Hi there... Jim McCue here... I'm glad you stopped by to learn more about me and why I love smart cars so much that I have become the "Smart Car Guy."
Here are a few bits of information about me and why I became so passionate about smart cars. I hope it helps you understand better why I built this website about the smart fortwo cars.
For the past 30 years, I've lived what the impact of the cost of gasoline has done to people's lives. Today, our country is going into another recession—with the high cost of fuel leading the way—and costing Americans more and more of their hard-earned money, making it tougher to make ends meet. So, I thought I'd tell you my story within the context of these constantly rising fuel prices over the past few decades...
The 1970s
The Jim McCue story begins in Butler, PA, a town about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, where I grew up and became a huge football and Pittsburgh Steelers fan during the 1970s. I began driving during the gas crisis of 1978-79, when the price of gas went from about 50 cents to 80 cents. People began to trade in their V8 engine cars for foreign 4 cylinder high-fuel-efficient cars. This allowed me to buy my first car, a 1971 AMC V8 Sportabout station wagon, for only $500.
I spent $5 a week for gas money to go back and forth from Butler to Grove City College, where I was studying for my Bachelors degree in Mathematics. This was my first experience in dealing with the impact of "high" gasoline prices and making adjustments to our lives.
The 80s and 90s
After college, I moved to New Jersey to take a system engineering position. I did mostly local traveling, except for frequent trips back home to Butler to see my family, so gas expenses weren't too bad most of the time. But in 1990, I took a new job that required me to travel 55 miles back and forth to Atlantic City every work day.
Gas was about one dollar a gallon at that point, and I needed to fill-up twice a week to make the commute. Luckily, I was driving a small 6-cylinder pick-up truck which got pretty good gas mileage (22-24 MPG). I did this commute for ten years and watched the price of gas go up to about $1.50 a gallon during that time.
Along the way I got married and adopted twin boys, earned an MBA degree and got divorced, all the time watching gas prices go up, up, up.
But I also headed up an innovative FAA wiring system diagram project that enabled me to travel to 20 air traffic control centers. While I was there, I visited and fell in love with the Rocky Mountains in Denver, Salt Lake and Albuquerque. I also learned to country dance and practiced karate with my boys, where I additionally met my significant other, Kathi.
Kathi and I shared many interests and began to take yearly vacation trips out west to various areas of the Rocky Mountains, where we backpacked and looked for a new place to live.
The 2000s
By the year 2000, I had tired of the FAA (and the 110-mile daily round trip commute), and decided to take a new engineering job closer to home. While I was enjoying doing only a 10-mile local drive to work, gasoline prices finally topped $2 a gallon, which I had thought would never happen.
When my boys graduated from high school and Kathi's girls from college, we began to plan for our move out west. One of our trips was to Missoula, Montana, and we fell in love with the town. I also decided to switch careers and enrolled in an online teacher certification program out of Montana State, so that I could become a high school math teacher. This put the dream into action...
In the summer of 2005, with my online program underway, we sold our house and I ended my career as an engineer. Then we said our good-byes and headed west out of NJ as gas prices hit $3 a gallon as a result of Hurricane Katrina's devastating effect on the Gulf oil rigs.
Of course, our cross country driving trip was very expensive and again, I felt the pinch in the pocketbook; but I hoped this was only a temporary rise in gas prices. It never really happened, though. Instead, prices stayed barely below $3 a gallon.
If you haven't heard, teachers—especially those of us who live out west—earn pretty low salaries... so the price of gas is a big issue. I've only traveled 10 miles or less back & forth to work the past 2 years, but still...
So, recently, I began to ponder what options I had to cut costs on gas. In fact, I even began to question the need of using my Dodge Dakota pickup truck as a commuter vehicle to go back & forth between work and our home in Boise, Idaho. Yes we moved from Missoula, with a 1-year stop in Kamiah/Kooskia, Idaho. Long story, but we decided rural life is not for us and Kathi's mom also had some medical problems and needed more full-time help from us, so we relocated (again) to Boise in the summer of 2007.
The Jim McCue smart Cars Connection
So every morning since September, while traveling to work, I've seen car after car with only 1 or 2 people commuting to work. And I wondered how everybody is dealing with the high price of gas and when will we all be forced to change our driving habits.
Then, last November, I saw my first smart car come whizzing by me. I said to myself, "This is the commuter car of the future!" and began my pursuit to learn what the heck that little car was all about and how do I get one.
Well, I hope my "Jim McCue story" gives you the background to where I'm at today being a smart cars enthusiast...
Currently, during the spring of 2008, gas prices in Boise are around $3.99 per gallon for regular and are rumors that it will reach $5 per gallon by July. This has only fueled my passion even more to help people like you see smart cars as a solution to reduce fuel costs and help the environment.
I believe America will begin to look for solutions that they can control and implement such as buying better fuel efficient vehicles, cut down on the amount of miles driven, consider using scooters around town to run errands, walk and use bicycles when possible. Perhaps carpooling will again become popular, along with using public transportation.
I've always wondered why America did not gain its independence from foreign fuel. We have had over thirty years to "fix" this problem and instead have only "skirted" around it by going to war in the Middle East twice. Imagine if we as a country were energy independent, had alternate sources such as solar and wind developed to the maximum, had more high energy efficient vehicles. Together as a Nation, we could make a difference...
Sorry, sometimes my passion gets a little carried away... back to the smart cars...
I love the "critters!" I recently went to Austin, Texas and visited my first Smartcenter in nearby Round Rock. I even got to test drive my very first smart car – a bright yellow one!
Check out my smart car adventures with pictures, videos and stories!
(Click Here)
I'm happy you got a chance to know more about me (Jim McCue) by reading all the way through my story...
