KASSIE MACKAY | Culture
SENSIBLE KIWI
A Manawatu commuter has devised the ultimate hack for saving on fuel as prices continue to rise: disassembling her vehicle.
Samantha O’Connell is an office worker in Palmerston North by day, says the global oil crisis has caused her commute to and from the CBD to become unaffordable.
“I am the face of the office, the person who greets all our clients. I just can’t work from home, but getting to work was costing me an hour’s wages!”
After hearing from Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, this week, O’Connell realised she knew exactly what she needed to do to overcome the fuel price crunch.
“Minister Willis was right. Us sensible kiwis already know how to be economical with fuel. Like, duh, of course I borrow my mum’s car if I want to go do groceries.”
The challenge, according to O’Connell, was not how to be economical, but how to save money. As of this morning, it’s a challenge she claims to have cracked. Beaming with pride, she explained:
“It was just simple physics, really. Take out the seats, remove the doors, pull out the spare tyre and rip off the hub caps. Easy! The total mass of my vehicle is down by 30%.”
O’Connell speculates that she is the first Kiwi to have figured out this fuel-saving hack, but encourages others to do the same.
“Like honestly, you don’t even need any tools to do it. Just a really big knife and some brute force will do it.”
When asked if she had tested the performance of her newly modified vehicle, O’Connell was less enthused.
“Yeah, so I accidentally cut the ignition cable.”
O’Connell has since topped up her Snapper card and intends to travel by bus for the remainder of the week.
More to come.
