Today’s post is less about gas mileage tips or updates on soaring gas prices, and more of a call to action to show that you want car manufacturers to worry more about their vehicles’ gas mileage and less about their vehicles’ zero to 60 time. To that end, I would like to launch the “I Care More About MPG Than MPH” campaign.
Now, I know this isn’t as catchy or inspiring as something like Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” rallying cry, but at the same time, I hope that it’s something that you can and will take seriously.
For far too long we have had gas guzzling muscle cars, trucks and SUVs jammed down our throats by the major car manufacturers. For example, last night while watching TV, I saw nine commercials put out by car manufacturers – seven of which were for trucks or SUVs. While many of us bought in to the propaganda that we needed these gas guzzlers, the times have changed and we’re ready to demand vehicles with better fuel efficiency.
I hope that through the “I Care More About MPG Than MPH” campaign us gas sippers of the world can come together and show that there are MANY car buying consumers our there who want these car companies to step up and do their part to help reduce our gasoline consumption and our impact on the environment by giving us more environmentally friendly and gas thrifty options.
I also hope that through the “I Care more About MPG Than MPH” campaign, we become more aware of simple changes we can make in our driving habits that will help increase our current car’s gas mileage, while we wait for more fuel efficient vehicles to hit the market. Even if you’re stuck driving a gas guzzler right now, doesn’t mean you can’t do your part to try and make it as fuel efficient as possible. And even if you’re already driving a gas friendly car, would it really kill you to try and squeeze out some extra gas mileage?
So, what can you do to help further the cause? Funny you should ask, because here are some very basic ways you can help:
Join the “I Care More About MPG Than MPH” social networks. I have created groups via MySpace and Facebook to help facilitate the mingling of fellow campaigners. After you’ve joined up, be sure to invite all of your friends. The more the merrier.
I know it’s completely far fetched, but my goal is to get 1,000,000 people to join the two groups. The way I figure, if we can get a large enough group together, we might be able to show these big car manufacturers that it’s time they worried more about fuel efficiency than horsepower; more about their vehicle’s environmental impact than its towing capacity.
Is this an unrealistic goal? Probably. Crazier things have happened though!
Practice what you preach. Nobody likes a hypocrite, so if you’re going to be a card carrying member of the “I Care More About MPG Than MPH” campaign, you’ve got to back it up with your actions. Don’t drive if you don’t need to. Keep it close to the speed limit. Check your tire pressure. You know, basically abide by all the wonderful suggestions you’ve found on this site!
There’s a reason the saying “actions speak louder than words” has been around for so long. Joining this campaign is one thing, following through on it is even more powerful.
Come back and check out Daily Fuel Economy Tip for Updates. Obviously I’m a bit biased, but I think there are some pretty good tips on here to help you maximize your gas mileage. Just think about it, you could do something simple like checking your tire pressure and increase your vehicle’s gas mileage by 2%. While that might not seem like much, if everyone did it we’d save millions of gallons of gasoline each and every year. Since this site is action packed full of awesome suggestions like that, it’s probably wise to come back every once in a while when you need a refresher.
Also, as the “I Care More About MPG Than MPH” campaign picks up steam, I’ll be sure to post plenty of updates on this site, as well as in the MySpace and Facebook community sites.
Put your money where your mouth is and drive a fuel efficient vehicle. Look, I know that most of us don’t have the ability to simply trade in our current vehicle for a brand new hybrid. It would be nice, but it’s pretty unlikely. However, if you are in the market for a different vehicle, make sure you move fuel economy up to the top of the list of discriminating criteria.
While it would be nice to have millions of people join the “I Care More About MPG Than MPH” movement, it’s not going to amount to anything if we continue to buy the same old trucks, SUVs, mini-vans and gas guzzling sedans. In order to force car manufacturers to bring more fuel efficient cars to the market, we will likely need to persuade them not only with our numbers, but with our dollars as well.
Maybe I’m stepping way too far out of my league by trying to launch the “I Care More About MPG Than MPH” campaign. If I get 25 people to join up, I’ll probably consider it a success. But at the same time, I think that there are plenty of us out there who really do care about having more gas friendly options available to us and are willing to do something about it!
Have it on something other than myspace or facebook and I might join you.
I will continue to conserve gas the best way we can with our minivan and living 10 miles from civilization and further than that from grocery stores.
Seeing a single person riding in a big truck that isn’t for work purposes is disguisting!
