[MCRacer]

Just calculated fill up #2 since working. Boy oh boy, 18.9 MPG. This is definitely going to be a fun few months, as I really hope gas prices can actually drop down below $3/gal.

not sure what you expected for basically "city" mileage, but what your getting is close to what the EPA rating is for city driving, I'd say your doing pretty well.

At least your not putting 40 gallons of diesel in a truck when your towing and getting 12mpg or so. Made three 450 mile round trips this last month towing a trailer to go motorcycle riding/racing Haven't hit $200 for a fillup yet, but have topped $175 once.

Hint: Get a PenFed gas card with a direct deposit to a PenFed account. you get 5% credit on your gas purchases for the month with the credit applied before the bill is sent out. Must swipe at the pump for the 5% cash credit. And there is no monthly or annual limit on fuel purchases unlike many cash back cards. Combined with a Kroger fuel credit it's good for $.25-$1.00 discount per gallon.
And with Kroger you can get 4x fuel point on "gift cards" so for places we often shop we buy gift cards and use them. A $100 home depot card gets me $.40 off 35 gallons of fuel.

 

[datechboss101]

not sure what you expected for basically "city" mileage, but what your getting is close to what the EPA rating is for city driving, I'd say your doing pretty well.

At least your not putting 40 gallons of diesel in a truck when your towing and getting 12mpg or so. Made three 450 mile round trips this last month towing a trailer to go motorcycle riding/racing Haven't hit $200 for a fillup yet, but have topped $175 once.

Hint: Get a PenFed gas card with a direct deposit to a PenFed account. you get 5% credit on your gas purchases for the month with the credit applied before the bill is sent out. Must swipe at the pump for the 5% cash credit. And there is no monthly or annual limit on fuel purchases unlike many cash back cards. Combined with a Kroger fuel credit it's good for $.25-$1.00 discount per gallon.
And with Kroger you can get 4x fuel point on "gift cards" so for places we often shop we buy gift cards and use them. A $100 home depot card gets me $.40 off 35 gallons of fuel.

Well, honestly I am was hoping low to mid 20s cuz the posted limits are like 45 to 55 MPH depending on the road. I’m not expecting high 20s like my previous car but still, 19 MPG when its hwy speeds. I fill up at Costco regardless since it’s typically $0.20 to $0.30 cheaper than everywhere else. And just filling up on 87 octane just because its the most affordable.


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[MCRacer]

Well, honestly I am was hoping low to mid 20s cuz the posted limits are like 45 to 55 MPH depending on the road. I’m not expecting high 20s like my previous car but still, 19 MPG when its hwy speeds. I fill up at Costco regardless since it’s typically $0.20 to $0.30 cheaper than everywhere else. And just filling up on 87 octane just because its the most affordable.


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well, it's still "city driving" even with 45 mph speed limits. energy expended in changing speeds =mass times delta velocity, so even minor changes in speed have a pretty dramatic effect. Same for elevation changes. or think of it this way. The hybrid which recovers probably 50% or so of the energy change in slowing down give almost a 50% improvement in city driving. Going from 18ish mpg to 26 mpg or more. On several occasions with our hybrid at the dealer for service we were given a regular mdx for the day. On the trip to/from the dealer (20 miles city driving speed limits of 35-45 mph with traffic lights and traffic) our hybrid fuel "lie o meter" shows just over 30mpg. The loaner "lie o meter" shows in the 16-18 mpg range for the same trip.

 

[mdxstang]

You're doing city driving so you can't expect low to mid 20s on a vehicle like the non-hybrid MDX. You may see 45-55 posted limits but that usually means stop lights, stop signs, curves, traffic that doesn't allow you to drive at a constant speed, etc.

as I really hope gas prices can actually drop down below $3/gal

Ha - around here they're around $6/gal so count yourself lucky at whatever your gas prices are relative to here. I don't expect to ever see sub $3 here again - and it doesn't help that they keep hiking state taxes on gas here even though it's already the highest in the country.

Think about moving closer to work if you're done with school and this is a career type position. Having to only commute a few exits at the most is not only great on the budget to the point where the mileage won't be anything to be concerned about, but also gives you a lot of time back, decreases the likelihood of accidents, reduces aggravation from all the other awful drivers on the road, and contributes to your well being.

