My car gets somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 mpg. But so what? What does that mean?
A better way is to measure how many gallons per 100 miles. So I get 4 gallons per 100 miles, an SUV gets something like 7 gallons per 100 miles, and a hybrid gets 2 gallons gallons per 100 miles, or better.
The weird thing is that this shows you that switching from a Land Cruiser to an Elantra saves more gas (3 gallons per 100 miles) than switching from an Elantra to a hybrid (2 gallons per 100 miles). You could probably figure out as much with mpg, but this way of doing it makes it much more clear. (To me, anyway.)
Here’s the example they give:
For instance, trading in an SUV that travels 10 miles for every gallon of fuel for another that can go 20 miles, saves 5 gallons on a 100 mile journey. However, trading a small 25-mpg car for a 50-mpg car saves only 2 gallons per 100 miles travelled.
I think it’s just how your mind “works” Chutney.
It’s not going to be available outside of CA for a while… but the Aptera (I’m on the list for one… in early-mid 2010, I’m guessing) hybrid will get–oh, wait, you want it in gallons per mile… um…–somewhere between 1 gallon per 250 miles and 1 gallon per 300 miles. Call it .33 to .4 gallons per hundred miles.
Whatever one shifts from to that will be a stunning improvement. In our case, it’ll be from about 1 gallon per 25 miles (except when I drive it instead of the van, in which case it’s about 1 per 18 miles).
Saving, um…
No, this way of thinking about it doesn’t feel clearer to me. It’s like walking around in clown shoes. I’m not sure yet if that’s with or without the optional red rubber ball nose.
… 3.6 (worst case) to 5.2 gallons per hundred miles over what we’ve got now. But 13.9 gallons per 100 miles over the ethically challenged and fiscally challenged Tyrannosaur SUV you’re watching flailing on the edge of that tar pit.
Now… what MIGHT be useful to the car buyer is this:
How many DOLLARS per mile (or hundred miles) will you save by driving car X over car Y.
Using the soon to go extinct Tyrannosaur as our baseline, assuming gas at (looking across the street for the latest market price…) $4.79/gal–that number’s $68.43 per hundred miles… $0.685 dollars/mile.
SAVINGS by driving:
Elantra (current): $49.27/hundred or $0.49/mile
Hybrid (current): $58.85/hundred or $0.59/mile
Aptera (2010ish): $66.51/hundred or $0.66/mile
Personally, I think the fact that bigger numbers (yes, savings) get shown are emotionally deceptive. After all, we want the cheapest cost, not the highest savings (even though they’re the same).
Telling you that the T. Rex costs you $0.69 per mile in gas, the Elantra $0.19, the hybrid $0.10 per mile and the Aptera costs $0.02 per mile–that seems like the best presentation. I think.
Geek out.
Yes. I was going to say that if I went from 25 miles per gallon to 50 miles per gallon, I would pay half as much at the gas station.