My Story of Owning a CNG Car.
Back in February 2008 the average gas prices were $3.00 which drastically rose to their record high averages of $4.10 in July. Record high gas prices were recorded during June 2008 ranging from $4.5-$4.7 a gallon. Who could drive anywhere with gas prices like that? We could, but that was because the natural gas fueling our car during that time was $0.63 rising up to $0.87 a gallon equivalent.
Most people started changing their summer plans last year when the gas prices skyrocketed. But we didn’t have to, we traveled more finding the roads less congested and saving a lot of money too. We went on camping trips, went to Vegas and LA as well and the whole time we saved a lot of cash. A great example is when we traveled to LA from our home in Provo, Utah. The round trip is around 1,300 miles. This would normally cost an economy car about $195 in gasoline alone. Lucky for us there are CNG stations the whole way, and it only cost us $43 and saved the earth from a lot of polution because CNG cars are so much cleaner. That’s about $150 in savings, and in these financial times who wouldn’t want to have an extra $150 in the wallet?
Both my husband and I were students during the fall of 2008. I was doing my student teaching and my husband was attending classes and working on a business he was getting started. Because of this our monthly income was very low, but because of our CNG car we were able to save a bunch of money every month using our alternative fuel.
Normally we would be paying $200+ a month for the gas prices, but with our CNG car we were only spending around $40 a month in fuel. This proved to be a huge saver for us and continues to be till this day. Not only was I saving a ton of money, but I also had to accessible CNG stations on my commute to my student teaching.
If I was to answer my smartest purchase over the last few years it would definitely be my CNG car. It saves money, especially when I needed it most, and it has helped keep our planet a little cheaper. Not to mention that it is a domestic alternative fuel, that we don’t have to rely on other countries for. It constantly perplexes me why more people don’t invest in CNG cars like we did. But I guess until more people catch on, I’ll just keep saving a lot of money at the pump.
