Washington Post staffer Eli Saslow introduced readers of his April 28 front-page article to a handful of newly registered North Carolina Democrats. But the hype about gas prices from the plight of one of the Democrats from Raleigh struck me to be a probable case of fuzzy math.
Meet 18-year-old Kyla White, a senior at Raleigh's Enloe High School and a part-time receptionist at a local Sports Clips hair salon who drives a 1997 Honda (emphasis mine):
She wanted to vote for a multiracial America, one in which peers wouldn't call her "too white" for being one of a handful of black students in the Enloe honors program. She wanted to vote for no more Code Reds. She wanted to vote for lower gas prices.
She wanted to vote for Obama.
Her gas tank was near empty when White turned the ignition of her car to drive to voter services on that Friday afternoon. She spends almost $40 a week on gas, and she makes only about $120 each week working part time as a receptionist at Sports Clips. To afford driving, she started to skimp on meals out with friends. Snoopy's sold 99-cent hotdogs on Tuesdays. The nearby Mexican buffet cost only $3.99 at lunch.
Saslow did not give us the model of Honda that White drives, but a Civic would be a safe bet. At $40-a-week, gas at $3.58-a-gallon and a fuel economy of 28-miles-per-gallon, I calculate she'd drive about 313 miles-a-week or an average of 44.7 miles-a-day, which seems on the high end for a high school student commuting to school and work and back.
But even assuming White is driving the bare-bones minimum she has to for commuting to work and school, what of this assertion that she has to "skimp on meals out with friends" to finance her $40-a-week for gasoline? Even if gas were to drop to an even $3-a-gallon, White would save a little under six bucks and change assuming she still would drive as much as she does now. If gasoline were $2.94 a-gallon as it was one year ago in Raleigh, according to RaleighGasPrices.com, she'd still spend $32.87-a-week on gasoline, saving only $7.13-a-week for meals out with friends.
The fuzzy math continued with Saslow uncritically passing this along:
Luckily, the drive to voter services was just 1.6 miles -- probably about $1 round trip, White guessed.
One dollar for a 3.2-mile round trip?! At Raleigh's $3.58-a-gallon gas price average, that would mean White's car only gets 11.5 miles to the gallon. No 1997 model from Honda has a fuel economy rating that low. The closest is the Honda Passport with 14/17 for city/highway mileage respectively, according to fueleconomy.gov.
So maybe I'm wrong. Instead of driving a Honda Civic, White drives a Passport with slightly worse gas mileage than the government says she's supposed to get. Suppose White's ride gets a mere 11.5 miles to the gallon. We know she spends $40-a-week and the average unleaded price in Raleigh is $3.58-a-gallon. Crunching the numbers, we get White driving 128.5 miles-a-week for an average of 18.4 miles-a-day. That's a more believable daily commute for a high school senior. But what about the gas versus eating out dilemma?
The math, alas, is still fuzzy.
Were gas prices to magically drop to $2.94 like they were was a year ago, at 128.5 miles-a-week and 11.5 miles to the gallon, White would still spend $32.85-a-week, saving a mere $7.15-a-week to put towards dinner out with friends.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
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Excellent Analysis
April 28, 2008 - 15:10 ET by middleconGas prices math is always fuzzy for the American public/media. If the average car gets around 20 miles per gallon and you buy $40 of gas at $3.60 a gallon you can go about 222 miles. The average cost of gas per mile at 20 miles a gallon and gas at $3.60 is 18 cents. I doubt the average American would guess that.
The funnier stories that you seen on the news sometimes is how it is cheaper to fly than drive now? You would have to find some pretty damn good airline deals to fly anywhere for about 18 cents a mile.
Great job, Ken.
April 28, 2008 - 15:17 ET by mytwocentsI'm reasonably sure that the "journalist" on the story is incapable of doing the math to validate the students claims. When they heard that the student was "unable to afford meals" -- they lost all focus and reason and lapsed into total liberal simpathy mode.
