August 2 and 4, 2007.
Weekend Trips to Mountain Lake and Raleigh, NC.
We decided that it would be a good idea to take the Mighty Corolla on
our weekend trip, since two of the three legs of the trip would be just
the two of us in the car.
It would be better to save some dollars on gas and grind out the final
230 miles with the three kids lined up in the back seat of the Corolla.
This turned out to be a great plan!
On Thursday, we filled up the tank at 12:30 p.m., in the heat of the
day. Aside from the ozone warning and extra greenhouse gases we
contributed to the environment by filling up during the heat of the day,
it provided a great opportunity to if there's any truth to the new "HOT
GAS PHENOMENON."
The media has recently reported that you get less gas when it's hot out,
and thus are overcharged as well as get worse fuel economy. I will
share more detailed information in future posts as I consider the facts
and data gathered in these two tanks when compared with past and future
tanks at "cooler temperatures."
Tank 125 - 419.1 miles on 10.873 gallons. 38.55 mpg.
Tank 126 - 454.9 miles on 11.540 gallons. 39.42 mpg.
What is interesting is that tank 125 came on the heels of a 39.02 mpg
effort, and typically my fuel economy drops a lot more after a tank
where I get over 39 mpg. Tank 125 offered less than a
half-mile-per-gallon difference, which is notable.
Tank 126 is even more notable because the Groovy Mrs. Was at the wheel
for much of this tank. She has a reputation for being a lead foot, so
average speeds were closer to 70 or 75 mph on the highway, rather than
the normal 54-66 I drive on my commute.
However, there were fewer stops during tank 126, which likely helped
overall mileage as there were less 0-60 opportunitied.
I am still in the middle of tank 127, but the weekend trip covered 737.5
miles. A quick estimation of gasoline expense tells me that we spent
roughly $51.99 on gas for these miles by driving the Corolla (assuming
an average fuel economy of 38.5 mpg), and would have spent about $$87.02
on gas had we driven the minivan (assuming a "fantastic" fuel economy of
23 mpg in the van, which is a logistical stretch.).
So we spent at least $35.00 less on gas this weekend by driving the
Mighty Corolla instead of the minivan.
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