Casting About

I was casting about, only half-seriously, for a smaller car for my wife. She was leaving her current job, with a 20-mile daily commute, potentially for a job with an 80-mile daily commute... My Audi gets 21 mpg around town and would probably get 25 mpg in her potential new commute (mostly highway but about 10 blocks of in-city travel). The van gets 17 around town and 20 on the highway, but with the lease mileage limitation, she wouldn't have been driving that every day. With gas at just under $3 per gallon (and $3.25 for the premium the Audi requires), neither alternative was particularly compelling. So, I did some looking on-line. What I found kind of surprised me.

There aren't a lot of 'normal' sized cars out there that get high mileage any more. By 'normal' sized, I am talking about Honda Civic-sized as the minimum. Most of them seem to be in the 20 - 22 in-town/29 - 31 highway mpg ranges, which doesn't seem like much to me. I guess I was thinking with all of the advances in engine and transmission technology, lighter-weight materials and computer controls, mpg would be better. But the weights have really gone up as well. All that safety equipment - impact beams in the doors, airbags all around and in the roof and seats, ABS, stability control, brakeforce distribution, etc.

Even though it is REALLY small, I like the smart fortwo a LOT, although it's mileage is not as phenomenal as you'd think, given it's size (VERY small). Looking forward to seeing one at the New York Car Show next week. Go check it our yourself here -
http://www.smartusa.com/
And yeah, they use small letters, no caps, for the names......

The other car I like a lot is the Honda Fit - again, smaller than a 'normal' car but very utilitarian inside and kind of neat looking. Supposedly has decent performance, too. But Kathleen would probably want the automatic version, which would be boring.

Anyway, looks like it's kind of a moot point, since Kathleen has taken a job where her mileage will be reimbursed, so looks like no changes in the immediate future. Too bad, I really like the BMW 1-Series!