steakums sent me this link, in our ongoing discussions about whether to minivan or not to minivan.
One commenter on this article said : I don’t know why everyone is opposed to SUV’s. I personally love mine, and it gets great gas mileage, contrary to the popular belief. I fill it up once a week, ($30-35) and I can go all week on one tank of gas. (I live very close to work).
Leaving aside the ignorance on how one measures “gas mileage”, this comment dredged up a pet peeve I have about discussing gas mileage. It bothers me to an extent, and probably irrationally so, when I ask someone how their gas mileage is on their vehicle, and they say “Great! It’s about 20MPG!”
While I’ll allow that 20MPG could be relatively “great” for a specific type of vehicle, say a Semi or a garbage barge, I can’t allow that it is empirically “great” for anything.
So, I’m offering an empirical rating chart for gas mileage conversations. You and yours may choose to adopt it, you may not. I offer it as a suggestion, and letting everyone know what I mean when I say “great”.
MPG RATING 0-20MPG embarrassing 20-30MPG poor 30-40MPG acceptable 40-50MPG good 50MPG-100MPG great 100MPG+ awesome
These will have to be adjusted periodically for technological improvements.
And, of course, one can still use phrases with relative qualifications, such as “My minivan gets 35MPG, which is great for a minivan.” I’ve got no beef with that.
The trend toward larger vehicles has really warped people’s sense of what is good mileage; I remember about 10 or so years ago, 30+ MPG used to be considered pretty good. Anyhoo, just after we bought our Rodeo, I did some comparisons between small-medium SUVs and minivans, since someone asserted that minivans get “much better” mileage, and their MPGs are generally about the same (about 18-25).
Indeed.
There are some minivans that claim somewhere around 32-35MPG, but that’s sticker MPG. Who knows what they really are?
So if I have a Toyota Prius (52) and a Jeep Wrangler (22) and the Prius does approximately 300 miles a week, and the Wrangler does 115, then prorated MPG is about 38, acceptable (I used a spreadsheet, but in the interest of… interest, I’ll forgo showing my math).
OTOH I presume I’d get an adjustment for heavy duty use since the Jeep gets used with the trailer a lot, and the MPG is “great for an honest utility vehicle.” Can I get an extra 2 MPG average for a good rating?
I don’t intend the table as a evaluation of the people driving the cars, of course. Good people drive embarrassing cars. I know some, I like them all the same. I’ve been one.
Bottom line, were I you, I’d feel pretty good about myself. Acceptable is above average.
Funny, you don’t seem calm.
Ha!
It’s the font. I really am.
Those are some tough standards. There are very few autos on the road today that will actually get that mileage, despite what their manufacturers claim.
My 2007 Honda Civic claims 30-38 MPG, but consistently gets less than 30 MPG, regardless of driving conditions. My 1994 Toyota Corolla claimed 24-32MPG and got between 28 and 30 MPG. (I realize that neither car “claimed” anything — the claims were from the manufacturers.)
I would hazard that there aren’t any mini-vans or SUVs that get far beyond medium-to-poor embarrassing.
Tough times call for tough standards. We can either rationalize our 25MPG car as “good” or “great”, or we can accept that our car’s mileage sucks and strive towards a brighter future.
The average person drives a poor car. I have, often, in my life. I drove an embarrassing car for 4 years (1979 Jeep CJ5, 14MPG).
Your 2007 claims 30-38MPG, but gets less than 30 MPG?
Wow.
I don’t know what my 1997 Honda Civic claims, but it gets 33MPG every time I do the calculation, which is often.
What the heck happened in those 10 years?
My guess is people kept calling 20-30MPG “great” and the Honda engineers finally threw up their hands and said “what’s the point?”
Are you basing your range on the spread of what is available 9one datapoint per model), or on the population of vehicles currently on the road (weighted for quantity), or just off the top of the old noggin?
Based on my gut, 20-30 mpg is about midpoint in the weighted scheme, would you agree?
I’m basing it on what I believe can be considered “good” or “great” given today’s technology. “Good” or “great” may be impractically expensive (it is for us) or impractical for other reasons (need to haul stuff), but that doesn’t change what is empirically “good” or “great” or “embarrassing” IMHO. As the available technology improves, I’ll set the bar higher.
I would agree the average driver has a car with “poor” gas mileage, and the average car available to us is “poor”.
Are you discussing EPA mileage, or empirical mileage? With our driving style we tend to get about 44MPG out of our Prius. Rather than the EPA 52. So are we “good” or “great”?
Good. I deal in reality.
You liberal, you.
I was just talking to folks at the dealership who said that our 52 MPG we’re getting now vs. the 54 to 56 we got in the summer is probably mostly due to how the outside temperature affects the batteries and the braking system.
Though it has to be said when I drive the Prius it drops below 50, and Julie can end a tank at 54-56 as long as her commute doesn’t piss her off. So she’s a greater driver than me, she’ll be pleased to know it.
🙂
I just know that were I to have an electric, I would in no way shape or form achieve the rated maximum range, due to poor driving habits.
If it is a plug in electric, who cares? So long as you have enough range to get you there and back, all is good. Just plug it in every night.
The range argument against electric cars just makes me want to taser people.
Oh, no disagreement there. As Ed Begley, Jr said, “the electric car is deemed impractical because the range only meets the needs of 95% of the population.”
Some day, I will own one. Mark my words.
But, I will still feel bad about decreased range due to poor driving habits, because energy is energy, after all. Or, rather, energy-derived-from-oil is energy-derived-from-oil, after all.
That is what the rooftop solar panels and the backyard windmill is for.
But that energy could have been put back on the grid!
I totally want rooftop solar panels.
The windmill isn’t for tilting? Sancho! Put away my lance! We’ll get no satisfaction here!
Driving style is very important, but also trip type. Right now and I both work from home most days and most of the trips we do take are extremely short (2-3 miles to the grocery, hardware, or liquor store, or Dekalb Farmer’s Market). With maybe two trips a week longer than 10 miles, and one or two a month of 146 miles.
Those 1-2 mile trips are brutal on the economy. The engine is in warm up phase the whole time, so we only get 30-35 mpg there.
Those 1-2 mile trips are brutal on the economy. The engine is in warm up phase the whole time, so we only get 30-35 mpg there.
Exactly. It’s why my gas mileage is so awful. Well, that and my driving style. On the plus side, I didn’t fill up my tank for over a month. But I only went 190 miles in that month.