Soaring gas prices make drivers rethink lifestyle choices

By GAIL SCHONTZLER, Chronicle Staff Writer

Getting great gas mileage can be like a game for Judy Walker.

Driving around Yellowstone National Park last week, she got 53 miles per gallon in her hybrid car, a 4-year-old Toyota Prius.

"It's kind of fun being on the leading edge," said Walker, 58, a bookseller at Borders Books, whose license plate frame declares that she'd "rather be knitting."

"I would buy another Prius in a heartbeat," she said. "I just like the concept of not burning gas."

Walker has found that in stop-and-go driving around Bozeman, she's likely to get only 38 mpg, but that's still far better than most cars on the road. She only has to fill up at the pump once every three or four weeks. Hybrid cars use both a gasoline engine and an electric engine to save energy and cut gasoline consumption.

"My husband and I have tried to live pretty green for quite a while," she said, "and this is one of our ways to do it."

With gasoline hitting record high prices, lots of drivers are considering lifestyle changes to cope with the new reality. Those who have already found ways to save on fuel -- by riding bicycles, taking the Bobcat Transit bus, car pooling or driving smaller cars or hybrid cars -- are feeling pretty virtuous.

Some people are even thinking the unthinkable for Montanans -- giving up their love affair with the sports utility vehicle.

"People are trading in their SUVs for gas-mileage cars," said Jeff Kayser, a sales manager at Ressler Motors. He said he has three customers on waiting lists for the Prius hybrids, but expects the cars to arrive in a couple weeks. Last year, there were news reports of waiting lists of up to six months.

"We bought 25 (used) Toyota Corollas yesterday because of this (high gas prices)," Kayser added. "We usually carry one or two."

Auto dealer Dick Walter ran an advertisement in last week's Chronicle that listed the gas mileage on his Hyundais, Subarus and Volkswagens. The VW Jetta led the pack with 41 mpg in highway driving.

"We've never run an ad like that," Walter said. "Obviously, fuel is on the minds of all our customers.

"I had one customer say to me, 'When my fuel costs start rivaling my car payment, I've got to do something.'"

Sports utility vehicles now can cost $75 to fill up at the pump, Walter said. His own company's costs for filling the tank of every car on the lot have tripled in the last nine months.

Customers are asking themselves whether they really need a three-quarter-ton diesel truck, when the price of diesel has gone 50 cents a gallon higher than regular gasoline, he said.

"I used a large pickup to move my daughter to Missoula," Walter said. "The fuel cost $110, there and back. I used to go to Missoula for $25."

Gallatin County Commissioner Bill Murdock said he's not driving his Land Rover anywhere near as much as he used to, because it gets only 18 mpg. He's quick to point out that that's a lot better than Suburbans, which get around 12 to 14 mpg.

"We do think about car pooling now when we go to West Yellowstone," Murdock said. The downside is that if he and fellow County Commissioner Joe Skinner ride in the same car together, people assume they're "doing dirty things" in violation of the state's open meetings laws.

Fellow Commissioner John Vincent volunteered that he still drives to work every day in a 1980 Audi that gets 40 mpg, as long as he doesn't drive faster than 55 mph.

The four-cylinder car has survived 430,000 miles with no major engine, clutch or transmission work, Vincent claimed.

"It's a great high-mileage car and I'm still driving it," he said, adding in the interests of full disclosure, "It doesn't look real great."

Elaine Peterson, a librarian at Montana State University, commutes daily from Livingston in her Toyota Corolla, which gets 35 mpg on the open highway.

"I don't like the high price" of gasoline, she said, but added she doesn't have any other choice than to commute. "I am getting really great mileage."

At least one customer at Owenhouse Hardware's bike shop was planning to cut down on his driving. A fellow came in to buy night lights for his bike, saying, "It's cheaper than driving,'" recalled Steve Apple, bike mechanic.

Chris Saboda, owner of Bangtail Bikes, said soaring gas prices haven't triggered any rush of customers to buy bicycles. However, 2005 had already been a big one for bike sales, even before the sudden spike in gas prices.

He gave most of the credit for strong sales to "the Lance Armstrong factor," the inspiring story of the man who beat the odds against cancer and won the Tour de France seven times.

"I think it's health-reflective, not gas-reflective," Saboda said, that more people are bicycling.

He used to take road rides up South Third Avenue or to Hyalite or Bridger Bowl and see two or three other bicyclists. Now he sees 20 or 30.

Whether more drivers will consider switching to bicycles will depend a lot on having safe bike routes, he said. His daughter rides to Sacajawea Middle School every day, taking advantage of a paved bike path that parallels but is separate from the road and its fast-moving cars.

"It would be so nice having paths going all around Bozeman," Saboda said.

As if high gas prices weren't enough to motivate drivers to replace their gas guzzlers, Congress has come up with some new incentives in the latest energy bill. Starting Jan. 1, a tax credit worth up to $3,400 (depending on the vehicle's fuel efficiency) will be available for people buying a gas-electric hybrid and clean-diesel cars.

That's even better than the $2,000 tax deduction available this year for buying a hybrid car, because the tax credit directly reduces the amount of taxes you owe, rather than reducing just your taxable income, according to the About.Com Web site, owned by the New York Times Co. The hybridcars.about.com site has a link to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's estimates for the tax credits.

More information on gas mileage can be found online at many Web sites, including www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/best/bestworstNF.shtml and www.consumerreports.org (the April issue of Consumer Reports, available at the Bozeman Public Library, carries more mileage information on dozens of new and used cars).

Gail Schontzler is at gails@dailychronicle.com

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