mpg-o-editor

How Much Can You Save on Gas with a 40 MPG Car?

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Ready for a change? How about some change in your pocket?

When you swap out of a gas guzzler and into a fuel efficient car you will be able to calculate the savings at the end of every month. It all starts with the amount of driving you need to do each week. Try keeping track, starting on Monday when you leave for work. Write down the mileage figure shown on your odometer or reset your trip meter. Then make note of it on the following Monday (or on Sunday, when you park your ride for the night).

Add two zeros to that number, then divide it in half. If you’ve driven 300 miles in a week, for example, you’d add the two zeros to make it 30,000, and chop it down the middle. Drive 300 miles per week for fifty weeks out of the year, you’ll roll up roughly 15,000 miles. Drive 400 and you can call it 20,000.

If you own a vehicle that gets an average of 15 miles per gallon on average and drive 15,000 miles per year, you’ll pay over $4,000 per year for gasoline, with gas at $4 per gallon. If you switch into a vehicle that gets an average of 40 miles per gallon, you will spend approximately $1,500 per year, for a savings of just over $2,500 per year. That’s a serious chunk of change and may be enough to cover a significant piece of your car payment.

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Ain’t Fuelin’ Update: How Can I Increase My Gas Mileage?

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Fuel economy is the number one consideration of new car buyers these days, the surveys say (or so we’ve been told). But what about used car buyers? For every new car sold in America each year, three used cars change hands. Aren’t used car buyers similarly concerned about gas mileage? Of course they are … but no one seems to be doing anything about it. That’s why I’m rolling out my Ain’t Fuelin’ video series. I want to improve the fuel efficiency of half of the older cars on the road by ten percent through a mindful maintenance process.

I just finished testing the first vehicle for Ain’t Fuelin’, a 2010 Hyundai Sonata Limited, equipped with a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine and automatic transmission. [Complete Hyundai Sonata Gas Mileage Charts for model years 1989 through 2013.] To bring folks up to speed, I ran an impromptu Google Hangout last night to share some observations and interesting stuff I’ve found while poking around on the Internet.

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How Do Convertible Tops Affect Fuel Economy?

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There’s something about open air motoring that cannot be duplicated by a sunroof (regardless of size) or targa roof. My first car was a ragtop and I hope my last car will be as well. Needless to say, I don’t make apologies for loving convertibles.

I’ve long wondered about the effect of convertible tops on fuel economy. While I’ve never run tests on any of my own cars, I have put a number of review convertibles through highway testing loops with the top up and top down. But I haven’t had the opportunity to put a video out on the topic, until now …

The stars aligned recently, and I was able to schedule a 2013 Chrysler 200 S convertible and a 2014 Ford Mustang convertible, on back-to-back weeks. This gave me the chance to test two (of the three) American V6 convertibles available today under similar weather and traffic conditions, over an identical route.

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Hyundai Sonata Gas Mileage: 1989 – 2013

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The mid-size Hyundai Sonata was introduced to America in the 1989 model year and quickly became a hit with the value conscious. The 2013 Sonata produces solid gas mileage figures when equipped with Hyundai’s 2.4 liter engine: 35 miles per gallon (MPG) highway / 24 city / 28 combined (with either the six-speed manual or automatic transmissions). The hybrid version takes it up a notch with a rating of 36 / 40 / 38 (with the Limited edition rated at 37 combined). Our review of the 2011 Sonata shows why the redesign was met with widespread acclaim.

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Chevy Spark EV: 5x the Tesla Model S at 1/5 the Price?

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I had the opportunity to drive the 2014 Chevy Spark EV last month at a media event in Portland, Oregon. The drive route ran through the streets of the city, onto the highway, and out into the suburbs. This provided the Spark EV with an ideal setting for its virtues to shine.

It can be a trick to shoot media events like this. The schedule is extremely compressed and time behind the wheel is often limited. We set out from the garage of the Portland Kimpton hotel and headed to Electric Avenue. I hustled to get location shots and hung a pair of cameras on the car on our departure from the parking garage (although I only ended up using the external camera).

Spark EVs charging in the basement of the Portland Klimpton Hotel

Lets go out on a limb and call the Spark EV the first affordable electric hot hatch. Who could argue with 400 foot pounds of torque and a 0-60 MPH time of 7.5 seconds? With that much power, the engineers are clearly holding back its full potential, lest the front tires disintegrate into billows of smoke and shards of rubber.

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