The Many Pay Offs And Benefits To You From Having A Good Auto Fuel Economy

Judging by several public opinion polls and surveys periodically conducted among motorists and consumers by reliable national polling organizations, automobile gas costs and prices have been at the very top of the consumer concerns in Canada and the United States in recent years. Clearly, high and escalating cost of fuel are a great source of worry and concern by the consumers in these countries, and most consumers would love nothing better than to have them in the lower range today, as in the yester years.

In deed, just about everybody and every institution in the society, including the government of the day, frequently tell us that having lower prices and costs for fuel would be just about the most desirable and beneficial thing for the society and for almost everybody - economically, politically, and militarily. Just recently, only in December 2007, the U.S. Congress enacted, and President Bush signed into law, the "Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007," designed to tackle precisely that very same concern - reducing the average driver's demand and usage of fuel by requiring that the driver meet a fuel economy standard of 35 MPG (miles per gallon) by the year 2020. That will mean an increase of 40 percent in fuel economy over current situation, literally meaning a savings of some 40 percent in the fuel costs of the average driver compared to today.

Fine. But does everybody, do most motorists, know the reason why, exactly, it is really good and beneficial that the average motorist or consumer should have good fuel economy in his or her driving, any way - aside from just the obvious economic reason or benefit that it would save you fuel and put more money in your pocket?

Following below, are some of the most significant reasons and benefits, aside from simply the personal economic or financial benefit accruing to the individual motorist, why it will still pay you, any way, to have a life of good fuel economy any way, regardless.

A. SURE, IT IS (IN PART) ABOUT MONEY

First, to be sure, a prime reason why American and Canadian motorists seek fuel economy for their vehicle rides, has to do significantly or largely with money — to save money in their fuel costs. At a time when gas prices are near record highs in America and Canada, it is, rather quite understandable that many people would be searching for ways to "beat the pump" to make gas money go a little bit longer.

Recent news reports saturate the newspapers and the news media and airways daily, with stories about the economic woes and horrors of motorists "at the pump" who face escalating gas prices. American drivers, from Los Angeles, California, to New York, and from Michigan to Florida, and in between, who were formerly used to spending about $30 a week to fill up a 15-gallon tank a year or two ago, are today now said to be spending some $50 or more, thus cutting painfully deeper and deeper into their already overstretched home budgets. While in Canada, from Ottawa and Newfoundland to British Columbia, and from Nunavuit to Mannitoba Winnipeg, the pump prices for the motorists have reached as high as Canadian $1.25 per litre (the equivalent of about $5 a gallon for the U.S.) only recently.

Clearly, then, the simple logic and commonsense is quite understandable that one major reason why the contemporary American and Canadian motorists would want — and do want — to find ways to have a higher or better fuel economy, is for economic reasons: namely, to make some real savings in the hopefully lesser amount of fuel they use in the operation of their vehicles, as well as in the escalating and increasingly crushing prices and costs of fuel. A money savings of up to $1,500 per year in fuel costs could be a major reward you get, for example, by choosing to purchase the latest most efficient vehicle of the year in a particular class, according to the latest U.S. EPA/DOE estimate! Not a small (money) saving by any means or calculations whatsoever!

However, there are more reasons and benefits. It is more than just that.

by: Benji O. Anosike