Quote:
Originally Posted by John_H
Deal breaker? $1.60 a tank will keep someone from owning a car?
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Not necessarily a deal breaker, but it does reduce the financial fuel economy of the vehicle more than the $1.60-$1.80 per tank might suggest. As an example let's say we have a Yaris and a fortwo. To make things easy, let's assume that both have 10 gallon fuel tanks. We will use today's AAA average fuel prices:
Regular unleaded: $2.572
Premium unleaded: $2.828
Yaris highway rating = 36 mpg
fortwo highway rating = 41 mpg
So, the Yaris would cost us $25.72 to fill, and we'd travel 360 miles per tank.
The fortwo would cost us $28.28 to fill, but we'd travel 410 miles per tank.
As you can see, the fortwo allows us to travel 50 miles further, but costs us an extra $2.56 to fill. That $2.56 (the additional cost of running "premium") can purchase another gallon of fuel for the Yaris, which will then be able to travel an additional 36 miles. This leaves the fortwo with effectively only 14 additional miles "per tank" over the Yaris.
Looked at another way:
Yaris
$25.72 = 10 gallons of regular unleaded
10 gallons x EPA 36 mpg rating = 360 miles
36 "price-adjusted" mpg
fortwo
25.72 = 9.095 gallons premium unleaded
9.095 gallons x EPA 41 mpg rating = 372.89 miles
37.29 "price-adjusted" mpg
what people have to realize is that in general we are filling up with $20 to $25 bucks at any given time. this car does not have that gas caverns that people with a Lincoln navigator or other behemoth are forced to fill.. to get a similar mile range.........
Clearly the cost of the fortwo is less, since the calculations still show the fortwo achieving a higher "price-adjusted" mpg. However, the point was that the seeming 5 mpg difference between something like the Yaris and the fortwo shrinks significantly from an economic standpoint when you factor in the actual fuel cost differential.
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