The auto makers arn’t jamming anything down our throats,the’re only selling what we demand.Soccer moms demanded SUV’s instead of their parents station wagons. SUV sales ARE down,wiping out Detroit’s profit makers of the last two decades (woe unto the pension fund).This is just a replay of the 70’s energy crisis and the manufacturers will respond to what we demand when we start talking with our checkbooks.It’s what made Honda and Toyota the powerhouses that they are today.Detroit always seems to be behind because it takes about three years for them to bring a product to market.The hot cars of the auto shows have been the new retro muscle cars(Challenger,Camero,etc.)which were designed in 2005/6 and are just now being finalized for production but the timing couldn’t be worse. Gas prices have doubled since then so now how many people are going to line up for a 400 horsepower rocket? It will appear to be another blunder, but really just the right product(big demand) at the wrong time (no demand).Or the wrong product at the right time. Free enterprise will find the solution. In the mean time I will continue to ride my scooter, (65mpg)weather permitting and good luck on your mission!
Kim – What do you suggest? Something on this site, or creating something else all together?
Thanks, Brian
Skip – I certainly agree with you that car makers have simply provided what people were buying. I also agree with you that times have changed and these automakers (particularly the American manufacturers) are behind the curve.
For example, it seems like Ford still thinks it’s going to continue to make its bread and butter on the F series truck. While that may be fine and dandy now, I doubt that Ford can continue to be a viable company (if it still is) if they’re trying to schill trucks when gas hits $5 or $6 in a few years.
What type of scooter do you have?
Vespa.
We make every trip count. With spring here, we will load bicycles in the van with the trailer and park the van at a friend’s house while we run errands on the bicycle.
While I would love to be able to just ride the bicycles down SR63, it is not safe. People (even police officers on bicycles) have died. And with three small children being pulled behind two bicycles, I am not willing to take that chance.
We can not afford another vehicle and moving into town is not an option. Not with having a farm. There are city ordinances against goats, chickens, and turkeys or shooting coyotes that come on your property. Neighbors don’t like that in the city.
As I said, though, we make every trip count. There is no running to the store for butter. If we run out of butter, we make do without until the next time we are in town. Although it would be nice if goat milk was not prehomogenized so I can make my own a whole lot easier. Grrrr.
The only emergency trips into town are medical. Either to watch a friend’s children so they can go to the ER or us going to the ER or my MIL or SIL going to the ER.
Other than that, we are in town twice a week. Wednesdays for homeschool co-op and Sundays for church. Errand running happens on Wednesdays if it needs to happen.
We save money in other ways to help with the pinch at the gas pump. We cook from scratch. We raise our own animals for milk, meat, and eggs. We raise our own crops. This will most likely be our last year being part of a CSA. I make our own skirts and shop thrift stores and yard sales for the rest of our clothes. I have learned to cook things that we used to order out for. Things like General’s Chicken and many Greek dishes.
I homebirthed 2 of our 3 children. (Saved over $20,000 doing that plus it was much more pleasant and relaxing.) Breastfeeding also saves money in the $1000s per year. I don’t bother with baby food or baby food mills. Just take what we eat and smash it with a fork. (Although the youngest can now feed herself.)
I line dry indoors in the winter. The moisture from the clothes drying goes in the air and helps a bit with heating costs. I do most of my baking in the summer at night and in the winter during the day.
Gas prices are not the only thing going up. Food prices are. Heating bills are. Prices are going up across the board. Someone asked me how much it costs per day to feed my animals to turn them into food thinking it cost more so, I did the math.
It costs 54 cents per day to feed a goat. From that goat, I get a minimum of half a gallon of milk per day. That goat also just kidded triplets last week. One of those kids will become meat. One will be a future milker. One will be used to breed with other goats and then become meat.
It is cheaper to buy live animals, feed them, raise them, and slaughter them yourself than it is to go to the store and buy meat. Plus you don’t have to worry about meat recalls or what goes into your animal or how your animal is treated. It is in your care and control from birth to death. So how it is raised and what it eats is up to you.
A year and a half I switched my business out of a 12mpg truck to a 32mpg Scion xB. The rewards both financially and personal satisfaction wise have been great.
My fuel bill is about $115 a month and I am relived of the stress associated with the numerous road trips required to run a small business. I have found I can do the same work (remodeling) without driving the truck by using store delivery services and pulling a small trailer with the xB when required.
At first I took a lot of ribbing around the local Home Depot by my big truck friends but now that the fuel is $3.60 and climbing I don’t hear anything like that anymore.
I agrre with Kim. Make a seperate site and I will gladly join. I don’t want a facebook account.
Hello,
I am heading up relationship building efforts at PlanetThoughts.org. We are organized around critical issues affecting our environment and resources of the planet: Global Warming, Peak Oil, Resource Depletion, and Sustainable Living
Our mission is simple, yet powerful: to help the people and help the planet. Do this by advancing knowledge and caring about all life.
