My Calculations On Low Cost High Mileage Cars

BobDiaz

BobDiaz

The Professor
I first generated these charts for a Smart Car Forum, but decided to share it here in the "off topic" area. I took information I gathered from the LA Auto Show and entered it into a spreadsheet. Now that gas has hit $4 per gallon, and could go a lot higher, I decided to see which car has the lowest cost as far as the base price and cost of gas.

Now, let me point out there are a lot of other important variables missing from these numbers, so this is NOT the final word, just a rough calculation as to expected costs.

In order to make the charts a bit more readable, I color coded them:

Color_Codes.png


MPG-4.png


MPG-6.png


MPG-8.png


MPG-10.png


The big shocker was that I expected the Prius to offer real savings over other cars when gas goes above $4 a gallon, but it's not as much as I'd expect. Not that the Prius is a bad car. My wife and I own one.

Keep in mind that the chart is looking on high millage low cost cars, so while some cars may look bad, like the Cooper Mini, it does very well compared to many other cars. If you look at the bottom of each chart, you'll see the Hummer H3 appears for comparison.


Bob Diaz
 
Depends on how you drive the Prius. If you drive it like a regular car, then yeah, you'll get 46mpg. If you embrace the hybridness and drive it like it's meant to be, it's hard to get much below 54mpg, and I frequently get 75.
 
I just couldn't ever bring myself to purchasing a Prius. In fact, not to step on toes or anything, but everytime I pass one when driving my nice comfortable 7 seater SUV I cringe a little.
 
ConspiracyPenguin said:
I just couldn't ever bring myself to purchasing a Prius. In fact, not to step on toes or anything, but everytime I pass one when driving my nice comfortable 7 seater SUV I cringe a little.
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Sooner or later this is going to veer into a political thing, so let's not. If someone wants to buy and drive a Prius, that's their choice and let's let 'em. If someone wants to drive a big SUV, that's their choice and let's let 'em.

(and Penguin, if you're saying that because you mean it, that's one thing, but if you're saying it just to be controversial and to spark a reaction, that'd be trolling so let's not do that.)
 
Barry_Green said:
Depends on how you drive the Prius. If you drive it like a regular car, then yeah, you'll get 46mpg. If you embrace the hybridness and drive it like it's meant to be, it's hard to get much below 54mpg, and I frequently get 75.
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We used to drive our Prius like a normal car and our mpg's were usually between 42-45. However we've recently stopped that and now lock the cruise control at 55mph. The other night I got 49.1mpg over a 200 mile trip.
 
And that one change just resulted in (effectively) your price of gas dropping about 75 cents a gallon (comparing 49 to 42). Changing your driving style makes a *massive* improvement in your MPG. I regularly get 29mpg out of a Honda Element, a vehicle that the EPA rates at 20MPG. I think a lot of people may not realize that cars don't "get" a "fixed" number of miles per gallon, it's all determined by how you drive.

The greatest thing for modifying your driving behavior is to get an instantaneous fuel economy gauge. Some cars come with 'em, but almost any car can use the ScanGauge II. That device has helped me refine my driving to the point where I'm getting over 40% better gas mileage than the EPA says I should (which means, compared to a conventional driver, my $4.00 gas is actually costing me about $2.40). The ScanGauge is awesome if you're a technogeek who wants to understand the hows and whys. It's amazing how some slight behavior modifications can result in huge MPG improvements.

However, if you just want to know when you're being wasteful (so you can stop being wasteful) then maybe something like this would be interesting:
http://gmy.news.yahoo.com/v/8159382

In there they talk about a gadget that sits on your dash and has lights from green to yellow to red, and the more wasteful you're being, the redder the gauge gets, and when you're really wasteful it beeps at you. They say people using something like that have been able to improve their mileage by something like 10 to 20%.
 
BobDiaz said:
The big shocker was that I expected the Prius to offer real savings over other cars when gas goes above $4 a gallon, but it's not as much as I'd expect. Not that the Prius is a bad car. My wife and I own one.
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it's not all that surprising to me, the prius costs thousands more than other cars on your list, such as the yaris or aveo. if you go 125,000 or 150,000 then things even out. you must also consider that the prius is a nicer vehicle with more interior cabin space.
 
Barry_Green said:
Sooner or later this is going to veer into a political thing, so let's not. If someone wants to buy and drive a Prius, that's their choice and let's let 'em. If someone wants to drive a big SUV, that's their choice and let's let 'em.

(and Penguin, if you're saying that because you mean it, that's one thing, but if you're saying it just to be controversial and to spark a reaction, that'd be trolling so let's not do that.)
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Sorry, Barry :embarasse. I would never say something in an attempt to spark debate, in fact I would normally try to prevent it (hence my custom user title) I was simply making a true statement in a slightly over exaggerated/attempted funny form. When I said "not to step on any toes" I meant it. Basically I was saying what you said, everyone can do what they want. I would never troll, it's not like I said any controversal things in the post anyway, just my opinion about a car not a political policy, etc...

I can see where it could get out of hand, but I would not have participated in that and in fact would have put my best effort forth in stopping it. Next time I will be more careful/clear.

