As a young boy, the sound of the monotone voices almost stumbling out of the speakers of my mom’s car that was NPR seemed to make time slow down.  It was awful.  I probably would have loved the screaming pundit style debates on other stations much more, but I was only interested in how Jason and Tommy were going to beat Lord Zedd now that Zordon was out of order.  That’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for the fogies older than 30.

But now my commutes are filled with “MEchelle” Norris, Carl Kasell, and the soft gentle voice of Robert Seigel.  I get simple, fast news, and wonderful commentary and interviews.  I first encountered NPR when I ran out of podcasts to listen to on my iPod.  First I found the “Car Talk” podcast.  Then I was introduced to the “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” podcast.  Again I ran out of podcasts so I just turned on the radio to Mom’s NPR station and listened to whatever they’re talking about.

National Public Radio is now my primary source of news.  On the internet I don’t have the patience to read a news article, and I don’t have time to read the paper every morning.  I don’t even really want to scan headlines all that much.  NPR picks the stories that are likely the most important of the day, and can give it to me in just a couple of minutes.  I love it.

Though I can’t bring myself to donate money to their cause, I do want to spread their good word to you.  If you have some spare money to donate, send it to your local NPR affiliate.

Moving on.  It has now been one year since I purchased my car.  As you already know, I did pay it off.  When the gas prices spiked over 2008, I did some research on how to save gas without reducing the amount of driving you do.  Yes I have cut back on some trips and work from home sometimes to save on commuting expenses, but I was really interested in ways to save gas while on the road.  I learned about the techniques of hyper-miling.  Essentially, it means driving really slow whenever you can.  I’m talking about 25 in a 45 kind of slow.

Ask The Sheconomist, she’ll tell you it’s annoying when I do 55 in a 65, where most are doing 75.  While I won’t ever endanger myself or others by going too slow or duct-tape my car to improve aerodynamics, I did seek to improve the efficiency of my car in order to save a few bucks.

I kept track of my fuel usage religiously, creating a spreadsheet to track how much I spent and what MPGs I was getting.  Since it’s been a year I thought I’d share with you some of my statistics.  But first, you should know what the EPA told me to expect out of my car.  The estimated MPG for a 4 cylinder automatic Accord is 21/30 with a combined rating of 24.  You can take this to mean in the city you might get 21, on the highway, 30, and overall about 24.  I do a lot of freeway driving, but I work in a city and spend plenty of time sitting at stoplights.  I made it my goal to get better than the highway mileage for my overall.  Here’s how I did:

Best Tank: 33.86 mpg
Worst Tank: 26.31 mpg
12 Month Avg: 30.43 mpg

So I’m pleased to say I met my goal.  My goal for 2009 is to bring the average to 31 mpg.  This is harder than it appears.  I also tracked how much I was paying at the pump, so here are those stats:

Best Price: $1.54 on 12/26/2008
Worst Price: $4.00 on 7/10/2008
12 Month Avg Price: $3.11

As you can see the high prices of last summer skewed the number much higher than I would have thought when I first started tracking last January.  I am in the south and only need regular for my car, so you might have seen prices much higher than what I’ve had.

Let me know in the comments what kind of prices you’ve been paying lately, and the highest price you’ve ever paid.

By The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics.

categories: cars, personal, weakend