 

[MCRacer]

remember, your trying to push around a vehicle that weights about 2,000Kg (4200 lbs) the energy it takes to change it's velocity is pretty high, much more than a few decade old econobox's that weighed less than 1,000Kg.

 

[datechboss101]

Heres the main issue I’m trying to understand. Its 10 miles of road with used to be a posted 55 is now a 45 with no signal lights. It falls under a county route. Again, no signal lights for a good 10 miles. Basically I hyper-mile here 90% of the time and use the one pedal method.

The other thing is, this is a temporary position. My job position is a PC Tech for a 3rd party company that works with the local school district. My career goal is in cybersecurity which I am going to school for right now and hopefully willing to land a position at Lockheed Martin with a CySA and similar certifications, which is roughly the same distance I believe as my current employer. This is when I will start looking properties thats a good 10 miles closer. But then the housing market here is hot and overpriced, similar to San Diego.


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[MCRacer]

Heres the main issue I’m trying to understand. Its 10 miles of road with used to be a posted 55 is now a 45 with no signal lights. It falls under a county route. Again, no signal lights for a good 10 miles. Basically I hyper-mile here 90% of the time and use the one pedal method.

The other thing is, this is a temporary position. My job position is a PC Tech for a 3rd party company that works with the local school district. My career goal is in cybersecurity which I am going to school for right now and hopefully willing to land a position at Lockheed Martin with a CySA and similar certifications, which is roughly the same distance I believe as my current employer. This is when I will start looking properties thats a good 10 miles closer. But then the housing market here is hot and overpriced, similar to San Diego.


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A bit of high school physics you should remember.

Even if it is warm out it likely takes 5 miles for the engine to warm up to operating temperature for maximum efficiency. Until that time lots of energy is being wasted warming up the engine block, coolant etc. And in the meantime, oil is cold, increased friction, tires are cold, increased friction, bearings are cold, increased friction. and I don't know about the mdx non hybrid but many if not the majority of newer vehicles on a cold start have the ECU raise shift points for a short distance to get the CAT converter warmed up and working. All this goes against good trip mileage.

As an example, in the winter even with the car in the garage with garage temps near 50F our short trip to the gym in the morning (5 miles) with our hybrid will show about 20mpg going TO the gym. Work out for an hour, come out, and on the drive home, with the engine block still reasonably warm etc. and the car will show it's typical 26+ mpg. Driving around the rest of the day even with short trips, mid 20's to low 30's. But that first trip is a killer.

Now you do a cold start, drive 10 miles, wait 8 hours+ do a cold start drive 10 miles, no matter what gas engine car you drive you will find that fuel economy is going to be at the low end of city EPA rating.

 

[mdxstang]

If it's just a temporary job while you're going to school it likely wouldn't be worth relocating, unless you're currently the opposite side of the school from it and still have a year or so to go in school.

What 'mcracer' said applies and also you may be doing more accel/decel on that street than you realize.

Regardless, do the math like I said before and you'll see it's not that big of a deal when it comes down to it - 20 miles at 19 mpg versus 20 miles at 23 mpg isn't going to amount to much in dollars. You're being hit with the psychological block of 'teens mpg' vs '20s mpg' and it has you a bit freaked.

Here's yet another reason to not buy another vehicle to add to your stable - you're still not settled in your career and likely don't know where you'll end up for a job. It could be anywhere given that it's IT. Even if it ends up to be fairly local for you it'll entail a move and it's more difficult moving multiple cars than one - especially cross country or several states away or something. Also, when you move for the career job you can at that time choose a location that doesn't require a long commute so there'd be even less justification for the econobox.

Maybe at this temporary job they'll let you work an extra few hours per week which would likely more than make up the difference in cost of the commute.

 

[MCRacer]

think of it this way. at 18mpg and $5.00 gallon it costs you $5.50/day to to go/from work. Get something that gets 30mpg and now it costs you $3.33/day a savings of $2.10/day. $45/month.
looks like your drive to/from works uses about 1 tank of gas/month..................................

