Posted on 07/13/2010 8:04:34 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
“Why not give people a more useful yard stick with which to compare vehicles
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1970 Cadillac Sedan Deville, 4 door, 500 cu. in., loaded pulling 6X12 tandem trailer packed full. 17 mpg at 70 mph.
Best mileage I have ever experienced.
Oh, yeah...
This will go over well with people who can't even make change correctly at McDonalds.
-PJ
Well, yes. That's it, basically.
I know what I want, and I work so that I can afford it. If I want more, I work harder. My money is not limited, because I can always work more. That's the American way.
The European mindset, on the other hand, holds that my consumption will be limited, so it doesn't make sense to work harder and I better turn my attention to living well within those limited means. That's the European way.
They both make sense. Pick the one you like best. I like the American way.
A man after my own heart! Everyone should use Furlongs per fortnight.
I have to leave you now to go out and drive my car around. I will drive about 10 miles, which is the distance to the restaurant where I will be eating lunch and back. I don’t know exactly how much fuel I will consume, nor do I care. I have a half a tank, which will be enough.
I will greatly enjoy my lunch, without thinking too much about how it will effect my daily intake of calories. If I get the steak and potatoes with the pie for desert and a couple of beers, I will make sure to run a couple of extra miles in the morning.
Right. MPG wasn't very useful to you. So you used something similar to L/100KM or gallons/100miles. In your case, it was probably 10gallons/250miles or 1 tank/250 miles or $25/250 miles.
Anyone that thinks in terms of dollars per tank per 300 miles is already pretty close to thinking in terms of gallons/100miles.
LOL. You should have sent her.
It’s just a ratio. Seriously, is it that hard to figure out?
They weren’t designing an airplane. They measured a pool, obviously with some acceptable margin of error. For us to state that means the Bible says pi equals 3.000... is for us to violate the significant figure rule right now.
In keeping with prevalent social trends, motor vehicles will now be rated on how good they make you feel about yourself instead of the outdated notion of fuel economy.
I think that's the point. Relative mpg measurements are obviously too difficult for many to understand correctly. Changing it makes it so even that crowd can judge relative fuel consumption accurately.
That reminds me of another story from that trip. The next day we were driving along and saw three or four vans out in the tall grass. I knew there was a leopard in the area, and the girlfriend had not seen one yet, so I got off the road.
Well, in the tall grass, we couldn't see a thing in that little Renault 4, so she starts in again, about how she wants to see the leopard, and why can't she if all these people in the vans can, etc.
I told her that if she wanted to see the bloody thing, she should get out of the car and walk over and take a look. Then the van driver next to me leans over and tells me that if she opened that door, he was going to call the Ranger.
I just about let her go, then thought better of it...
You’re missing the point, gallons per 100 miles wouldn’t be any more useful to me than miles per gallon, because in the end they’re the same measurement. What matters to me, and most drivers, is miles per tank because that’s how far we’ve got before we have to visit a gas station again.
I’m not thinking in dollars per anything most days. I’ve gotten lucky enough in life that I don’t care, most times when I fill up I don’t even look at the price per gallon. How many miles are left in the tank are what matters, because that determines whether I need to fill up today. I’m filling my gas tank on the way home tonight at my usual gas station, because that’s about where I’m at on the trip odometer, I can do lunch, I can get home, I can probably even be able to get to work tomorrow morning, but morning fill ups aren’t terribly convenient, and I don’t have enough to get through lunch tomorrow. I have no idea how much my usual station is charging today, and I don’t care, because it really doesn’t change that it’s time to fill it up.
The current measure (miles per gallon) IS distance traveled per gallon. So changing it would mean using something else that is less meaningful and does not provide as good a comparison. But changing it makes sense? Your statement does not.
A car which gets 20 mpg, and is driven 15K miles per year (a reasonable average), consumes 750 gallons. This costs about $2,000 at current prices near my house. Depreciation, maintenance, insurance, etc, are bigger factors in total cost of ownership of a vehicle.
HHR?? No comprende acronym.
Anyone that thinks in terms of dollars per tank per 300 miles is already pretty close to thinking in terms of gallons/100miles.
No, he was thinking 220 to 250 MILES PER TANK. He wasn't thinking of how much gas he would use to go 100 miles, but rather that he could get 220 to 250 miles per tank of gasoline. If he were thinking in terms of gallons per 100 miles, he would have been deciding whether to keep the 15 gallon tank or trade it out for the 20 gallon tank if he needed to go further.
HHR is a relatively new crossover vehicle from Government Motors. It is kind of cross between Chrysler’s PT Cruiser and Chevrolet’s Blazer. Looks like a SUV, but is lighter weight to be more fuel efficient.
Very true.
What you did is what a smart man does when he narrows his choices down to the last two or three vehicles.
But a generic yearly cost figure could help the average Joe narrow down the field to those last two or three options. (and you know your not an average Joe don’t you?)
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