to continue to soften, I'm glad not to have a gas-guzzler on my hands.

But what really worries me is what we will all do if gas prices continue marching upward. Fuel efficiency only gets you so far. Pretty soon we may start seeing some families choosing to use only one car to save money. And people who are already struggling to work and pay their bills will be faced with tough decisions to make ends meet.

I think rising fuel prices have a greater effect on most people than the prices of many other items, mostly because few of us have any real options other than to consume gasoline.

So, how do you feel today about those record, multi-billion-dollar profits the gas companies earned in the past few years? I'm feeling a little pinched.