What strikes me about this is that an "honors" student is incapable of doing the math. Apparently the Honors Program doesn't mean the same thing that it used to mean. Perhaps we need another government program to help the honor students along. Also, perhaps she should write some letters to her congress members to ask them why they won't allow any drilling in the US to increase the gas supply or why they support ethanol subsidies which is increasing the cost of her food.
mytwocents
April 28, 2008 - 15:22 ET by ricklailHere in NC the honors program is equal to what you learned in the 8th grade.
"A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself." A.W. Tozer (Pharisee=modern day liberal)
Correct you are.
April 28, 2008 - 15:28 ET by mytwocentsYou might be giving the HP too much credit. I've lived in the Raleigh area since 1966 and I remember when those Honors programs really meant something. Our education system is in a sad state to be sure.
The only thing that can
April 28, 2008 - 15:45 ET by AntiMediaThe only thing that can lower the price of gas is a great speech by Obama.
AM... ROFLMAO! "Never
April 28, 2008 - 15:49 ET by bigtimerAM...
ROFLMAO!
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill
They really need to work on
April 28, 2008 - 15:47 ET by bassndudeThey really need to work on this story some more. I dont spend 40 bucks a week on gas, and I drive a GMC 4X4 and get almost 18 mpg in it. Run about 100 miles a week and last time I filled up it cost me $65.00. Run almost 2 weeks on a tank of gas. If they really want to get some "poor guys" that the gas price hurts. Try us poor fishermen. It cost me $75.00 to fill the boat, and I only get 3 or 4 mpg!!! But nobody cares if we can make it to the next tournament or not. Lets see a story on us guys just trying to have a little fun!! The kid has her parents to help. And I need donatiions!!
Save a SeAL, club a liberal!!
Like whatever
April 28, 2008 - 15:57 ET by opnpt0Math is hard. :(
The Truth Doesn't Matter!
April 28, 2008 - 16:02 ET by ChasvsTruth isn't the objective of today's liberal media. A sob story that get's the Socialist Obama elected is what mattes. Then those of us who actually work for a living can be taxed and our money given to the lijes of this POOR soul so she can pay the $10.0 per gallon that gas will be under the Demofacists!
Dirty little secret
April 28, 2008 - 16:40 ET by motherbeltShe wanted to vote for a multiracial America, one in which peers
wouldn't call her "too white" for being one of a handful of black
students in the Enloe honors program
And that is the dirty little secret in the black community; the secret people like Rev. Wright don't talk about; that so-called "black leaders" like Jackson and Sharpton don't talk about. The secret that inside the black community, teenagers are ridiculed for doing well in school, and that doing well in school is "acting white.
What does this say about black youth culture that they think to "act black" means to fail in school, but know how to "brush off your shoulders"???
It could be $1 for a round
April 28, 2008 - 17:06 ET by goldboughIt could be $1 for a round trip since she started the car cold and drove only 1.6 miles, probably through several traffic lights. Is it dangerous to walk there? Driving slower on the highway will gain mpg.
Does she not know that grocery stores exist? They sell food a lot cheaper than a restaurant.
Accidently posted in wrong article.
April 28, 2008 - 17:48 ET by ArcherBWhen I bought a car, people asked why I didn't buy a Prius. I would save money after all, right? Look again!
I was looking at cars a few months ago. I went with the Scion TC, which
cost about $17,000. I looked at the Prius, but to get a Prius equipped
like my Scion, it would have cost nearly $30,000. For simplicity sake,
let's just say the Prius cost $10,000 more.
Now, with my Scion, I'm spending about $40/week on gasoline. The TC
get's 28MPG. There are aproximately 50 weeks in a year, meaning I'm
spending about $2000/yr on gasoline.
Now let's assume the Prius gets twice the gas mileage of the TC, or 56
MPG (which is VERY generous). That would mean that I would spend
$1000/yr on gasoline. I would literally need to drive that Prius for 10 years just to break even with what I saved in buying the Scion, and that's assuming that I
would not need to replace batteries every 5 years! I saved money by
buying the Scion, which is a much better car IMHO.
"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary." Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Congratulations! You've gotten to the real truth.
