President Obama recently gave a speech at a Daimler owned Freightliner truck plant in North Carolina speaking of CAFE standards on automobile mileage. (Corporate Average Fuel Economy)

In the speech, the President gave an example of Americans going to the pumps every two weeks instead of every week. He stated that with the new standards on vehicle mileage, Americans could save $8,000.00 per year on gas. Now, who would not want to have eight grand extra every year…?

However, if you do the math, you figure that going to the pump every two weeks instead of every week cuts your fuel consumption by half. If we are to save $8,000.00 per year that means we are currently spending $16,000.00 per year.

Uh…. No.

Unless we are all driving supercars like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bugatti. These types of cars are capable of speeds around 180mph or faster. At these speeds they do consume 2 to 6 miles per gallon to keep the supercharged 8 to 12 cylinder engines turning. That is a lot of fuel and a lot of speed! How often do you see little old Mrs. Jones driving her Veyron to the mall at 180mph…?

Apparently, the President thinks she does…

The average distance per year driven by Americans, even if using the high end of the scale, approaches 19,000 miles. Follow the match with the numbers using $3.89 for a gallon of gasoline…

In order to save $8,000.00 by visiting the pumps half as often (every two weeks instead of every week) we should currently be spending $16,000.00 per year. So we take the 16,000 and divide it by the cost of one gallon of gasoline ($3.89) which gives us 4113 gallons and some change. Now we take the average distance in miles driven by year, (19,000) and divide that by the fuel used to achieve the costs the President referenced (4113) and we get 4.6 miles per gallon.

The only conclusion is that we all drive cars that average 4.6 miles per gallon. In other words, the President is saying we all drive supercars such as the Bugatti Veyron or Lamborghini Gallardo.

We don’t. Perhaps, in order for the numbers of the President to work out correctly, he is planning some kind of Federal program to give us all supercars! As soon as the forms are available we are placing an order for an Aston Martin DB9. A blue one…