 

[datechboss101]

The psychological role of the Teens vs 20s MPG is playing a huge role, but its also how can I stretch this tank of fuel. At $4.00 (probably will increase sometime this week), its already 1/4 of my hourly pay. And I’m currently working a 40 hr work week unless I get approval from higher ups for OT then I can add 1/2 more to my regular pay rate for OT. I probably should mention the MID is showing 20.0 MPG soooo that’s also an issue.

In terms of a permanent career, goal is to stay in Orlando, or if anything just move back down to Miami. Forgot to mention, but I do have a dedicated gas card for Costco (its basically Costco’s gift card, with a maximum amount of $1000 that can be loaded; helped me alot during undergrad).


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[MCRacer]

The psychological role of the Teens vs 20s MPG is playing a huge role, but its also how can I stretch this tank of fuel. At $4.00 (probably will increase sometime this week), its already 1/4 of my hourly pay. And I’m currently working a 40 hr work week unless I get approval from higher ups for OT then I can add 1/2 more to my regular pay rate for OT. I probably should mention the MID is showing 20.0 MPG soooo that’s also an issue.

In terms of a permanent career, goal is to stay in Orlando, or if anything just move back down to Miami. Forgot to mention, but I do have a dedicated gas card for Costco (its basically Costco’s gift card, with a maximum amount of $1000 that can be loaded; helped me alot during undergrad).


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every car I've had the "lie o meter" has always been optimistic on fuel economy.
As far as gas cards, a pen fed card saves us much more than the costco card. 5% cash back applied to the bill at the end of the month, and I can use it at Costco. today that's giving us a $0.20-0.25 gallon discount off the top,

 

[96firephoenix]

got my wellvisors in the mail today

 

[datechboss101]

Preparing the X for todays shift and dropping my brother off at school, when getting out of parents car (currently blocking the X, as the MDX is parked in the garage), I spotted this phenomenon at pitch black darkness of 5:30am.

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[mrgold35]

I usually see that in New Mexico when there is a high altitude rocket launch. It looks like the sun reflecting off and through the rocket exhaust plume.

 

[jefferson88]

That's correct! A mesospheric cloud, or noctilucent cloud, formed from the water vapor from rocket exhaust condensing to ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. Because it is so high in the atmosphere (80km) it is illuminated by the sun even though it's night in your area.
Very common to see these clouds at high latitudes, but this one is obviously anthropogenic.

 

[datechboss101]

My neighbor did told me there was a SpaceX rockets launch that happened at 5:30am. My leads at work were glad they weren’t the only ones when I showed them the picture. Its more of a rare event in FL although the Kennedy Space Center (NASA) is like ~70 miles east from us.


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[Mikemapva]

Well, honestly I am was hoping low to mid 20s cuz the posted limits are like 45 to 55 MPH depending on the road. I’m not expecting high 20s like my previous car but still, 19 MPG when its hwy speeds. I fill up at Costco regardless since it’s typically $0.20 to $0.30 cheaper than everywhere else. And just filling up on 87 octane just because its the most affordable.

I own 2 vehicles with Honda's 3.5 V6, a 2014 MDX, and a 2014 Honda Accord. Both vehicles do very well on fuel in straight highway driving. I can get mid to high 30s with the Accord, and high 20s with the MDX.

But both of them really use a lot more fuel with any "city" driving. By this, I mean any combination of stop and go or not getting speed up over 50 mph or so. The MDX will regularly register in the high teens on the imid and the Accord in the low 20s, especially on a cold start regardless of air temperature. The same drive with the car warmed up always yields higher MPGs.

So, I don't think the current low mileage is much of an anomaly.

 

[mrgold35]

Being an "old fart", these prices are the normal cycle of going up and down for decades. I remember home interest rates were as high as 16% back in the early 80s and this is one of many countless gas spike (some reason the gas companies are making record profits during gas spikes).

You just have to do what all us "old fart" have done and future proof yourself. Live within your means, limit debt and expenditures, increase access to credit, keep a good credit score, save/save/save for a rainy day, invest in a retirement account, buy property, and always plan for tomorrow but find ways to live for today. Not sure if you live at home or alone. A room mate (or move in a significant other) could cut expenses down by a lot.

 

[datechboss101]

Forgot to upload this yesterday. I took a random spontaneous drive yesterday early morning. God bless the State of Florida, cuz these sunrises are beautiful. And surprisingly this iPhone didn’t screw up the focusing and the photo for once!

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