I cringed when i saw my moms SUV getting 18 mpg, and she buys premium gas too. No wonder so many people complain about gas prices when they drive huge cars that get no gas mileage whatsoever. Even my old ass hybrid from 2006 was getting 33 mpg before i retired it for a 2024
Sounds like you either need some serious maintenance/ rebuild. Even a poorly running engines mpg changes with whether you are driving at night or during the day
It’s a Ford F150. That’s just how it is. My dad’s truck gets about the same and he drives like a grandma. It gets around 5 to 6 mpg when he’s pulling his dump trailer
He's driving it worse than some of the semi trucks out here. Some of the newer big rigs can get 13 or 15 miles per gallon regardless of the load they're hauling.... Which is maxed out on US roads at 80,000lbs!
Haha this was my mentality for years with shitty cars. I bought three $500 cars in a row. Did no maintenance. That all lasted like 6 years total. Pretty decent investment you ask me
A check engine light could be literally nothing. It's still polite to refill the tank to at least the level you got it at if someone lends you a vehicle.
My MIL has a Mercedes that only shows tire pressure if something is very wrong which is kinda unhelpful when it seems to pick up nails with every oil change. But you can ask the UX to read out pressures
The simple alerts are still super useful. It’s just more work to find the problem.
My car is a pro at picking up screws that go in while almost sealing it’s own hole. So I get a tire that goes from 36 to like 28, looks fine to me waking up to it but would definitely damage if I drove on it.
My old prius had that simple alert and saved me a half dozen times. My new car shows all 4 tires individually.
I bought a truck and gave my (ex) girlfriend my car to use since she helped out with the down payment on the truck by selling her car. It was a 3 year old Camry in excellent condition. Within a few months she had backed into a pole (despite the rearview camera), panicked when someone in front of her was backing up and backed into the car behind her (I was in the passenger seat. The car wasn't even close to us). And then, when turning right out of our driveway, she turned directly into a parked van. Bent the side pillar of the Camry and basically totalled it.
We need better public transit because some people shouldn't drive
My ex voluntarily turned in his drivers license in exchange for a state ID because he had totaled about 6 cars by the age of 30 and was basically uninsurable. He was a mechanic.
Honest to god, he basically hated cars lol. The only reason he was a mechanic is because he was forced to learn as a kid growing up in extreme poverty. Fixing up cars was a way to earn a quick buck in his family. He is no longer a mechanic as far as I know. When we were together he was in the process of taking classes to try and break away from blue collar work.
I did all the driving whenever possible, my record is still spotless.
That's a wild ride. If you're good at it, use it to survive and get out I guess. I'm glad he got to a place where he felt he could make the change it seems.
Jokes aside, in my mind I had given her the car, even if it was still in my name, and she had to go to work. But yeah after the van strike we both preferred I drive her to work most of the time. Which was nice sometimes, we could stop for breakfast and stuff
Got lucky on the van too. It was abandoned partially in the red so the police had it towed it away and that was that. The Camry still drove and it looked minor on the outside so it wasn't until I tried to sell it and got it inspected did I find out about the frame damage. Ended up going for salvage auction.
Did you read the last sentence? People have no choice sometimes if they need to drive to work and have a normal life. I agree with the comment. We need more transit
I love cars, but I love the existence and increase of development into public transit even more. More people taking public transit means less people on the roads, which means more zoom zooms for me in my car instead of sitting in traffic
My ex ran my pristine truck into an opening gate because someone behind her honked. That was the day she became my ex. I was understanding and nice about it, but I wanted an out and this helped!
This is America, you’re not supposed to get good gas mileage when you’re using an F-950 going from the mall parking lot to pick up 1 bag of groceries from wal-mart.
Don't forget driving 20 miles each way to work, getting 9MPG then complaining about gas prices. My boss does this, has the biggest most fuel inefficient vehicle and is always complaining about gas prices. I drive just as far and while yeah gas is expensive, I'm getting around 5× the gas milage.
I literally get 60 mpg in my Prius. A lot of it comes down to how you drive too. I have to drive 40 miles to work and 40 miles home every day. If I go 80 on the interstate I can get maybe 45-50mpg. If I go 65 on cruise control I can easily get 60mpg. And the funniest part is that I always get there in the same amount of time because if there’s any traffic it nullifies the time gained by going fast.
