mpg is not only part of the equation.

[Mountainman]

Mrs. Jones owns a SUV. She is a stay at home mom with two kids, Billy who is 10 and Janie who is 15.

Mom drives Janie to her magnet school and picks her up daily. Billy walks to school but mom drives him to soccer practice because she likes to watch her son play and is concerned about the safety of the activity.

While the kids are at school mom sometimes drives to her country club to play golf on lady’s 9 hole hacker days. She also stops by the salon to get her hair and nails done and to get a wax job.

Mom drives to the grocery about every other day for something, some times it is a quart of milk some times it's a whole week's worth of groceries. She likes to spend time at the mall also just window shopping or to get new decorating ideas or to keep tabs on the current trends in fashion.

The Jones live in a nice neighborhood hence there is very convenient shopping and other recreational spots. Even the country club is only a few blocks away.

On Sunday the whole family goes to a Presbyterian Church for worship services.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Jones feel they are on the right path for their financial and social goals. Mr. Jones is a stock analyst and carpools to work.

Altogether mom drives about 200 miles a week around the neighborhood.

Dad drives 30 miles every other working day to work in the car pool.

Together the Jones drive about 340 miles a week. Mom's SUV gets around 18 miles per gallon and dad's Beamer gets around 15. They also like to burn high octane gas. The Jones burn around 20.4 gallons a week (200/18 = 11.1 gal) (140/15 = 9.3 gal). They spend about $35 on fuel weekly. They allow themselves $50 per week in their family budget and feel pretty good about how little they spend on fuel.

Out in the burbs lives Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Their are not as financially well off as the Jones are therefore both mom and dad have to work to support their 3 kids, Joe, Missy and Beth. Joe is 18, Missy is 15 and Beth is 9.
In order for the Smiths to have an affordable home, they bought out in the suburbs. The only problem with that is that dad has to drive about 50 miles to work or 100 miles per day each day. He tried to carpool but if Mr. Smith is in a car pool he misses out on the overtime he can get. Mrs. Smith is a sales person and uses her car daily to call on customers. She drives about 200 miles a day. Together they drive about 1500 miles per week for work. (200 x5 + 100 x 5). They burn about 48 gallons a week not counting their week end driving and the errands mom has to go on. On the weekend their son likes to take his trail bike out to the dirt track to ride. He fills his tank up before he goes. It holds about 5 gallons. Mom also drives the girls to the mall for movies and to meet their friends. She also picks them up.

To be frugal and to save money the Smiths bought compact cars that get good mileage. Both of their cars get around 35 miles per gallon. The also feel it is their social responsibility to not burn more than their share of gasoline thus they passed up the SUV that they both wanted.

Now the Smiths burn about 53 to 60 gallons of gas per week or about $100.

Both the Jones and the Smiths are Democrats and they meet up occasionally at rallies and political planning meetings. At one of the meeting the topic turned to energy and most of those in attendance were in agreement that people shouldn't drive SUVs because of the poor gas mileage they get.

Mr. Jones felt bad because he drove his wife's SUV to the meeting. He told himself that he probably wasn't going to go to those meetings in the future and he thought he might even see what the Republicans talk about. Most of his friends and co-workers are Republicans and always get on him for his political views.