Monday, June 2, 2014

Ranger Tank "#1:" I Thought It Would Be Better

So I added gas to the Groovy Ranger this morning. The good news is I went 406.0 miles and there wasn't a low fuel light to be lit at all. The bad news is that the owner's manual says the tank is 16.5 gallons and I put in 16.558 gallons of gas!

The double bad news is that means I got only 24.52 miles per gallon.

The triple bad news is that I mostly was driving conservatively, and only had hard acceleration about 4 or 5 times.

The quadruple bad news is that when the pump stopped, I heard a splash and saw a little puddle underneath the filler nozzle area, and there wasn't any gas dripping off the side of the truck so I am a confused mess!

So now there's a baseline measurement on the mileage of the old Ford Ranger. It's about half a mile per gallon better than the 4 tanks of minivan gas from the time I drove the minivan to work. I was expecting better. I suppose I can do better.

I've got to stop trying to go 70 on the interstate. This poor little truck was giving its all to go that fast. And it's not the most aerodynamic thing out there.

Still, this is about a 32% decrease in mileage over the Mighty Corolla. Or, a 32% increase in my gasoline cost.

On the other hand, we made an easy trip to the dump, with a convenience factor there... But it will take regular trips to the dump in order for the value to make up for the difference in gas cost.

But now that we have the little Ford Ranger, it's in the fleet and who knows what will happen in a few years when the kids are out in colleges? Probably one of them will take the minivan, which will open up a slot in the garage, and my experience buying and selling on craigslist was so fun that I'm comfortable buying a used economy commuter from there in the future.

In the meantime, we will live with the Groovy Ranger, accept the negatives, and take advantage of the positives...

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