I get 5mpg more driving my civic compared to my wife driving it. The only place I see a difference is she crawls away from a stop light and I accelerate a little harder to get the turbo involved.
Oh yea my girl somehow got 38mpg on the regular in her Prius too (we both drove Priuses) which is crazy because you pretty much have to actively try to get mileage that poor in that car.
The Wrangler my parents had when I was still living with them had 37 inch tires and would get around 8-10 mpg, maybe 12 on a good day. However, it eventually got so old that all of the vital parts in the engine including the transmission were eventually replaced with new parts and it managed to average out at around 18 mpg
one day of wife driving truck wouldn't make your check engine light or air pressure change significantly, dude. maintain your shitbox. the gas is a fair complaint i guess but not that deep
So, I want to avoid the "women bad drivers" trope, because it has nothing to do with gender.
But I will say, my sister is the grim reaper of vehicles. I don't know if she is doing something dumb or just really unlucky, but her cars are lucky to last 2 years with her. I think her "record" is six months, if we don't count the one she had for 20 minutes and broke down on the drive home from the dealer.
She has gone through more vehicles in the not quite two decades she's been driving than the rest of my family put together.
I refuse to let her borrow my car because I'm worried the car I've had for 10 years that is still in perfect condition will somehow explode if she sits in the driver seat.
Some people just break things. I have friends that I lend something out for a day and it's broken. They blame the item saying it's unreliable or cheap or should be able to handle ___. Like somehow I've owned this for 25 years and haven't put a scratch on it but the second you touch it it's broken
My older brother is like this, it's so fucking annoying. He just manhandles the hell out of things and gets mad when it breaks. Like bro. No one handles things they care about like that.
But literally. Cars, instruments, tools, clothes, furniture, consoles, electronics, etc. He got into my car once and broke the handle off of my car door.
My sister is much the same. So much so that I bought a manual at 17 and learned to drove stick on the way home from the dealership soley because I knew she couldn't drive it.
My neighbor is the same, I keep saving clips of her hitting shit while parking. I'm so glad I sold my car because what the fuck, its a Tesla with 360 degree cameras and she manages to hit the utility pole at least once a week, nevermind road debris.
My theory is in her mind that's trash disposal, she throws it in the road then runs it over. Or idk I don't find Tesla drivers a particularly smart demographic
I knew someone like that, she openly admitted to getting the engine rebuilt too (she made my heavy foot look like a joke, she literally only knew how to floor it)
It’s insane when these folks inevitably end up having a litany of problems with their vehicles, and then wonder why.
A former teacher of mine told me once, “Remember that every time you hit the brakes to slow yourself down, you’re wasting energy that you’ve already burned. Drive like you’ve got no brakes as much as you can.”
I’m a woman and my parents were so hard on me when it came to braking when I was learning. They’re not against driving fast but their goal is to basically never use their breaks when possible 😂 they made a coasting queen out of me.
We stopped letting my wife’s son use our cars years ago after totaling 2. He’s 33. If you added up all the hours he’s had behind the wheel, it’s less than a weeks worth & that’s still being generous.
Having 1 car gone in a couple years is nothing. 2 cars, okay maybe you got unlucky but its possible. 3+? Yeah, that's a skill issue unless you can prove she was waiting correctly at a red light and someone plowed into her OR she is buying like 200k mile beatups that were already close to death.
My best friend of over 20 years bought her first car before she was officially old enough to drive it at 15, her mom wrecked it before she ever got her drivers license going 5 miles down the road to get cigarettes, wasnt her fault. Got another car the same year, it was moved from one dealer to another before she could get it, and in transit it was totaled. Third car, finally 16, finally gets the keys in hand and is rear ended on the drive home with it by an inunsired driver. Some people are so unlucky lol
It isn’t that women are bad drivers, statistically the opposite is often true. It is just most women are not raised to be aware of how the mechanics or maintenance of a vehicle work.
When I was a single man, I was often horrified dating women whose cars lit up like Christmas trees when I sat in the drivers seat (or passenger seat, for that matter). After several increasingly alarming finds, such as no oil visible on dipsticks, tire pressures below 20psi, and an assortment of sensor related CELs, years of no washer fluid, I switched to teaching instead. I hope I made an impact, the hardest part was overcoming the intimidation factor of opening the hood and seeing the jungle gym inside.
