How to buy winter tires economically

Every year fall rolls around and people in Canada, the northern States, and Nordic countries start thinking about buying winter tires for their cars. Although you can drive around on "all-season" tires year round, their performance in snowy and icy conditions is dismal. In Canada, "all-season" really means three season (or May-August, depending on where you live).

Choosing your weapon (er, vehicle)

Many simple living enthusiasts promote pairing down the amount of stuff you own. After all, any item you possess will require some attention from you in the form of maintenance or other upkeep, some space to store, and will cost you some money. I agree with them in principal, however I think there is a case to be made for having a few different vehicle types available to you for different kinds of trips.*

On being a fuel nerd

The wind in your hair, the sun glistening off of the metallic paint, the rumble of the exhaust as the pistons reciprocate inside their cylinders and control the repeated explosions of atomized flammable liquids to propel you across the country. These things are the essence of being a gear head. Unfortunately they are not at all what this post is about... Instead what I'm going to do is transition to the nerdy world of tracking your fuel consumption. As much fun as it is being out on the open road without a care in the world, when your Low Fuel light comes on you may pause and think for a moment what actually goes into making you move.

Who cares about MPG?

Car manufacturers have been implementing various fuel saving technologies in their vehicles ever since the first fuel crunch in the 70's. A few decades later, the focus of a lot of consumers has once again shifted to fuel economy. The success of hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius and the gaining popularity of Hypermiling indicates that more people are paying attention to the efficiency of their vehicles.

However, although a lot of people notice L/100 km or MPG figures posted on car windows in car lots, one often overlooked figure is that of PMPG - Person Miles per Gallon (or L/P/100km?). Since the purpose of most vehicles is to move the occupants from one point to another, the PMPG figure is arguably more relevant than straight MPG. A person can decrease their fuel consumption by a few percent here and there by adjusting their driving techniques, tuning their vehicle, etc. but the fuel consumption per person can easily be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled simply by carpooling.

The costs of various vehicles - Part 1

In my previous post about using general aviation aircraft as a mode of personal transportation, I made a comparison between the cost of driving and the cost of flying over a certain route. The comparison, however, was a bit lacking in detail since all I did is compared the cost of fuel. The actual costs of getting around using any kind of vehicle will be higher than just the fuel burned, as there are other aspects of transportation and vehicle ownership which cost money. For any vehicle, be it an airplane, a car, a motorcycle, or even a bicycle, there will be costs which can be split up into two broad categories: fixed costs and variable costs (these are sometimes referred to as ownership costs and operating costs). The fixed costs are things you pay for on a regular basis which are independent of how much you use the vehicle, and may include insurance and registration, parking, loan payments, and some maintenance items. Variable costs are things that you pay for when you actually use the vehicle and can be broken down to a rate per distance traveled. Consumables such as fuel, oil, and tires fit in to this category, as do most maintenance items which are to be done at certain distance intervals such as tune-ups.