Automotive

I’m still having a hard time adjusting my thinking to the gas mileage EPA rating changes that went into affect this year. I remember buying my used Toyota Camry thinking it would get me around 26 mpg city and 34 mpg highway. I keep having to tell myself that I should be happy now if it gets 21 mpg in the city and 30 mpg on the highway.

It may not seem like that 4-5 miles per gallon drop is much, especially since it represents mileage that I never truly got. The thing is, I always believed that’s what I was getting.  

I thought my car got good gas mileage. I thought I was being thrifty, and smart driving a car much better for the environment and my budget than one of those gas guzzling SUVs or minivans.

I thought wrong. We all did. There was no grand conspiracy to keep us all complacent and to keep us feeling good about buying cars that have not changed much (under the hood) from the very first models Henry Ford produced.  

Heck, back then you could have any color car you wanted, so long as it was black. Now you can have any size or shape car you want, so long as you realize it will get the same miles per gallon, or less, than that first Model T got. Oh, and it will cost as much as a small house does too.

No, there’s no reason to think that any car dealer or manufacturer would inflate the gas mileage number just to make a sale. Or to think that they’ve been drumming a love of performance and speed and performance and luxury and performance into our heads with relentless advertising just to get us to look past the fact that the science behind our cars has not evolved much in 100 years.

Frankly, I’m beginning to feel a bit like I’ve been robbed. Five miles per gallon, times 14 (the saize of an average tank of gas) adds up. I’ve lost 70 miles per tank, and at 21 mpg, that’s nearly 3 gallons.  Three gallons at $4.00 per gallon is $12 per tank

$12 per tank. I fill up every 5-7 days. That is getting a bit much to just shrug off.  I want that $50 per month back.

How about you? There’s a no cost gas mileage epa calculator here (appropriately enough the site is called Gas Mileage Calculators) that will tell you what your new gas mileage epa rating is when you put in your old number.  It might just help motivate you to start practicing a few of the driving techniques in the free ebook they offer when you sign up for the newsletter.