Gas Pains (or “How I lost my MINI”)
July 3rd, 2008
Ya know, I just love the sound of my Skunk2 exhaust bouncing off the neighbors houses in the morning….not too loud, but enough “bark” to know BB means business. The sad part, is I am in the house listening to her drive away.
Now, who doesn’t just love spending all that money on fossil fuel? Has anyone lost their ride in the name of money saving? Here’s how I lost mine…..I drive on the average, just under 10 miles a day (that is taking my son to school, going to work and home, plus lunch). My wife drives just under 50 miles a day going to work and lunch. She drives a big ol’ SUV…or did anyway. The SUV gets 14 mpg, the MINI avgs 34 mpg, so I get to drive the beast daily. We figured it out, at the current $4.50 for regular (SUV) and $4.70 for premium (MINI), we are saving approx. $46.00 a week in fuel..thats nearly $2400 a year. I can hear Lex now…”Buy another MINI”, well, that would kill the $240 savings as both vehicles are paid for, plus we have 3 boys in the house, add their friends and any fuel savings the MINI gets, would lose out because we’d have to take both cars . The SUV holds 8 people, so getting rid of him is not an option. This is why my other love is the two wheeled variety, you just can’t beat the 52mpg I get with my Buell! Now if the sun would just let up, I ‘d ride the bike a lot more (putting on a leather jacket, long pants and a helmet for a 1 mile ride in 100+ weather, is just not fun).
Drive safe fellow MINI’ers, see you on the road (though I will probably be waving from an Expedition)
Steve “Gomez” Adams













July 3rd, 2008 at 8:32 am
Okay, my math seems a bit off….$46 a week equals $2392 a year!!
July 6th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Okay, so my math skills left me for a moment…the savings would be $2400 a year, not $240. Still not enough to buy another MINI, but still, not a bad savings!!
July 12th, 2008 at 7:09 am
No problem - I have edited the post to correct that issue. It says $2400 now.
Rich.
August 5th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
gas pains i hear ya! i have a leased 2005 mini S, and have thought several times about doing the voluntary repo just to help make ends meet. i have a 2001 chevy s10 that is paid for. to fill it $49, to fill the mini $50+. i only drive 3 miles to and from work and then all over so cal to my comedy shows and i hate to say it, if i have to drive in traffic i’m takin the truck it’s an automatic. but then going to MTTS 2008 renews my spirit and love for the mini. as you can tell i’m back in here too LOL.