New car

No, I'm not getting a new car. The ol' spoilered speed demon Corolla is doing a fine job. But as I was driving the 4-hour commute to Grinnell, Iowa, watching gas prices rise and rise, I started thinking about how much a weekly drive there would cost. Even in a car that gets +30mpg (up to 39mpg without A/C running).

A lot. 260 miles, divided by (let's be conservative) 32 mpg is 8-some gallons of gas @ $3/gal = $25 each way. That's $50/week if you factor in coffee for the drive.

Now, I 've looked up alternatives: Greyhound is $33 each way and takes 15 hours. Amtrak is $87 each way and takes 9 hours. Hitchhiking is by far the cheapest way, but there's a significant amount of uncertainty in it that I suspect my fiance wouldn't appreciate. So driving seems to remain the best option, unless I can get a regular ride on Craigslist -- hmm...

"So," you say, "where does a new car come in? After all, $50/week is much less than a new car." And you're right. It doesn't make sense because amazingly after a ridiculous amount of years, there are still not a lot of cars that get better mileage than my trusty Toyota. There should be a bevy of them, and should've been even in the early 1980s, but for some reason gas mileage hasn't gone up very much. It went up 2.3% in the 1970s, but actually went down after 1987 (source). I remember how my 1987 Toyota Corolla got great mileage, and I was afraid to get a later model one because I saw the mileage was dropping, although my 1991 Corolla wagon
was pretty good (and took me to 300,000 miles). And other than the wasteful luxury of A/C holding it back, my 1996 Corolla is pretty good. But now gas is at $3/gallon, and surely the automakers must react -- how are they doing?

Well, let's look at the official numbers for my Corollas (city/highway mpg):

• 2006 = 32/41
• 1996 = 31/35
• 1991 = 28/33
• 1987 = 30/37

Not a lot of movement over the past 20 years. A paltry increase of 2 mpg city and 4 mpg highway -- and this is with Toyota! not even a Detroit gas-guzzler-producer.

So what other gas-thrifty options are there now? (Corolla is #6 in the top 10)

• Dodge Caliber = 28/32
• Honda Civic = 30/38
• Hyundai Accent = 32/35
• Scion xA = 32/37
• Toyota Camry Hybrid = 43/37
• Toyota Highlander Hybrid = 31/27
• Toyota Prius = 60/51
• Toyota Yaris = 34/40
• Volkswagen Jetta TDI = 36/41

Yes, I could get a Prius.