neorants

Every day, I hear people using “high gas prices” as the justification for all sorts of ridiculous choices and they’ve been doing so for what feels like ages. I’m starting to feel as though we lack the ability to do simple arithmetic.

When I bought my MINI a couple of years ago (when gas was about 3 dollars a gallon, or a dollar cheaper than it is right now), people were coming into the dealership looking to trade in relatively new vehicles from other companies. Vehicle that get 5 miles less to the gallon than my car does, if that. “To save on gas,” they’d say.

Let’s do the math.

My car gets 30 miles to a gallon. Their car gets 25 miles to a gallon. An average person drives 15,000 miles a year or less. At the price of gas then, which was $3.00/gallon, they would pay $1800.00/yr in gas (15000 / 25 x 3), while I would pay $1500.00/yr (15000 / 30 x 3). They’re saving $300.00/yr. Now, they’re buying a car that costs around $18,000 minimum, $25,000 decently optioned out. They take a hit on their trade-in, so they’re probably looking at paying an additional 5 grand or more, or worse yet, taking on 5 grand of debt, bringing interest into the equation.

They’re gonna have to drive that new MINI for over 16 years to recover the 5 grand they just spent. That’s not likely. The time to take fuel economy into consideration is when you’re already looking to buy. Anyone who’s using “better gas mileage” as justification for a new car purchase is rationalizing themselves into scratching the new car itch. It’s a similar folly to the one that I know some of you women (are there women who read this blog?) succumb to when you buy something “because it was 30% off.” Guess what? Stuff you don’t buy is 100% off! What a steal!

The way we obsess over gas prices came to mind over Memorial Day weekend, when I heard on the news that fewer people were expected to be driving to family events, due to the increase in gas prices. Gas is now hovering around $4.00/gallon, where previously it was $3.00/gallon.

Now, even if you drive a car that only gets around 20 miles to the gallon, this means that for every hundred miles away those family members you would have driven to see were, you’re spending an extra 10 bucks over what you did last year. That is, assuming you plan to drive back, as well. In my case, with my car getting 30 miles to the gallon and my family living about 400 miles away, it’ll cost me $26.67 more for gas.

I don’t mean to be insensitive. I realize that there are many people to whom $26.67 is a lot of money. However, I would contend that these people, if they do have cars, would not be spending the $80.00 it would have cost them before the $1.00/gallon price hike on a trip, either. It’s highly unlikely that these people are sitting at home thinking, “man, $80.00 for the gas to make a round-trip visit home was just fine, but that extra 26 bucks is a killer!”

I guess what I’m getting at is that a lot of times the decisions we make are a reflection of our priorities, not our circumstances. It’s just more comfortable to pretend otherwise.