fuel economy

Gallons Per Mile, Not Miles Per Gallon

khallgeisler — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

I was at an event with my fellow automotive journalists last week, two of whom were down from Vancouver, BC. Conversation turned to fuel economy, as it always does these days, whether you write about cars for a living or not.

The Canadians talked about their cars getting "litres per 100," which took me a minute to figure out. Like most countries that use the metric system, Canadian fuel efficiency is measured in the number of liters it takes them to travel 100 kilometers. This is exactly backward from the U.S. convention of measuring the number of miles our cars can travel on one gallon of gas.

It turns out the Canadian system gives a better measure of efficiency, according to researchers at Duke University. The team made this one-question quiz to demonstrate how our intuition fakes us out when talking about miles per gallon, as opposed to gallons per mile.

The article explains the math, which isn't all that complicated, but there's also a handy table so that we can see at a glance how the conversion helps consumers understand their vehicles' fuel usage. A car that gets 20 mpg, to use a pretty common rating for an example, uses 5 gallons per 100 miles driven. A car that gets 30 mpg uses only 3.3 gallons per 100 miles -- a savings of almost 2 gallons per mile, or about $8.50 these days.

But say you're already a Ford Fusion four-cylinder fan getting 30 mpg, or 3.3 gal/100, and you want to upgrade to a Toyota Prius. The hybrid would get about 45 mpg, or 2.2 gal/100, which only saves you 1 gallon of gas, or about $4.30. That slim difference might be enough to get you to keep the Focus, while the mid-sized sedan owner in the last example would do well to get a more efficient vehicle.

All of this is a great way to save money on gas, but let's not lose sight of the fact that every gallon of gasoline we don't use in our cars is one less reason to start drilling for oil willy-nilly. For once, saving money is about saving the planet.

By the way, our Canadian friends are paying CAN$1.40 a liter these days, or US$5 a gallon.

Photo by caribb.

My Smart Test Drive

khallgeisler — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Though they've only been available in the U.S. since January 2008, Smart cars are stirring up a lot of interest for a car so small. Once gas hit $4 a gallon, a seemingly magic number for American drivers, more people started showing up at Smart dealerships to see if the candy-colored egg of a car would suit them. I made the trek and tested the car recently to give you an idea of what to expect.

The car comes in three levels of trim: the Pure, which is so bare-bones it doesn't even have a radio; the Passion, which is the most popular version; and the Cabriolet, a convertible. They all have Smart's Tridion safety cell, the steel roll cage that protects the occupants in case of a crash, and they're all built in France and shipped to their final destinations.

Let's look at the car's pros and cons:

Pros

Affordability. The Smart starts at $11,590. The Cabriolet fitted with every bell and whistle, from metallic paint to heated seats, is still only about $18,000.

Fuel economy. The EPA rates the Smart at 35 city/41 highway.

Safety. Thanks to the Tridion structure, the Smart earned 5-star front and side crash-test ratings.

Roominess. You may be surprised to learn that the Smart was designed with a six-foot, eight-inch driver in mind. The interior is almost entirely devoted to passenger space.

Easy to Drive. There's nothing to learn; just hop in, turn the key (which is in the center console, like a Saab), throw it in drive, and go. If you want more control, use the paddle shifters or the electric stickshift at any time -- no clutch to worry about.

Easy to maintain. The engine is perched in the back under a panel. Oil, air filter, and the like are easy to access, and the motor flips down on hinges for more serious repairs.

Eco from the Get-Go. Plastic panels are recyclable and in some cases made of recycled materials, the factory aims for carbon neutrality, and all vendors are asked to supply parts in returnable containers.

New friends. People give more thumbs-up and waves to this car than any I've driven.

Cons

The Wait. Plunk down your $99 fully refundable reservation today, and you may wait a year before you take delivery of the car. Can't wait? Maybe you can win one.

Transmission. There's a lag when the gears shift, especially between first and second. It's really noticeable, but they tell me you get used to it.

Power. No one expects Lotus-like acceleration from this car, but be warned that it does 0-60 in 12.9 seconds. A Prius manages 0-60 in 10.9 seconds; a Tesla does it in less than 4. No sprinting into traffic here.

Capacity. The 71-hp engine can only carry so much -- about 600 pounds. A driver and passenger likely take up 350-400 of those pounds, and the heavier the load, the worse the mileage.

No Spare Tire. But the car does have tire-pressure monitoring standard, and it comes with an air compressor that can be plugged into the dash and tire sealant for emergencies.

Photo by Doug Geisler.

