So I recently got a new car and it tracks your average MPG in real-time. Because of this, every time I drive I treat it like a game to get better MPG. I thought it would be fun to see what that means practically.
I'm going to use some ballpark figures.
If I drive 12,000 miles a year, and gas is $2.50, what's the difference between getting 30 mpg and 35 mpg?
30 mpg = $1000 in gas money per year
35 mpg = $857 in gas money per year
That's a savings of $143 every year, reduction of 14.3%. Not too bad.
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You get better mpg on uncongested roads vs stopping and starting all the time. So I wondered, it is cheaper to take a longer route with better mpg or a shorter route with worse mpg?
First up, let's compare a 20 mile route where you can get 30 mpg vs a 25 mile route you could get 35 mpg.
20/30 = $1.67 in gas
25/35 = $1.78 in gas
If your route is 20 miles and you're getting 30 mpg, and you know that you can get 35 mpg on a longer route, it only is cheaper if the longer route is less than 23 miles. But you're still putting more miles on your car. My take is it's generally best to take the shortest route and drive to get the best mpg you can.
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