Our Web site (www.planetthoughts.org) provides focused environment information with positive energy and insight, for individuals around the world. The specific means for this include PlanetThought news items, quotes, reviews, stories, and tips, and discussion of any and all of these PlanetThoughts, and also include selected articles and blogs by experts and policy makers.
An important facet of our message is to reach the consumer who wants to become better informed or encourage environmentally responsible living. To that end, we are focusing efforts around ideas and programs promoting efficiency in automobile use. PlanetThoughts.org has sponsored a contest to encourage individuals to identify and acknowledge highly fuel efficient vehicles.
Given the complementary focus of dailyfueleconomytip.com it may well be worthwhile for us to explore potential partnering/cross-promotional ideas. Perhaps we could consider providing a ongoing forum on Planetthoughts.
Please contact me and we can discuss whether any natural synergies might exist between our organizations.
Will Anderson
MPG is not the issue. It’s how much fuel you use. A person in a Honda Civic using 1000 gallons per year is WORSE for the environment than a person driving an SUV using 500 gallons of fuel per year.
Hey Brian, I’ll echo the comments above, create a separate site for this and I’m all over it. Create bumper stickers, and I’ll definitely sport one. This is my #1 issue, and you’re not at all presumptuous for addressing it … it’s about bluddy time somebody did!
Joe, I agree with what you said in principle, but the issue is the necessity of the trips taken. If your Honda driver using 1000 gallons had instead used an SUV for trips that were necessary, he/she would have likely used 2000 gallons.
That doesn’t defeat your point that minimizing vehicle use is key.
For those of us using our cars for work it can be assumed that the furthur we drive the more productive we are. This is my motavation for going with the high mpg Scion xB. I am able to travel as my business demands but use less fuel. Some of my competitors balk at going over a certain distance to do a job, now that I have downsized my service vehicle I am able to just go do it and not think twice about the fuel costs ’cause I am not lugging along an extra 1800 lbs of sheet metal.
Mike
I’ll say this once. If the upcoming Camaro revival is killed because of green nerds, I. Will. Be. Pissed. I’d rather kill myself than drive a soulless hybrid. GM’s already playing up the green abilities of the Camaro, and that has me worried sick. I didn’t grow up lusting after a Prius, and that will never change. Give me a V8 or give me death!
I’m tempted to reply to ferrarimanf355 by saying “I’d rather you did too…” but that’s too glib. It really is people like him, with no clue as to the consequences of their selfishness, or even that they are being selfish, that most clearly show why people will be sitting in lines at the gas station raising their fists and shouting “it’s a conspiracy of the greens and the government.”
Dick Cheney and his “non-negotiable” right to the American lifestyle and his acolytes such as ferrarimanf355 will be the death of the very thing they shout is “their right.”
Good luck to all of us.
You guys can have your hybrids and electrics, but it must not come at the expense of sports cars, muscle cars, exotic sportsters, and import tuners. It’s not my fault that a Prius doesn’t set my heart on fire the way a Camaro, Corvette, Viper or Lancer Evo does. Seeing the V8 on the endangered species list is something that should never happen, tbh…
I understand the appeal – I had a Roadrunner back in the day, and a Suzuki Hyabusa because I love the feeling of acceleration.
But we (humanity) blew through the allotment of oil that our generation and the next five generations were “entitled” to in about 50 years. Now we have to pay the price for that, and it’s going to be extraordinarily expensive. It would be nice in many ways if that weren’t true. But wishing won’t make it so.
I don’t think it is neccessary to demonize individuals that are uncomfortable with the changes that are taking place in the American lifestyle. Eventually the financial reality of moving large amounts of dead weight around just to make a statement will catch up with them. I miss my ‘Vette and my Dodge 4WD pickup but I am done stressing myself out over driving expenses. I am feeling right at home driving up in my xB..I was a little embarassed at first but now I like the message I am sending….on to a Smartcar next!
Mike
Have you guys read this lately?
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/02/19/aceee-names-2008s-meanest-and-greenest-cars
I can understand SUV’s making up half of that list, but the Bugatti Veyron, Lamborghini Murcielago and Bently Arnage have no place on the “meanest” list. I think the ACEEE is making my point here…
Maybe you should change the slogan to something more iconic like:
“MPG NOT MPH”
“Hybrid Power not Horse Power”
“HP = Hybrid Power”
or get a little cheeky:
“Horsepower sucks (gas)!”
Markus – I like your thinking. I’m kind of partial to MPG > MPH. Keep in mind, I’m also a big dork.