Downsizing for vacation

There is a real drive for consumers to downsize, or at least seek a more fuel-efficient vehicle to help restore household budgets. Our recent Auto Pulse survey on the impact of gas prices revealed from the random, nationwide sample that 82 percent of car shoppers were looking to buy a vehicle the same size or smaller, and fuel economy is the leading priority.

Having worked on the recent downsizing analysis, downsizing blogs, and the Auto Pulse survey, downsizing has been top of mind for weeks. So, when it came time for the family to take a vacation over Memorial Day weekend, it was time to put theory into practice.

Time to downsize
My stroke of genius was to arrange to drive CR’s Toyota Prius Touring test car, rather than my own Honda Pilot on an escape to New Hampshire. The Prius got 42 mpg overall in our official testing, which includes city, highway, and mixed driving, but I was optimistic more was possible on the road trip. After all, my previous best attempt at hypermiling to work (about 45 miles mixed driving) yielded over 63 mpg. In the Pilot, around 20 mpg is typical, but that’s without working at it.

It took some convincing to get the family to concede to driving the right-sized Prius, giving up warehouse-grade space and a built-in DVD player for fuel savings. (Despite my young son’s impressive vocabulary, "fuel savings" really doesn’t register for him with the same magic as it does for me.)

My wife had me calculate out the total potential savings, projected to be about $100. At which point she queried, "And what is the value of my happiness?" I knew I was doghouse bound, but forced the issue, stuffing the hatchback like a sausage for the trip, including a small bike.

Ready to roll, it felt like we were cave divers with heads popping up out of the water, surrounded by an ocean of travel essentials. So long as our breathing rhythms remained unique, there would be enough air for all… Without the DVD player, the "Are we there yets?" were on perpetual loop.

Enduring my wife’s laser-beam glare over 250 hypermiles, we made it to N.H. having averaged about 53 miles per gallon. To do so meant leaving cruise control set at the speed limit for the better part of eternity. Once we offloaded enough luggage to build a replica Mayan Kukulkan pyramid from Samsonite, the relatively roomy Prius proved quite comfortable for day tripping.

On the return trip, we drove with the pace of traffic, reducing travel time and passenger angst considerably. We shaved about an hour off the trip, and in doing so, only sacrificed 2 mpg. I know science, and readily admit this isn’t it, but our casual observation showed that the fuel economy gains for the initial journey wasn’t worth the concession in time and marital bliss.

Our experiment in mobile domestic tranquility did reveal:

• Both time and happiness are worth money.
• Right-sizing makes sense, when it is the right time and vehicle.
• There is a benefit to having a mismatched fleet, with a commuter-focused car and a family truckster.
• Maybe we should bring less luggage.

Needless to say, we enjoyed our next holiday getaway over the July 4th weekend in the Pilot.

—Jeff Bartlett

For more on downsizing, also read:
When does it make cents?
Implications for trading in early
Downsizing to the extreme

Comments

[Charles Pinkham]

Jeff, you really had me laughing there. We've had similar escapades travelling with 3 kids through Spain and Portugal in a Ford Fiesta. We found a used Audi 100 which was much better for long trips with kids and all the junk. Had brought our Chrysler minivan over from the US but tended not to drive it much, the handling was frankly scary on some of the roads, it got inferior gas mileage (this was when gas was around $5 a gallon on the local economy), and screamed "I'm a rich American".
On one trip to the mountains outside of Granada we watched in amazement as a Spanish family unpacked their small Seat and set up a gorgeous picnic with chairs, a tablecloth, and all the trimmings. Now that took some planning!
We long ago went with the one small car for commuting and local trips and the "big" minvan for roadtrips and team transport.

[ed]

Why dont you just own less stuff? 250 miles is NOT far. I've driven a ford aspire from San Diego to Seattle with only one stop to sleep. I really just can not wrap my brain around the sheer amount of.... whatever it is that people pile into their SUV's, and why people are compelled to haul all of that stuff around with them everywhere. I do not understand the appeal of driving around in a living room. When you change one aspect of your life, such as what you term "down sizing"
to a smaller vehicle, you also need the change other things in your life-style to accommodate that. This "study" that you conducted really did not discover anything new. "When I put all my stuff that used to fit in a huge gas-guzzler and put it in a slightly smaller car (the pruis is still HUGE compared to most cars around the world) then it does not fit as well" DUH!

[Jeff Bartlett - Consumer Reports]

Ed - Less stuff? Do you have kids? Luggage, plus travel essentials (toys, cooler, puzzles, etc) and a bike adds up quickly. I have certainly traveled leaner--by myself--on more than 20 coast-to-coast trips in everything from a Mini Cooper to a crewcab pickup truck. Suitcase, CDs, laptop, and a cooler is all I've needed.

I do agree that most other occasions, driving a large SUV with hardly anything in it seems wasteful. I'd downsize from our Pilot in a heartbeat if the numbers added up. Having made several Costco runs recently in small test vehicles, including an Infiniti EX35 today, have help make me a smaller-car convert. Just has to be a hatchback...

[Ed]

Yes Jeff... Less stuff. The vast majority of this planets population goes on vacation, sometime much further than your puny 250 miles, without huge SUV's. Since when did a puzzle and a cooler become travel "essentials." This is the sort of thing I am getting at. American's are spoiled and refuse to give up, even the smallest luxuries, for any increase if fuel savings. In this small pocket of earth that we call the United States we drive SUV's. NO WHERE ELS on the planet do people blatantly waste the amount of resources we do. For what? To haul as much garbage around with us wherever we go! Bikes can be but on the out side of a car such as on the roof or off the back bumper. Toys are hardly essentials and yes Jeffery, I do have kids. I allow them to choose ONE toy to bring with them. This is a vacation remember, a chance to get away from it all, NOT bring it all with you. Gas prices are not going to stop going up and people in the United States need to change their lifestyles. Which in my opinion is not a bad thing for us, the environment, or our egos!

[PMC the 1st]

Why is it that Consumer Reports usually suggests to us the smaller, more fuel-efficient models in any particular class of vehicles when we read their magazines, but when we read their blogs, the Editors of Consumer Reports talks a totally different language, saying, "Dealer, you can keep your stinkin' little Prius. As for me and my family, we're going to D.C on the Fourth of July in our Honkin', Huge Honda Pilot."
Why this double standard?

[Jeff Bartlett - Consumer Reports]

Ed - Sorry. For 10-plus hours of driving, my son needs/deserves more than a single toy.

PMC - Ultimately, Consumer Reports provides essential information for readers to make the right decisions for their needs and budgets. You'll find that I do practice what I preach. With vacations, I did take the Prius previously and determined the true cost of taking that over another vehicle. In the end, my family decided driving the Pilot would better serve our needs and we were willing to spend the additional $100 in fuel. Of course, the Pilot is among the most fuel-efficient SUVs in its class, being a key factor in our buying it used a few years ago. We would love to downsize, but the math doesn't add up right now, especially given that it is seldom driven.

[Faraway]

Yeah bring less luggage. I mean if you can't take a weekend trip in a Prius then the problem is not with the car.

Also I'm sure if it was your car you could have put a bike rack on the back and even a storage unti on the roof. You'd lose some mileage, but still be way ahead I'm sure.

Hell for the $100 savings you could buy a bike each trip.

And the $100 savings is just for that trip. Imagine what the savings add up to in a year? Save that dough and spend it on your wife and family and then see what they think.

There's probably more savings to be had as well. Insurance? Initial cost? Repairs? I'd bet the Prius wins out in those categories as well although I admit I'm don't exactly know.