Depending on where you live, mass/public transit, and/or walking/biking just isn't feasible. But the good news is that you can save gas, and A LOT of time, shopping online and getting stuff delivered. For $98/year, a Walmart Plus membership offers a ton of shop-online-get-delivered options, including same-day delivery of groceries in some locations. Yep, go online, order up some eggs, milk, bread, a couple bottles of brake cleaner, some gear oil, and some fresh flowers for the missus, all delivered same-day. Don't even have to put on pants until you answer the door. I highly suspect you could save the $98 it cost with the gas you didn't use to go.
te72
HalfDork
11/2/23 9:39 p.m.
I saved quite a bit of fuel by biking most of my summer. If I really felt like it, I could have biked to work all summer, but then I'd have to wake up earlier to get there, and well... not a morning person. At all.
Probably not feasible for a family apart from recreation, but I could do a LOT of what I needed to do on the bike. =)
The nicest phev I've driven yet is the Alfa Romeo Tonale (toenail). They actually got it right. If you ever find yourself in the market and wanna check one out you should make the trip out to Hillsborough county. Stellantis basically gives you cars if you work for them and with you being my "brother" you get the pricing too. It's funny, I'm the only person that doesn't have a Alfa at work. Everyone snatched em up because of how cheap they sell internally.
Tig
New Reader
1/20/24 2:43 p.m.
Too bad a Ferrari 296GTB is a plug in, otherwise this millennial 1st world problem would be resolved
As some have mentioned, having a bigger tank helps. If I only have to fill up once per week, I'm happy. I used to commute daily and I could make it though 4 days on one tank, but always had to fill up that one extra time and it was mildly annoying. So I do appreciate a vehicle with a larger gas tank for that reason. The Odyssey gets around 500 miles per tank on the highway, and the Saab (with it's 16.4 gallon tank) will do about the same. That's a nice advantage in my book!
I'm all for an EV, but so far the numbers haven't worked out well enough to justify buying one. I'd love to try one out at some point, I think my current usage would make me a good candidate for one.
My gas tank has a greater range than my bladder, so it doesn't matter.
I drive a lot now and I fill up like once every 2 weeks. It's annoying but not terrible.
I have never driven my current car or my previous car further than a single tank in one go.
I've been daily driving an EV for 2 years now and charging it at home for pocket change. the system works great if you have at home level 2 charging capabilities. If you're planning on using public charging infrastructure as your primary charging, your experience will be frustrating at best.
I get 16 mpg in the van. Necessary evil for the work I do.
The 29 gallon tank means I can go almost 500 miles before selling a kidney to refill it. I only paid $6000 for the van because that was my budget, so until someone invents a van with a 12' floor and can tow 7000 lbs and puts it on the EV lot for $6000, gas or diesel it is.
docwyte
UltimaDork
1/21/24 9:44 a.m.
If Toyota had bothered to bring my Land Cruiser over to America with their V8 turbo diesel motor I'd be stopping for gas half as much as I do now. But they didn't, which I understand given how few Land Cruisers were sold here. They needed to have sold that motor in the Tundra, then it might've made financial sense to import the diesel Cruiser's.
However, since they stuck us with the abysmal gas mileage of the gasser V8, they at least could've installed the secondary fuel tank in all the American Cruisers. Since that's an option on Cruisers elsewhere on the planet...
If you don't stop at a gas station every so often, where are you going to get your beef jerky, Red Bull, lottery tickets and cigarettes? 
So I hate this on my motorcycles something horrible. I seriously am thinking of just buying a few 55 gallon drums of ETOH free fuel and having it dropped off at the house. Then just filling up 3 gallons at a time. My Streetfighter gets about 120 miles to the tank right now so I need gas every couple days.
I drive a classic Mini, it gets about 30-35mpg and it does everything I need..... even with a 9 gallon tank I fill it pretty infrequently as I just don't drive that many miles any more (retired).
No, it's not a truck, and no it won't tow a boat, but then I don't have a boat and rarely need the use of a truck so it's a moot point.
The bride's 2014 Audi Allroad gets almost the same mileage!
There was a dark time when I was commuting almost 100mi a day in my CR-Z, and I got to hate the car, driving, and filling up. It's a tiny car with a tiny engine, but also with a tiny tank, so I'd have to fill up two, or occasionally, three times a week.
