Sipping Fuel Feeling Fuelish
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After showing you the Aptera Motors 2e, I decided to look into some additional choices for those of you who would like to keep it green as well as buy American.

All of these are American or Canadian companies and are on the cutting edge of the electric/hybrid technologies.

ZAP’s Xebra sedan - Zap stands for Zero Air Pollution has a top speed of 40 mph, can run up to 25 miles on a single charge and seats up to four.

The Meyers Motors NmG -NmG for No More Gas seats 2 and has a range of up to 45 miles and a top speed of 80 mph.

Persu Mobility - the tilting, three-wheeled Hybrid that its builders have devised a new term for the vehicle — an Urban Life Vehicle, or ULV. Sales of the Persu Hybrid are planned for early 2010.

Green Vehicles - three-wheeled Triac plug-in hybrid has a top speed of 80 mph and a driving range of 100 miles that can be boosted by as much as 25 percent with an additional battery pack.

Bombardier Recreational Products - Can-Am Spyder is neither a bike nor a car, but rather something in between. It  comes with features like pedal brakes, a reverse gear and power steering.

Campagna Motors - T-Rex has combined the look and handling of a car with the size and fuel-efficiency of a motorcycle.  The six-speed T-Rex is zippy with a top speed of 144 mph and can do 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds.

Tesla Motors - The Tesla Roadster, the all-electric, emissions-free sports car can do 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds, has a top speed of 125 mph and does 244 miles on a single charge, according to the company.

Yes, this is tough confession to make, but I in fact like most of you. I have found myself simply following the crowd just like the sheep that I am.

So what is it that I am doing? What horrible, awful, and atrocious act am I doing along with the rest of America?

I have (temporarily) abandoned my attempt at saving fuel. I’ll say it again, I have (temporarily) abandoned my attempt at saving fuel.

This of coarse is because gas has hit a two year low of under $2 a gallon and the “crisis” seems to have past. But in reality I’m thinking that we are still smack in the middle of said crisis. Sure gas is again “cheap”. Not the $.57 per gallon it was when I started driving, but cheap for the current times.

Unfortunately unemployment is at a seven year high and a lot of people can barely feed their family, never mind a gallon of gas. But thise of us who are still blessed with a decent paying job, we have again started to waste fuel like there is no end to the supply. The for sale signs on the big gas guzzlers have gone and far too many people think that our new president will solve all of their problems like he will personally be paying their bills.

Sorry to burst a few bubbles, but there is no way any one person can or will solve the mess we have put ourselves in. He may or may not help with some things, only time will tell, but we can not afford to simply sit back and let things happen (to) for us. It will only be a matter of time until the price of gas jumps to an even higher high then it was during the worst of this past year. and it will again be our own short sighted fault. We need to conserve what we have and work towards a different source of energy to power our cars. Too many companies are waiting for “someone” to start the ball rolling.

I admit that I am as guilty as the next guy and will be spending my commuting time a bit more conservatively and again try to reach my goal of 45 mpg.

I hope you will all join me in this lofty but much needed goal of conserving what fuel we have left.

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For six months now I have been attempting to conserve as much gas as I possibly can, all while commuting ove 100 miles per day.

At first I was quite successful at this. making some large gains and achieving a high of almost 43 MPG. Raising my average MPG to 39 plus.

After about 2 months things leveled off and I was consistently getting 39 to 41 MPG without much effort. or so I thought.

In August I purchased new tires. These tires are far from being LRR or Low Rolling Resistance type of tires. My mileage took a hit because of this although I do not know exactly by how much because of another factor.

In August I started to car pool. Now you might not think this is a bad thing, but my mileage dropped dramatically when I did. Part of the reason is when it is not my turn to drive, I have to make short 5 mile trips to our meeting place. These short trips are not at all optimal for saving gas. Because the engine does not have a chance to warm up to operating temperature it uses more fuel for the entire trip.

A week of short trips like this and my mileage goes to 32-33 MPG. Still not a bad number, but it is not 40 plus, like I have gotten used to.

My driving has also gotten a bit on the sloppy side. Being slightly impatient and passing some cars when before I was fine with just sitting back and not worrying about how long it was going to take me to get to or from work. Actually thinking about it, going home has been more of the problem then going to work.

All of this, especially the hit on MPG’s, has taken a bite out of my enthusiasm. I still want/need to save on gas, but I seem to have “hit the wall” with hypermiling.

This thing called hypermiling is a lot of hard work and takes quite a bit of dedication.

Now I do know that with car pooling we have essentially doubled our mileage in the overall picture of conserving fuel. But in my own micro economy, my wallet and pride have taken a hit.

As always you can find out more about saving gas at SippingFuel.com

So, New Jersey is giving away $100 in gas for car pooling 24 days in 2 months. That’s about as close as you can get to free gas money.

But, there is another way to get/earn “free gas money”.

Well free is relative term here, what you are getting the free gas money for is advertising.

There are several companies that will pay you to plaster your car with advertising. Everything from full car wraps to license plate holders. Dollar amounts seem to range from $400 down to $5 per month.

Here are a few of the companies that I have found.

Free Gas Help
Mycar Mycar
Getting Free Gas
Auto Wraps

Are these companies scams? Maybe some of them are, I don’t know for sure but I do know that there is a growing trend for this type of advertising.
This may just be a fad so if you want to cash in I would suggest that you do your homework and jump on in.

I plan on checking into it myself.

Find out more at SippingFuel.com - Saving you money at the pump