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Felt good about my Prius until I met man with 181 mpg
By
Burt Constable
Daily Herald Editorial Columnist
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Finally, I followed the advice of President Bush. At
least when it comes to reducing our dependency on foreign
oil.
I did it out of patriotism for America. I did it for you,
and for your children, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. And, as President Bush always insists,
I got a tax break to boot.
I bought a Prius — the popular Super Ultra Low Emission
Toyota hybrid car that goes 60 miles on a gallon of
gasoline, barely emits any pollutants into our air, lists
for about 22 grand and is the vehicle of choice for
celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Will
Ferrell, Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, Susan Sarandon and
Harrison Ford.
You, grateful people of earth, are welcome.
I don’t need a bumper sticker proclaiming my politics. My
car IS my bumper sticker.
As smug and self-righteous as I feel right now, I’m a bit
disappointed the list of Prius drivers can’t officially
include God. The Bible doesn’t mention motor vehicles —
except to say that Moses burned a (Dodge) Ram at the altar,
and that the people came to King Herod in one (Honda)
Accord.
I’m also feeling a tad slighted when it comes to the
public’s gratitude. In this morning’s frigid, stop-and-go
commute on slick roads (where I managed a respectable 45.7
miles per gallon), a gas-guzzling SUV rode my bumper as if
it wanted to give my Prius a wedgie for taunting about gas
mileage.
Search Google for the words “smug” and “Prius” and you’ll
get 36,800 hits — and that’s before I joined the club.
“Don’t worry about that,” says Wayne R. Gerdes, the
greatest fuel-efficiency driver in the world. “At least
you’re doing something. You are saving the planet one mile
at a time.”
But I feel like I’m driving a Hummer when I compare
myself to Gerdes, 44, a nuclear plant operator from
Wadsworth whose extreme fuel efficiency makes him the King
of the Hypermilers.
At Hybridfest 2006, Gerdes enhanced his legend by logging
an eye-popping 180.91 mpg in a Honda Insight during a
20-mile course through the streets of Madison, Wis. In a
Prius hypermileage marathon, Gerdes’ team traveled 1,397
miles on one 12.8-gallon tank of gas, and Gerdes turned in
the best single shift of 120.6 mpg.
“Nine-Eleven is what woke me up to this whole thing,”
Gerdes says. Osama bin Laden had the money to finance the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on our nation because we Americans
buy so much gas, Gerdes says.
That tragedy marked the end of his driving 75 miles an
hour or punching the accelerator the instant the light
turned green, and the moment when he became interested (who
are we kidding? obsessed) with fuel efficiency.
Gerdes generally drives slowly in the far right lane and
tries never to brake, preferring to roll gently to a stop.
He drafts behind semi-trucks. He sometimes shuts off his
engine while coasting and parks on the high part of parking
lots so he can coast before starting his engine.
“I do not condone anybody doing our advanced techniques,”
Gerdes says. But everyone can get better mileage simply by
anticipating stops, using the terrain and taking advantage
of his easy-to-do “pulse and glide” method that he posts on
his Web site at www.cleanmpg.com.
At gatherings of like-minded folks, Gerdes freely gives
away fuel-efficiency secrets in a class dubbed “Hypermiling
101.”
He spends about two hours commuting 93 miles each way to
his job at the nuclear plant in Braidwood. Even in his
nonhybrid, factory-issued Honda Accord, Gerdes can approach
60 mpg. Using tricks on the back-road route he takes “when
my car pool doesn’t mind,” Gerdes says he can get near 80
mpg. He gets 30 mpg in his wife’s Accura MDX
“I don’t know anybody like that, except Wayne,” says Bill
Robbins, a Prius owner whose bonding with other hybrid
owners led to last summer’s inaugural Hybridfest, which
lured 2,000 drivers.
For details on Hybridfest 2007, July 21-22 at the Alliant
Energy Center in Madison, Wis., see www.hybridfest.com.
People drive hybrids to make “not only a statement, but
an impact,” says Robbins, 44, a manager for AT&T. His vanity
license plate reads “55 MPG.”
“There’s no smugness at all; we just are superior to
everyone else,” Robbins jokes.
But my days of Prius-inspired smugness may be
short-lived. Robbins urges visitors to the Chicago Auto
Show, which opens to the public Friday and runs through Feb.
18, to check out Chevrolet’s new electric concept car.
“I’m really excited about the Chevy Volt,” Robbins says
of the not-yet-for-sale car that you could plug in overnight
and make a 40-mile roundtrip commute without using any
gasoline or emitting any pollution. “If I get one of those,
I’d have my nose in the air as I passed your Prius in my
all-electric mode.”
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