The tables below show the fuel efficiency for some common cars in both MPG and GPM. \u00a0These tables also shows the fuel cost per 10,000 miles at $4 per gallon. \u00a0This cost varies proportionally with GPM.<\/p>\n

The first table shows the 10 bestselling vehicles for 2010:<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t

Sales Rank:<\/th>	Model<\/th>	City (MPG)<\/th>	Hwy (MPG)<\/th>	City (GPM)<\/th>	Hwy (GPM)<\/th>	City (Cost per 10,000 miles @ $4\/gallon)<\/th>	Hwy (Cost per 10,000 miles @ $4\/gallon)<\/th>\n\t<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
1<\/td>	Ford F-150<\/td>	14<\/td>	18<\/td>	0.071<\/td>	0.056<\/td>	$2,857.14 <\/td>	$2,222.22 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t
2<\/td>	Chevrolet Silverado<\/td>	15<\/td>	20<\/td>	0.067<\/td>	0.050<\/td>	$2,666.67 <\/td>	$2,000.00 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t
3<\/td>	Toyota Camry<\/td>	22<\/td>	33<\/td>	0.045<\/td>	0.030<\/td>	$1,818.18 <\/td>	$1,212.12 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t
4<\/td>	Honda Accord<\/td>	23<\/td>	33<\/td>	0.043<\/td>	0.030<\/td>	$1,739.13 <\/td>	$1,212.12 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t
5<\/td>	Toyota Corolla<\/td>	26<\/td>	35<\/td>	0.038<\/td>	0.029<\/td>	$1,538.46 <\/td>	$1,142.86 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t
6<\/td>	Honda Civic<\/td>	26<\/td>	34<\/td>	0.038<\/td>	0.029<\/td>	$1,538.46 <\/td>	$1,176.47 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t
7<\/td>	Nissan Altima<\/td>	23<\/td>	32<\/td>	0.043<\/td>	0.031<\/td>	$1,739.13 <\/td>	$1,250.00 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t
8<\/td>	Ford Fusion<\/td>	22<\/td>	29<\/td>	0.045<\/td>	0.034<\/td>	$1,818.18 <\/td>	$1,379.31 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t
9<\/td>	Honda CR-V<\/td>	21<\/td>	28<\/td>	0.048<\/td>	0.036<\/td>	$1,904.76 <\/td>	$1,428.57 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t
10<\/td>	Dodge Ram<\/td>	14<\/td>	20<\/td>	0.071<\/td>	0.050<\/td>	$2,857.14 <\/td>	$2,000.00 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/p>\n This table shows the 10 most fuel efficient vehicles for 2010:<\/p>\n \n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t Efficency Rank:<\/th> Model<\/th> City (MPG)<\/th> Hwy (MPG)<\/th> City (GPM)<\/th> Hwy (GPM)<\/th> City (Cost per 10,000 miles @ $4\/gallon)<\/th> Hwy (Cost per 10,000 miles @ $4\/gallon)<\/th>\n\t<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n 1<\/td> Toyota Prius<\/td> 51<\/td> 48<\/td> 0.020<\/td> 0.021<\/td> $784.31<\/td> $833.33<\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t 2<\/td> Ford Fusion (Hybrid)<\/td> 41<\/td> 36<\/td> 0.024<\/td> 0.028<\/td> $975.61<\/td> $1,111.11 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t 3<\/td> Honda Civic (Hybrid)<\/td> 40<\/td> 45<\/td> 0.025<\/td> 0.022<\/td> $1,000.00 <\/td> $888.89<\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t 4<\/td> Honda Insight (Hybrid)<\/td> 40<\/td> 43<\/td> 0.025<\/td> 0.023<\/td> $1,000.00 <\/td> $930.23<\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t 5<\/td> Lexus HS 250h<\/td> 35<\/td> 34<\/td> 0.029<\/td> 0.029<\/td> $1,142.86 <\/td> $1,176.47 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t 6<\/td> Nissan Altima (Hybrid)<\/td> 35<\/td> 34<\/td> 0.029<\/td> 0.029<\/td> $1,142.86 <\/td> $1,176.47 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t 7<\/td> Ford Escape (Hybrid)<\/td> 34<\/td> 31<\/td> 0.029<\/td> 0.032<\/td> $1,176.47 <\/td> $1,290.32 <\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t 8<\/td> Smart Coupe<\/td> 33<\/td> 41<\/td> 0.030<\/td> 0.024<\/td> $1,212.12 <\/td> $975.61<\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t 9<\/td> Audi A3<\/td> 30<\/td> 42<\/td> 0.033<\/td> 0.024<\/td> $1,333.33 <\/td> $952.38<\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n\t 10<\/td> Volkwagen Jetta SportWagen (TDI)<\/td> 30<\/td> 42<\/td> 0.033<\/td> 0.024<\/td> $1,333.33 <\/td> $952.38<\/td>\n\t<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/p>\n How Much is Fuel Efficiency Worth?