At what mpg do you consider a car to be fuel-efficient?

In reply to bobzilla :

No, didn't notice that part of the question. Maybe 4 times a year. 

frenchyd said:

bobzilla said:

Why would anyone literally get in the car to go to the gas station and then come right home? You combine that with other trips, or on your way out. Arguing it takes 15 minutes to get to a gas station fill it and drive home is idiotic. No one does that. 

Husbands do that for wives that ask. 

Then that is bad planning on both of your parts.  There really isn't any way around that.

How long does it take you to drive ti the gas station , fill  and drive back, blah, blah blah?

How long it takes is not relevant. It's not an activity I particularly enjoy, and if I had to do it less I would be happier. When I had my long commute I would usually get 3 days out of a tank. If I got 5 it would be more better.

No one does that. 

I do that.

My wife enjoys gassing up even less than I do, and  has never put gas in her own car. Marriage is a two way street, and my side of the street just happens to have the gas stations on it. And to make it worse, they are all full service, but I have never done laundry, or boiled an egg. Like I said...

I usually get my gas at one of two stations. They are close but not on the way to anywhere we normally go. It's always a separate trip in her car, sometimes for mine, but usually just a trip out of the way. But I can save greater than $10 on a truck fill up and that's a price I'm willing to pay for that inconvenience. If my range were greater, though...

My wife has owned her S60 for 5 years and has never put gas in it. She owned her TSX for 13 years and can count the number of times she put gas in it herself on one hand.

Yet I have never made a special trip for gas in either car.

Duke said:

frenchyd said:

bobzilla said:

Why would anyone literally get in the car to go to the gas station and then come right home? You combine that with other trips, or on your way out. Arguing it takes 15 minutes to get to a gas station fill it and drive home is idiotic. No one does that. 

Husbands do that for wives that ask. 

Then that is bad planning on both of your parts.  There really isn't any way around that.

 

I don't cook or do house keeping work.  She doesn't do car work .  I know I got the best of that deal.  

In reply to frenchyd :

How is that relevant to making a special trip to get gas?

I do the car work. I share equally at least in both the cooking and the cleaning.

I am still happy to put gas in her car for her.  We just plan ahead enough that it never requires a special trip.

1988RedT2 said:

Toyman! said:

My father's 3/4 ton Dodge truck will manage very close to that.

This really caught my eye.  What year?  What engine?  

My son's truck is a 2006 1500 with the 4.7 and the 6-speed Getrag manual.  He and I both can manage no better than about 16-17 highway no matter how hard we try.

Edit:  It's a 4x4 quad cab that weighs 5560 pounds empty according to the scales at the recycling place, so 16 sounds reasonable to me.  But near 25 would be magical!

I had an 05 ram 4x2 single cab with the 4.7 and the 5 speed auto, it got 13.5 in town and 18.5 on the highway on cruise control at 75. This was round trip to A-basin in the colorado hills from colorado springs generally. 

In reply to Duke :

Same. We share it all. I'm technically the better cook but she's home before me... she works the opposite direction from me, drives past dozens of gas stations each day and fills up her car as she needs it. Same for me. Even when she did drive the same direction as I it was at odd hours of the day for me and she was closer to Sam's club which had the cheaper fuel. 
 

making special trips for fuel everytime is silly and wasteful. Doing it before a big trip is one thing. Doing it because she can't/won't/woman thing is another. 

My wife has been teaching serious special needs kids for 22 years. She has spent the last decade leaving the house at 5 am, working until the kids got in at 8, staying to 6pm most nights and weekends trying to make the state happy and follow all of the insane rules and laws to teach children that will never be able to graduate, most will never live on their own. Yet even working all those hours she could still find the time to combine trips to get gas as she needs it. 
 

mall this shows us is you will make up any story to prove gas vehicles are evil even though that's all you own. That's called being a hypocrite. 

You all are funny. I actually never realized people actually thought about this stuff never mind actually cared about it.   Guess I learned something today.  

bobzilla said:

My wife has been teaching serious special needs kids for 22 years. She has spent the last decade leaving the house at 5 am, working until the kids got in at 8, staying to 6pm most nights and weekends trying to make the state happy and follow all of the insane rules and laws to teach children that will never be able to graduate, most will never live on their own. Yet even working all those hours she could still find the time to combine trips to get gas as she needs it. 
 

mall this shows us is you will make up any story to prove gas vehicles are evil even though that's all you own. That's called being a hypocrite. 

 OK. You win. You're the better person  and so is your wife.