-----------------------------------

QUOTE BREAKDOWN:

ConspiracyPenguin said:
I just couldn't ever bring myself to purchasing a Prius(1). In fact, not to step on toes or anything(2), but everytime I pass one when driving my nice comfortable 7 seater SUV I cringe a little.(3)
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1) True
2) My attempt at saying: every has a right to do as they please, so don't be angry with me
3) 7 seater SUV = true; cringing = true; over exaggeration = attempt at lightening the mood with humor, please don't confuse this with trolling
 
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hey barry, thanks for your input, i remembered seeing that scanguage a while back, but had since forgot about it, its a nifty little thing!
 
Well, one thing I determined on my last trip . . .

With gas around $4/gallon, I could fill up with regular for about $48 or premium for about $52. With premium, I pulled about 4-5 more MPG. Per mile, premium was cheaper.
 
couple of money saving tips:

(1) Check your tire pressure, this has an effect on fuel

(2) Drive in higher gears (not sure, its what I've been told)

(3) Brake gently, guage things ahead of time, so the car comes to rest "naturally" and not sharply

(4) Pull away gently think "Glide" as if some is trying to shoot a film hand held, no jerky movements

(5) Get rid of un needed weight, car racks etc (when your not using them)

Walk/Cycle for journeys less than 1~2 miles :D
 
Sad Max said:
Can we do bikes next...?
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The people in the Scooter Forum where I also post messages did ask me for that so here's the chart with the Honda BR (Big Ruckus) and the Honda LR (Little Ruckus).

LRBR-4.png


The BR has a 249cc engine and the LR has a 49cc engine and both get really good gas millage. The bigger bikes, which have a lot more power and are far better for real trips, won't get as good a millage. A 249cc will work on a freeway, but that is pushing what the engine can do. Many feel that 350cc to 500cc is a minimum for a bike on the freeway. I think that the Honda Silverwing 500cc gets about 50 MPG.


PRIUS:

A chart of raw numbers can be a bit misleading. After having driven the Prius for thousands of road trip miles, to me it's a wonderful car. City millage seems to hover around 40 MPG, but short trips seem to provide lower millage. On long trips, the Prius seems to get about 52 MPG.

I've driven the car on really long trips, where we would drive for about 11 hours each day. The comfort of the car is wonderful, a fact that my chart can't show.


Still, the chart can be helpful to a point, because I'm reading that gas may hit $6 per gallon in 1 or 2 years. While cars change every year, it's nice to see which cars offer the best MPG and low cost at the same time.


Bob Diaz
 
Excellent work, Bob. When I saw that new chart I was instantly amazed, thought you did it just now. Turns out you're hat is full of useful info.
 
Barry, care to share any of these driving tips that are getting you all that extra gas mileage? Or are they the standard stuff recommended over and over again (don't bolt out of stops, etc) that you just put into practice.

I have tried driving with all those things in mind and I never notice a difference in how many miles I get per tank. Then again, my car is horrible: 94 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Check it out, 13mpg City/18mpg Highway if I am lucky. Oh, and a 21 gallon gas tank.

So often I have thought about selling it and picking up something else but I hate giving up the space (I carry big stuff often enough) and I always think of how much gas I could buy with the money I would use paying off a new (used) car. Rock and a hard place. Luckily I can bike 90% of the time when I need to commute, the advantage of a small city!
 
William_Robinette said:
...So often I have thought about selling it and picking up something else but I hate giving up the space (I carry big stuff often enough) and I always think of how much gas I could buy with the money I would use paying off a new (used) car. Rock and a hard place...
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I am 100% with you. The 16 MPG of my SUV has gotten me to the point of considering trading for a Ford Fusion or Focus even, but I just can't get rid of all the space. I mean seating for 7, I've had a treadmill in there, a patio set, etc, etc...endless uses. I just won't give it up, also there is no payment now so that's cool. '03 Chevy TrailBlazer LT EXT.
 
William_Robinette said:
Barry, care to share any of these driving tips that are getting you all that extra gas mileage? Or are they the standard stuff recommended over and over again (don't bolt out of stops, etc) that you just put into practice.
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It's all about preservation of momentum. Getting up to speed is expensive, coasting is free. Pulse 'n' Glide, and if you ever transition from the gas pedal to the brake, you've just thrown away a ton of money. Basically, drive it like a hybrid.

If you want to learn about momentum, go to the grocery store and shove a heavy shopping cart around for a while. It takes enormous effort to get it moving, but once it's moving it takes relatively little effort to keep it going at a constant speed. You'll learn very quickly when it's your legs doing the work. Well, the same work gets done by your engine, which costs gas. Move that car like you'd move the shopping cart and you'll find your mileage skyrocketing.

I don't cotton to the idea of crawling away from a stop sign or stoplight; get up to speed promptly and then stay there. Changing speed and especially gradual acceleration are very wasteful. You're much better off to promptly (but reasonably) get up to speed and then glide, than you are to continually stay on the gas, speeding up, closing gaps, having to brake, then having to speed up again, over and over.

The easiest thing to do is allow a decent-sized gap in front of you and then just use your cruise control when it's safe to do so. Maintaining speed is a lot less expensive than speeding up/slowing down.

And take it easy on the air conditioner. On the Element the air conditioner costs about 20% MPG. Pushing that button causes MPG to drop from 35 down to 28; that's like having your $3.20 gas shoot up to $4.00. So only use it when it's really worth it.
 
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