Cars.com Survey: Mileage Matters Part II
In Part I, we tackled what car owners thought of high gas prices and hybrid technology. The rest of the responses were equally intriguing and focused on what will folks sacrifice for fuel efficiency? The answers to that question are below.
- 30% said they’d give up vehicle size, 28% said acceleration. Only 5% said they’d give up comfort.
- The sacrifices are already coming out of the pockets of car owners in other areas: 76% of those surveyed said they’re cutting back on other areas of their budgets because of high gas prices.
- Of course, not so many folks are willing to pay more for a more fuel efficient car either, only a slight majority of 53%.
- When asked point blank how much would you spend on a 40 mpg car versus a 25 mpg car all other things equal, 21% said they wouldn’t pay any more at all, and 18% said less than $1,000 more; 25% would spend $1,000 or more; 21% said they’d pay $2,000 or more; 10% said $3,000 or more. And only 5% would pay more than $4,000 more.
- Automakers better listen, because 81% of the respondents said the car companies aren’t doing enough to make their cars more fuel efficient.
- The government is a worse offender to respondents, it seems. An overwhelming majority of them, 87% said the government is not doing enough to raise fuel-efficiency standards.
Let us know what you think of the numbers.
* The survey was conducted online for Cars.com by Impulse Research Corp., with a random sample of 1,033 men and women 18-and-older who own cars. The survey audience was carefully selected to closely match U.S. population demographics and the respondents are representative of American men and women 18-and-older. The overall sampling error rate for this survey is +/-3 percent.
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how many people are driving slower (55-60 mph vs 65-70 mph) or gentler?
how many people are walking/biking more?
how many people are carpooling/taking public transportation more?
i'd like to see THOSE numbers. i bet most of the 76% cutting back on the other areas aren't doing much of the above.
Not only government not doing enough...
It is not doing anything, besides promoting pollution from production of ethanol
DL
66% said they're driving less
When asked to check all that apply:
23% said they're carpooling
12% said public transit
11% said riding a bike
7% car sharing services
All those numbers seemed really high to me though. besides the driving less one.
I live in a rural area and it's about 15 miles to the nearest town. You tend to try to take care of everything while you're there rather than go back again. Walking, biking, mass transit...not an option. So you do other things to save gas. As gas prices go up people will cut back on other things and entertainment is usually the first to go (eating out, movies, etc.)
ziggy: Yes, you can bike.
I did it for years when I lived in Missouri. Every day going to school, then to work after school, then home.
How to do it? Do everything at once. I combined school, work, shopping, hanging with friends and such all at once. I imagine today if you needed to bring something big home, like a fridge or something from home depot, you could have it delivered or rent the Home Depot truck and still come out profitably.
And because you are biking you keep in shape, and since you can only buy smaller portions of groceries you tend to get fresher foods.
Today I live between a downtown loft and a, I guess its more a barn than a house, place in rural Virginia. I only really drive in Virginia, but it is in town so I walk too. In New York I only drive on dates and such.
We live in a very rural area with Walmart 18 miles away, work is 16 miles a away for husband, mine is 6 1/2 miles away, no public transportation, employer frowns on me riding my horse to work at County Bldg and there is no place to stable my horse where i work, we have reduced the speed we drive, quit taking our 2 trips to Columbus, OH that are only 3 1/2 day vacations. Don't hardly leave the Farm unless it's to and from work, and once a week to get necessities. Husband has a motorcycle to reduce fuel/transportation costs. Only to to 1 or 2 barrel racing events per month as opposed to every weekend and sometimes 2-3 per weekend. That's our source of enjoyment and recreation. At our ages of 53 and 56 this is rediculous that we can't enjoy taking even a day trip anymore to the zoo or visiting friends or relatives. 4 adult children in the area, elderly parents with health issues and we can't afford to visit with any of them! Can not afford any more payments for vehicles, nor are we interested in a car. Love my truck and it's comfort, convenience and ability to haul whatever i need without bothering others to take us. I go to sleep riding on the motorcycle and the road rules won't allow me to ride my 4 wheeler to work, which would be cheaper.
I agree with your numbers but would observe that hybrids are 'overloaded' with costly "standard" features that are optional on other cars. Things like fancy audio systems or other 'eye candy' that doesn't improve mileage but jumps up the vehicle cost. This has been quite useful when puncturing faux cost analysis.
Invariably we find someone will take a stripped-down econo-box with a manual transmission and try to compare it to a Prius or Honda Civic. But when we tack on to the econo-box the rear spoiler, alloy wheels and sound system, and other standard features of the hybrid, suddenly the price difference isn't to much any longer.
I have already passed 'break even' with my Prius so these arguments don't really matter to me. If someone only drives a few thousand miles per year, they can buy anything because fuel costs don't matter. But I work for a living and have to drive. For me it is the difference between fasting for lunch or getting a sandwitch.
Bob Wilson
I'd say the problem is not that Government is doing ENOUGH to help with gas prices. It's doing TOO MUCH to make matters worse.
Preventing domestic oil exploration,
Raising taxes on buisnesses,
Allowing the dollar to fall,
Building schools in Iraq instead of TAKING THE DAMN OIL!!! (Yeah, I said it!)
Allowing highways to stagnate for 30 years, leading to endless traffic and waist.
Spending highway dollars on mass transit boondoggles instead of highways.