I Might Consider Going Green with My Next Car

I love driving big, powerful vehicles. And I don’t make any apologies for it because I was raised that way.

My very first car was a 1979 Ford Fairmount Futura with a modified straight-six cylinder engine. (Motor-heads know what I’m talking about.)

When I got tired of that, I gave it away and a bought a 1980 Chevy Caprice Classic with the small block 305 V-8 that my college buddies affectionately nicknamed "The Mother Ship."

To tell the truth, I would probably drive a tank if I could. But that would mean I’d have to go through basic training and probably get shot at on patrol in some developing nation.

So today, I drive an onyx SUV—whose foreign automaker shall remain nameless—that I’ve come to call Black Beauty because I believe I should drive what I like because I work as hard as I do.

And with gas at more than $3 per gallon, I pay dearly for the privilege.

But a strange thing happened to me the last time I got my behemoth serviced. They gave me a teeny-weeny  sports job for a loaner. And I have to admit I liked it.

Of course, it didn’t sound like Bigfoot from the Battle of the Monster Trucks when I started it up and gave it the gas on idle. And I couldn’t muscle through lesser vehicles on I-95 during rush hour. But I could still cars people like they were standing still when traffic wasn’t snarled.

The biggest difference hit me at the pump. My usual $65 fill up came to only $40. Instead of my 310 miles, I got 365 miles for my cheaper tank of gas.

And for the chance to drive farther and keep an extra $25 per week, perhaps at some point I could live with a little less power.

I’m definitely not ready to trade in my big Black Beauty right now. But when I buy my next car, I may just consider going with something smaller and more fuel-efficient because in effect, I’ve just learned a cheap lesson: Going greener could save me a little green.

 (The Monday Morning Quarterback is a column about the joys and complexities of life as seen through the eyes of Mark Tyler, the Local Editor of Aberdeen.Patch.com. Mark Tyler can be reached at Mark.Tyler@patch.com or 443- 945-1882.)