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Eye On The Road
May 16, 2008 7:38 PM

Mission Accomplished.

By
Nancy Cordes
Topics
Eye On The Road
(CBS)
Independence, Mo., the hometown of Harry Truman. Did you know when Truman was president, gas cost a whopping 21 cents a gallon? When yeah when we left this week the national average was 3.72. It's now 3.79. And a lot has happened in those five days. It's a trip we made separately but a story I wanted to tell together with Jeff.

Jeff Glor: Our team began out west, where tall gas prices mean short vacations. Just look at Mike Morrasy. He packed up the RV, and drove a whole three miles away from home this year.

Nancy Cordes: After leaving New York's Central Park, our first stop was Pennsylvania's Hersey Park. It's one of those regional attractions that's banking on Americans staying closer to home this summer.

But the food industry may be feeling the pinch more painfully than anyone. At Kennedy's Bakery in Cambridge, Ohio, they're paying three times more for flour than they did last year.

"You can't raise prices enough, can you?" I asked Patty Kennedy, the owner.

"No, I can't, or else I'm going to loose all the customers," she said.

Glor: In Nevada, at least the leftover ingredients are put to good use. We witnessed the rise of veggie vehicles: Converted engines that run on grease.

One restaurant owner cooks the fries, then juices up his Jetta. And it gets 40 miles a gallon.

"I have to say there is a certain empowering moment when you flip the switch to grease because then you're driving for free," Trent Schmidt said.

On our last leg, a dirt track race in Kansas, where America's car culture is running on empty. The gas guzzlers used to go out six- nights a week. But that's now down to one.

Cordes: Our photographers could see the sticker shock as well. They drive SUVs loaded with gear. It cost them $590 to get halfway across the country. That's 30 cents per mile. My Ford Fusion cost less than 16 cents. Jeff's hybrid Prius cost less than 10 cents.

And that's despite the fact that Jeff was paying more for gas on the West Coast than we were on the East Coast.



Add a Comment
by cwerdna May 18, 2008 2:12 AM EDT
grush26209: VW had to drop all diesel cars in the US for 2007 and apparently some of the "clean diesel" models have been delayed. See http://www.leftlanenews.com/confirmed-vw-to-drop-several-diesels-in-us-for-2007.html and http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2007/11/vw-delays-relea.html.

FWIW, VW reliability is much worse than Toyota and awful by industry standards.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/new-cars/buying-advice/most-fuelefficient-cars-206/ has a list of the most economical vehicles currently available that CR has tested.

BTW, you can see that fuel economy peaked in 1987 per http://www.epa.gov/oms/cert/mpg/fetrends/420s07001.htm and has fallen since then. Cars have also gotten a lot larger, heavier, more powerful and bloated. See http://www.caranddriver.com/features/columns/c_d_columns/minicars_i_don_t_see_no_stinking_minicars_column.

Reply to this comment
by 100mpg May 18, 2008 1:57 AM EDT
Hey grush26209 could you plug-in your volkswagen and run it on Clean Domestic Wind Energy? I can do that with my Prius and I get over 100mpg.
Nuff Said.
Reply to this comment
by drapp30 May 17, 2008 2:22 AM EDT
In spite of what CBS and Ms. Cordes report Independence, Mo. is not Harry Truman''s birthplace. He was born in Lamar, Mo. some 100 miles from Independence.
Reply to this comment
by grush26209 May 17, 2008 1:18 AM EDT
What''s the big deal about a car that get 40 mpg. I drove Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel for 20 years that got 50 mpg all the time. And later a 1998 Diesel golf that got almost as good (avg 47 mpg). I think they still make and sell diesel Volkswagens. I think the Hybrid thing is a sham........
Is this paid advertising for Toyota?
Reply to this comment
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