What Speed Means to Marketplace Listeners

		Read More Speed Commentaries • Straight Up • Define Our Goals • At What Cost? • Time and Fruit • Workaholism • Faster and Faster • Overcoming Limitations • Length of Time • A State of Mind • Theory of Relativity • What About Honolulu? • A New Career From Speed • Speed Is Nothing New • It's All Relative • We're Being Sold Speed • Speed Means Missing Out • Time is Priceless • The Ride Keeps Getting Faster • Family First • Slowing Down for Frugality • Speed Serves Me • A Fortunate Layoff • Interruptions • Our Country's Material Obsession • A Personal Slowdown • Using Speed to My Advantage • I Don't Miss Much • Not Enough Hours In the Day • Peaceful • Speed, Oh Speed • Out of Control • I Live By Speed • Happy to Be Relaxed • Speed Is Choice Index of Comments

Slowing Down for Frugality (June 27)
For many years, I reckoned a good time estimate between two points was the number of miles separating them, where the number of miles equaled the number of minutes that it should take to get from point A to point B. In those days, I drove a car whose highway EPA rating was only 39 miles per gallon. Never did I see any better than 32 mpg for the first 50,000 miles. Crying in my beer, as it were, one day about this lousy performance, a fellow asked how fast I usually drove. "Oh, the limit, or limit plus 5."

"Back off the hammer a notch or two and check it." On a trip shortly thereafter, I took his advice, and kept the maximum speed under power down to 60 MPH. Results? 34 mpg. On the return leg, we backed off another notch to the double nickel. Much more like it! 38 mpg. OK. Maybe we can see something better, I reckoned.

Then I found myself in a bookstore where I chanced upon a book about frugal driving. The author of that book wrote glowingly about how a cruise-control unit can contribute to improved frugality. So, with 50K on that Mazda GLC, we installed a HeathKit Cruise Control Unit, and adjusted our driving habits to attain maximum frugality.

Starting out with but 98,000 miles, we drove it across the country and back, stopping frequently to enjoy the sights and scenery. We also had with us on that trip a little portable refrigerator that plugged into the cigarette lighter. And what sad tidings we developed for the Mazda people: That was not a Great Little Car; it was a Great Little Camper! We rode in the car, we slept in the car, and we ate in the car en route, stopping every couple of days to restock the refrigerator in a grocery store. The best part: On the way home to Greenwich, Connecticut, we filled the tank at the Ohio/Pennsylvania border. We drove across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York to Connecticut. We drove around town two or three days before we refilled the tank. We had only gotten 48.6 miles per gallon!

I have since come to very much appreciate the econocar myself, since I usually have more time than money. On listening to the Marketplace article today about the high-economy cars (Listen), I was hoping to hear about one that might improve upon the 57.72 miles per gallon my '97 Saturn SC1 delivered on a run from Nashville, Tennessee, to Spring Hill, then home to Raleigh, North Carolina. Alas, I listened in vain! On that run we covered 597.3 miles on but 10.357 gallons of gasoline. Granted, we did not attain the speeds they reported, but that's the best mileage I've seen yet on a car of my own.

Now, if a rank amateur such as myself can accomplish such mileage, I wonder what we might realize were we to get serious about obtaining frugal performance from a stock vehicle.

Bruce Barick
Raleigh, NC

Speed Serves Me (June 27)
At work I enjoy a relatively quick pace. My job has recently moved farther from home, so I am also concerned about getting to and from work as quickly as possible. I feel like speed serves me. I am not a slave to speed. When I get home, I enjoy my family and church life. I guess you could say speed serves to get me back to those I love.

David Piehl
Saint Louis, MO

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