Cars

 We bought a used Subaru Impreza in October, I think, because our '97 Toyota was falling apart and would have cost more to repair that it was worth. The Impreza is an '18, so much more modern than our other car, an '07 Honda Fit.

This car, which we named Prudence, has proximity sensors on all sides and a backup camera. It has seat warmers, which I haven't used deliberately but might if it gets cold enough. It has coordination between the cruise control and proximity sensors, so I can set the cruise control to go 60 mph and when the vehicle in front of me is going slower than that, the car adjusts speed to maintain a safe distance. I just have to keep us in our lane.

I spend some of my time while driving Prudence watching the average gas mileage reading. There is a menu of parameters you can have up on the screen, but I mostly keep it on average gas mileage, which is calculated for the current "trip" which means tank of gas, since I reset the trip indicator when I fill the tank. I haven't used it for anything else. I don't know why I enjoy that as much as I do, but I see how the numbers vary quickly at first, and start rather low, but once I get a trip to work and back done, the changes slow down. Still, on today's second trip to work, the gas mileage dropped from 32.3 to 29.8 before I got to the highway. Then it went up until I exited near work, and dropped only a couple of tenths from the peak of 33.1. I'm making up these numbers, because the actual values don't matter, but the size of the changes is pretty close.

The mileage drop was greater when I got to the car to drive home today because my mask strap got caught on my hearing aid, which flipped off my ear and disappeared. I thought if had fallen between the seat and the middle ridge where the transmission is, which is a tight groove I have trouble reaching into and can't see anything in. I looked down, tried the flashlight function on my phone, reached around trying to feel for it, and then finally noticed it was on the floor in front of the passenger seat. But since I had started the engine as I removed my mask, well, for those two minutes or so, my gas mileage rate was zero.

Prudence recovered most of the lost value, and got back to 33 mpg by the time I got home.

I think it is really the cruise control feature that makes it easier for me to maintain my chosen speed of 60 mph or less, and not seeing the gas mileage. When the car is controlling the speed, distractions like up-tempo music have no effect, as they do when I am driving myself. But the gas mileage display keeps me smug about my choice and helps to reinforce the decision. Sometimes I like technology.