<\/h5>\n So, back to my original comment about the recent run-up in prices for the used Toyota Prius. \u00a0Is a 30% increase in prices justified by rising fuel prices?<\/p>\n For comparison, lets use the fuel economy for city driving, where the Prius shines most, and compare that to the most fuel efficient car from the 10 best selling cars of 2010.<\/p>\n The Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic both have an estimated fuel cost of \u00a0$1,538.46 per\u00a010,000 miles of city driving. \u00a0The Prius has a fuel cost of $784.31 per\u00a010,000 miles.<\/p>\n FuelCostDifference = $1,538.46 – $784.31 \u00a0= $754.14<\/em><\/p>\n A savings of $754.14 is certainly meaningful, but this is total<\/em> savings per 10,000 miles. Since the beginning of the year, the price of gasoline has increased by a little less than $1 per gallon, so the\u00a0increase in\u00a0savings is only about $189 per 10,000 miles. \u00a0 This doesn’t seem to be sufficient savings to justify a price increase on used Priuses of $5000 to $6000 over a 4 month period….unless the buyer expects very large\u00a0near-term\u00a0gasoline price increases or plans to drive the car for several hundred thousand miles!<\/p>\n I think that the increase in Prius prices must be the result of more than just the increase in fuel prices or even expectations of future fuel price increases. \u00a0Instead, I think there are some consumers who simply want to burn as little\u00a0gasoline as possible, even if they have to pay a premium to achieve this goal. \u00a0There is nothing wrong with this viewpoint, but it seems the shortage of available Prius vehicles as a result of the Japan quake has caused the “eco-premium” to rise substantially.<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/h5>\n I am a fan a fuel efficiency and low vehicle operating cost, but I think the relationship between fuel efficiency and driving cost is poorly understood as a result of our focus on MPG.<\/p>\n There is a big bang for your buck when moving away from a gas-guzzling vehicle with low MPG, but there is a diminishing return as MPG increases.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If we condition ourselves to evaluate fuel economy using GPM instead of MPG we will be better equipped to properly evaluate the trade-offs between fuel economy and other vehicle selection criteria.<\/p>\n Note: The Google Docs spreadsheet used to generate the plots and tables in this post is available here<\/a>. \u00a0Public editing of the sheet is not enabled, so you will need to save a copy if you wish to make your own modifications.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How Much is\u00a0that Increase in MPG Really\u00a0Worth? With fuel prices near the $4 per gallon level, there has been a lot of discussion in the media about fuel economy.\u00a0 Last week, on the National Public Radio program, Marketplace, I was listening to a\u00a0story about the rising demand for fuel efficient cars, and I was struck […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calculatinginvestor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calculatinginvestor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calculatinginvestor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calculatinginvestor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calculatinginvestor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2780"}],"version-history":[{"count":103,"href":"https:\/\/www.calculatinginvestor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2889,"href":"https:\/\/www.calculatinginvestor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions\/2889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calculatinginvestor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calculatinginvestor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calculatinginvestor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}