What I believe you actually long for is for gas filling to be done; and not by you and not using your time.(insert one Genie?)Yes, it is a bothersome chore. Too many times this is an allure of an electric car. We imagine it will be charged up and ready to go while we do all other else with our time. The Pain of the electric car VS The Pain of filling the tank is felt not at the pump but upon the receipt of your electric bill. Ergo Sum: Transportation costs time and money. Spend more time and less money or the inverse. Yin and Yang, it's all about you and your balance. Your Automotive Feng Shui?
In closing, are you tired of filling that tank? Buy a horse. As for me?, I shall fill that tank and thank and praise the opportunity! EVEN IF I am filling that tank by plugging my car in! IMO a difference without a distinction. Opportunity: be happy!
I solved this problem by just getting more vehicles. Then rotate them out.
Or have kids and have them fill the cars up?
My M5 is now up to averaging 12.1 mpg. My TT Merc that I DD averages more than 2x that. Then there is the H2. Actually it is better than the M5.
If I have all my cars full of fuel I think I have over $350 in fuel sitting in my driveway.
I am no help am I.
I actually have wanted to get a Volt. For my every day life I could be 100 percent electric and on those days I am doing hundreds of miles I just use the ICE engine. It really seems to be the perfect car for me. All the benifit of electric and no range issues and the fast fill up of an ICE system as a backup. If I had one of these and could charge at home overnight I would probably fill it up once every 1-2 months. All the benifit of electricity 95 percent of the time but having the ICE as a backup just makes it completely usable and compatible with the current infrastructure. It is to bad that I think the volt is going away or has already stopped production. A common sense vehicle that would work for the masses and yet it obviously was not profitable. I have wondered if it was Honda or Toyota if it would have been a winner. But because it was a GM product it failed.
I only have three problems about stopping for gas.
1) is seasonal... I don't like ANYTHING when it's cold much less single digits.
2) something I can't control... why do I need TV screens on the gas pumps? Bad enough every restaurant has ten TVs on each wall but gas pumps?
3) something else I can do little about... the cost. However a friend just rented a Chevy Bolt and posted about one of his charging experiences. After 3 hours he gained 74 miles at a cost of about $11. Working backwards, that would buy about 3 gallons of gas and a car that size should do 30 MPG. Gas 90 miles, electric 74 miles.
JimS
Reader
1/22/24 9:46 a.m.
Takes all of 5 min. What a hassle.
In reply to triumph7 :
second button down on the right side of the screen should silence it usually
A major hassle I can't wait to be done with, and I don't even do it all that much. 44 gallon tank, 8mpg, but only 3k miles a year.
Without fail, there are broken pumps, pumps blocked by idiots doing their monthly grocery shop inside, and some jackass with a trailer blocking two pumps to fill up his truck, and keeping the trailer hanging out past them blocking the lane to get through because owning a diesel and using the rig pumps or going 1/2 mile down the road to the station with trailer lanes is to problematic for them.
Cutting out the gas station stops means that many less lemmings I have to deal with, and that's ALWAYS a good thing.
triumph7 said:
3) something else I can do little about... the cost. However a friend just rented a Chevy Bolt and posted about one of his charging experiences. After 3 hours he gained 74 miles at a cost of about $11. Working backwards, that would buy about 3 gallons of gas and a car that size should do 30 MPG. Gas 90 miles, electric 74 miles.
EVs lose pretty much all of their advantages when you charge them away from home.
If you charge at home though, your costs are likely significantly lower, and you never have to stop and wait anywhere.
This discussion is why I'm looking awfully hard at a '17 Cayenne ehybrid to replace my totaled sequoia. I think I could do most trips on just the 14m electric range, and if not- it's also got a supercharged v6
you know that scene in White Men Can't Jump where Gloria tells Billy she's thirsty? Yeah, the scene where Billy gets her a glass of water and then she gets all pissy with him about how she doesn't want him to solve her problem, she just wants him to empathize with her thirst. I kinda feel like this problem is that scene with different characters.
ride a bike.
drive less.
combine trips.
here's a glass of water.
they're all the same.
