Teenage Drivers

This past May, my 16-year-old son got his drivers' license. I don't know who was happier, me or him.

My husband and I decided that the best thing to do would be to buy a third car, call it a family car, and let him drive it. OK, that is not entirely true. My husband, who did not have the luxury of his own car to drive when he was in high school, did not think a third car was entirely necessary. I, on the other hand, did, seeing as I was the one doing all the chauffeuring.

We did our due diligence when shopping for a car. We made sure not to get a make or model that would be more expensive to insure. We got a great deal on a newer, lower-mileage car by buying through an auto auction (thanks to a cousin who is part owner of a car dealership). We set a budget ($5000) and did not go over, and we paid cash. Granted, it hurt more than a little when our insurance premium more than doubled. Thank goodness for the good student discount, which saves us about $500 per year (I kept trying to get my insurance company to give him an Eagle Scout discount, too, with no success). We do not have comprehensive coverage, and we have a fairly high deductible.

So, how does shelling out $5,000 for a car and an additional $1,600 annually for car insurance rate as being frugal?

It saves me time (and sanity). No more do I have to run him to and from swim team practice, work, Scouting and youth group events, early-morning seminary (a church class that meets before school every day). Gone are the days of picking him up after a band practice or performance. I can send him on his way to swim team practice every afternoon, and instead of having to race home to throw dinner on the table after picking him up, I have it waiting on the table when he gets home. This makes a huge difference in what I can serve for dinner each night, especially if there is something else we have to attend in the evening, and as a result, cuts down on the number of times we feel we don't have time for anything other than fast food. He can also take his brother places for me (he can't drive anyone other than family members for the first 6 months). Again, a huge timesaver for Mom.

It saves gas. Instead of me making two trips to pick up and drop off, he is only making one trip. Over the course of a year, that saves a lot of gas and greenhouse gases. And, he is doing it in his car which is more fuel-efficient than my mini van. It also saves wear and tear on my mini van, which is the more expensive of the two vehicles.

It teaches him some responsibility. He needs to follow the provisions set forth in his provisional license. (Our state sets limits and guidelines for the first 2 years of driving.) He knows that if his grades fall below the good student discount threshold (3.0 GPA), he gets to pay for the difference in the insurance. Likewise, if he is ticketed or at fault at an accident, he gets to pay not only the difference in the insurance premium, he gets to pay it all. If the car is damaged or totaled in an accident, he gets to pay to replace it. So, it is definitely in his best interest to be a safe, conscientious driver, and to keep his grades up.

More on Hypermiling and Maximizing Your Gas Mileage

This weekend, there were two great articles in the Seattle Times about hypermiling:

• Hypermiler tips for using every drop
• Tricks of the hypermilers

Check them out if you want more information; each article lists several different hypermiling websites if you really want to get into the subject.

One small tip that I had not thought of before was parking nose-out instead of nose-in, because going in reverse when your engine is cold is less fuel-efficient than when it is warmed up. This got my hubby feeling pretty smug because he has been backing into the driveway forEVER (at least the whole time we have been married, going on 21 years).

To Coast is Clear

...or is it? I was about to write a post about how I have improved my gas mileage in the Sienna almost 5 mpg just by not running the air conditioning when I am driving around town, and by coasting in neutral whenever I have a downhill slope or am approaching a red light. I'm very pleased by my results in doing these two things. When I refilled the Sienna yesterday, I was thrilled to figure out that I got just under 20 mpg. I figure there were maybe 50 highway miles out of 300 driven, so that's phenomenal.

I wanted to find an article that I could link to that would illustrate what I would consider the other "way out there" techniques of hypermiling. As luck would have it, I found one right on the front page of msn.com. I was a little disappointed, though, to read that the authors thought that turning off the a/c only helped if you did not roll down the windows and that coasting in neutral was dangerous.

So, take it for what it's worth. Because I don't have to deal with triple-digit heat in the summertime, I am still going to roll the windows down a bit instead of using the a/c, and I am going to coast whenever I can (generally not on busy streets with lots of traffic). An additional 5 mpg is nothing to sneeze at these days.