April 28, 2008 - 18:03 ET by wizardjrThere's one more thing to consider about the Toyota Lame-a$$. Two different universities did Total Cost of Polution studies on hybrids versus The Hummer. As we all know the Hummer is destroying the planet. It's what cause the end of the last Ice Age and killed off the Wooly Mammoths. </sarc> What the independent studies showed is that the Prius costs more per mile over the lifetime of the vehicle and pollutes more per mile over the lifetime of the vehicle if you take construction and eventual un-construction costs into the equation. (Oh no, tell me it's not so!) In addition, a regular Toyota with the high mileage gas engine gets better true mileage at a lower real cost per mile as well as much lower total polution costs. Oh dear, another Holy Grail that turned out to be common clay.
Prius pollutes more than a Hummer?
April 28, 2008 - 19:27 ET by SouthwestJWizard, are you honestly saying a Prius pollutes more than a Hummer? I'd like to see a link to those two university studies you referenced. That doesn't pass the smell test for me at all.
My experience is that those who put forth these kind of statements have no rational basis for what they are stating -- they just want to make fun of Prius drivers I guess to make themselves feel better? It's the same garbage such as, 'Prius batteries need to be replaced every 5 years at a cost of $5000' and 'Prius shut down while driving' or 'Prius won't run in winter'. No basis for any of these statements. I know for a fact they aren't true. How?
We have a Prius. We love the Prius for a lot of reasons - the technology, the room, the mileage and as a minor point, the low emissions. Why do you feel the need to knock this down?
I would think Conservatives would be the ones to say that people should analyze the situation and do whatever they think is best as a personal decision. Yet when it comes to some topics like Hybrids a lot of posters want to go crazy with unfounded claims. If some nut thinks he's saving the environment by buying a hybrid car let him. If he likes the technology, let him too. If he wants a huge Hummer truck, let him buy that instead. Why does that matter to you? To be honest, it gives conservatives a bad name -- it's easy to label them anti-environment when they make inane statements like 'Hummers pollute less' and when they try to beat down Hybrid drivers.
I don't care if someone else buys a Hummer or a Prius, it's all market driven and people should have the freedom to do what they want. If people don't make the best decision economically that's their issue to deal with. If they think a Hummer pollutes less and they want to buy that fine.
As a funny aside, I drove to ultimate (kind of a hippie sport) one day and one of the more liberal players said 'I didn't know you drive a Prius. Didn't you vote for Bush?' That was good for a laugh -- if you voted for Bush you must do everything you can to destroy the environment! That's lib logic for you :)
Thanks for posting that. I
April 28, 2008 - 19:33 ET by motherbeltThanks for posting that. I just did the same thing. I bought a small Nissan crossover, that's getting 23 MPG in the city. Not great, but I figured it would take me forever to make up the gas savings of a hybrid. Thanks for giving me a really good idea of just how long it would take! I feel even better now!
That is like the new front-loading washers. They save a lot of water, but until the price of them comes down considerably (they are around $900-$1000 now), it will take a long time to make up the difference in price, in water savings. I told my son and his wife it might be a good investment for them, as a first washer, because their family is only going to get bigger. But for someone junking a perfectly good washer to buy one (then you have to add in the price of the washer you're getting rid of), it would take probably 10 years to make it up in water savings.
Prius driver
April 28, 2008 - 19:33 ET by SouthwestJBy the way, I responded to Wizard, but I have to say, Archer, you are exactly what I am talking about when I refer to people making the best decision for themselves. You looked at all the options, analyzed the costs and your needs and decided not to buy a Prius. Good on you for doing your homework.
I did too and understood when I bought a 2004 Prius it wouldn't be a money saving venture for a few years (5-8 in my case). There was one unexpected bonus though, in 2006 I sold my 2004 Prius with 21k miles for a few hundred less than I paid for it (wouldn't be possible with almost any other car). I was able to upgrade to more features and a car with 21k less miles for less than $1000 after two years. That kind of savings you won't see in any published report on saving money with a Prius.