Obviously by going from 10 to 20. You are doubling your milage per gallon. Everybody knows that the low end of the range is where the big savings are.
This is just more "Europe Is Better" nonsense. It all means the same thing, but this guy reflexively believes that the European way is the smart way and the American way is "stupid".
It's always that way with this type of guy.
“Do you save more gasoline by going from 10 to 20 mpg, or going from 33 to 50 mpg?”
Consuming one tank of gas, you save no gasoline by going from 10 to 20 mpg; but you do travel twice as far. MPG is a more intuitive measure of bang for your buck.
Europe is not better. I just came back from there.
They move from their cramped apartments to their government jobs in hot, Smelly underground tubes. Those fortunate to have their own transportation have tiny little smart cars.
I never felt so free as when I returned and drove, alone, in my huge SUV with air conditioning, surround sound stereo, satellite navigation and cell phone.
True. But what if I asked you to compare 10 to 20 mpg, vs 20 to 40 mpg?
You might say they are equal, because in both cases you double your miles per gallon.
But if we look at gallons per 100 miles, we'd see that's not the case. 10 mpg is 10 gphm. 20 mpg is 5 gphm. 40 mpg is 2.5 gphm.
So you can see that improving from 10 to 20 mpg saves you 5 gallons of gas per 100 miles driven. improving from 20 to 40 mpg only saves you 2.5 gallons per 100 miles driven.
Extra credit: How much better do you need from a 20 mpg car to save as much gasoline as you save going from 10 mpg to 20 mpg?
Answer: You can't. You'd need an electric car, because you have to improve from 20 mpg to infinite miles per gallon;
The gallons per 100 miles measurement makes it easy to see exactly how much gasoline you would save with the improvement; and since most people know how many miles they drive a year, they can quickly and easily figure out how many fewer gallons of gas they would use, which would tell them whether upgrading their car would ever pay off.
Most people assume that if they could improve their car from 50 mpg to 100 mpg, they'd pay off as quickly as, say, improving from 10 to 20 mpg. in fact, you save 1 gallon per 100 miles improving from 50 to 100 mpg. To save the same amount if you have a 10 mpg car (10 gallons per 100), you only need to go to 9 gallons per 100, which is about 11 miles per gallon.
IN other words, in terms of absolute savings, making sure your 10 mpg car is tuned up and the tires are fully inflated (gaining you around 2 mpg improvement) will save you more money each year than converting a 50 mpg car into an electric car.