Edit: My most interesting incident was riding with a guy who also wasn’t too keen on vehicle interworkings. His motor mounts were clearly broken so most ranges of RPM had crazy violent shaking. Apparently this vibration was slow progressing to that point and the car drove so he never thought anything of it! Two years like that..
I'm kind of the same way so I hate driving other people's vehicles. It's not usually my fault though. One example is when I owned a 2010 Malibu and the engine sounded crazy and I brought it two mechanics, one being a Chevrolet dealer. Both of them turned the check engine light off and told me nothing is wrong. My step-dad just told me to keep driving it until something breaks. Well it broke, my timing chain destroyed my engine.
My wife is pretty good about paying attention to the cars. Years ago she drove 2 hours away for a wedding that she was the photographer for. My sister went with her as an assistant. On their way back in the evening my wife’s car started to overheat. She pulled over and turned the car off for about 20 minutes. My sister was like “just drive… that’s what cars are supposed to do. I want to get home soon.” My wife ignored her, after the car had cooled down a bit she started driving and turned the heater on to let it pull some heat from the engine, it let her get to a gas station where she was able to get water to throw into the radiator. She had to let it cool enough again to be able to open it without getting burned. She made it home and we were able to get the car fixed.
My sister later that year got a flat on her way to work and just drove the rest of the way there. She called me later and said “hey can you come take a look at my car? It seemed to drive weird to work.”
When I got there I was floored. She had driven 14 miles on a flat tire, she had almost completely cut the tire off and it was just barely attached in 3 spots by the sidewall. She damaged her rim and had to get a new tire and a rim.
My brother is a fucking twat with vehicles. I he bought a Mazda rx8 with slap shift on the steering wheel. Didn’t realize he needed to manually shift it on the steering wheel. Proceeded to drive on the interstate in first gear and blew the transmission.
Got another car, SAAB. He hit the turbo too many times and shit the transmission.
He’s crashed almost every fucking vehicle he has touched.
Low fuel, okay, she didn't stop at the pump. It happens.
Low tire pressure? Sure, maybe the temperature dropped and you needed to adjust it anyway.
Check Engine light? Unless she hit something or someone stole your catalytic converter, it was probably already on or about to come on anyway. Shit happens.
Your wife’s boyfriend? To each their own but was gonna say this time of year tpms lite up frequently do to atmospheric pressure changes that tend to stay a little more permanent
It’ll show this until you drive about 10ft then it’ll update. My truck does the same, will fill up, needle goes to full but gas light stays on until I drive up 10 ft
The gas being a little low could be a complaint, but unless you think she intentionally caused an engine code and let air out of the tires, it’s just inconvenient timing.
Wow. I feel blessed. My wife drives an EV, so anytime she uses my truck she heads to the gas station first so she doesn't need to fret about range the rest of the day.
I don't know where you are but it's a hell of a alot colder today than yesterday. That cold air will def make your tire pressure plummet. Food for thought. Also, you sound like someone who likes to blame their wife for everything.
This happens on my vehicle when the steering lock is stuck on. I have to really wrench it hard back and forth after until it releases then everything goes normal.
According to the display, 33 miles to empty, 10MPG, they have about 3 gallons in the tank plus a couple more for reserve. OPs wife drove the shit out of it.
To be fair to her it looks like you have almost a quarter of a tank. Granted I start thinking about getting gas when I hit 100 miles left to empty but I think I'm overly cautious.
The only part of what you said that is accurate is probably the tire pressure. The CEL does not come on due to tire pressure being low, the low gas light doesnt mean its completely empty, this one says 33m to empty. It means its low, not completely out of gas.
I think we need to teach basic automotive literacy in schools in the US. If it’s going to be the only form of transportation then every citizen should know how they work.
the car can sense she's a woman and is trying to scam her
(before you guys downvote me this joke is because i'm a woman and every time i get an oil change they rotate my tires and lie and say i need $250 new tire pressure sensors)
So go fill up the tires, fill up the gas tank, and swing by an AutoZone or something to get the check engine light scanned. I highly doubt she did anything crazy
I but a pothole in Chicago that made the tire lose air, bent the wheel, and damaged a few exposed sensors. For me it was the tire pressure, check engine, ABS, and coolant lights all turned on after hitting a pothole.
451
u/Dieselmechanic1900 13h ago
Are you constantly pulling a trailer or are you always driving the shit out of it to get 10.3 mpg?