How to Find the Cheapest, Greenest Travel Options

khallgeisler — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The sun is out, and beach trips beckon. But guilt at raiding the college fund for gas money or spewing toxins into the air just because we want to feel sand between our toes is keeping us housebound. There is a way to get away this summer, if you do a little research.

DrivePricing.com is a new Google Maps mash-up that calculates the cost to fuel your summer road trip. Just enter your zip code, miles per gallon, starting and ending points, and gasoline grade to get an estimate. (If you don't know your car's mpg, there's a link to trusty FuelEconomy.gov on the site).

This info makes for great travel comparison shopping if you're not locked in to driving this summer. Let's take a real-life example: My brother wants me to visit him in Montana this summer (I know -- no beaches), and I'm trying to find the cheapest way to get there.

Drive Pricing calculated the cost of driving my little red pickup truck from Portland, Ore., to Great Falls, Mont., at $281.93. Whoa, Nelly!

Amtrak can get me close enough to Great Falls for $227 on an overnight train. A little better, but train schedules are unreliable.

Kayak, my favorite flight finder, tells me that I can fly directly into Great Falls for $434. Not cheap, especially if my husband wants to join me on this trip.

The greenest option is the train trip, especially if I end up taking this trip by myself. The Nature Conservancy spells it out and does the math, but the bottom line is that the train has the lowest per-passenger emissions of any form of long-distance transportation. (I know, EVers, that your plug-in cars have zero emissions, but for now they have to stop every 40 miles to recharge.)

Hear that, Ryan? You may have to pick me up at the train station after all.

Rental Upgrades Not So Great

khallgeisler — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Recently, my friend Andrew, a travel writer, was on the job in Ohio (I don't know why, either). He had reserved a compact car to drive from the airport to various cities and towns across the state to report on its vacation hotspots. But when he got to the rental counter, he was cheerfully offered an upgrade to a Jeep Grand Cherokee.The best mileage this model can get, with the smallest 3-liter engine and two-wheel-drive, is 18 city/23 highway.

Andrew had been expecting something more like a Ford Focus, or maybe even a slightly larger Toyota Camry. Certainly not an SUV with a 21-gallon tank. Luckily for him, gas in the Midwest has been hovering right around $4, so a fill-up would have cost a mere $84. Even luckier, in order to sweeten this upgrade deal, the rental company threw in a tank of gas.

Andrew isn't the only one having large cars foisted on him at the rental counter. Car rental companies don't have the compact-car inventory to keep up with demand and so have to convince customers to take the larger car. This didn't used to be a problem; if they could afford it, Americans would gladly take the roomier full-size sedan or SUV. With gas averaging $4.09 a gallon across the country, though, the extra room isn't worth it.

Most car rental companies do have hybrids on the lot, but if you think compact cars are in short supply, Priuses and Escape Hybrids are rare as the Pinta Island tortoise. They're often more expensive, too, thanks to the pesky rules of supply and demand.

What can you do if you're stuck with an upgrade this summer? Here are a few tips:

Threaten to take your business across the lot to another company, but only if you mean it. Small cars are likely scarce over there, too.

Negotiate. I've heard several stories from recent renters about getting a free fill-up for accepting the larger vehicle.

If you have to go big, do it in style. If you're going to pay out the wazoo for gas anyway, see what you can do to get a convertible or luxury car.

Drive that boat of a car from the rental lot to the nearest gas station and check that the tires are properly inflated. This will save you at least a few dollars on fill-up.

Use all the gas-saving tips we've shared here on RiverWired.com, including hypermiling techniques.

Photo by Justin Russell.

Want to Save Gas in the Drive Smarter Challenge?

khallgeisler — Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

A curious consortium of corporations has joined Wal-Mart and The Alliance to Save Energy to encourage people take the Drive Smarter Challenge. The brand-spanking-new web site asks for the year, make, and model of your vehicle, then calculates the dollars you could save by accepting their six money-saving tips. These cover familiar ground, including driving less and inflating your tires properly.

If you agree to these simple gas-saving measures and give the site your email address and the email address of at least one other person, you'll get coupons, but I'm not sure for what. I'm wary of giving out my email address, still. Even in the twenty-first century.

This time, though, my paranoia may be excused. The list of partners telling me to drive less includes Exxon-Mobil, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. I'm not sure any of these guys, in their heart of hearts, want me to drive less. On the other hand, the EPA's SmartWay and the League of American Bicyclists are part of the group, so maybe it's not all bad.

If you, like me, aren't eager to give Wal-Mart or Exxon-Mobil your email address, the Drive Smarter Challenge site does have a page of gas-saving tips anyone can access. These are pretty basic but worth repeating, like run all your errands in one trip and use cruise control on the highway.

FuelFrog Tracks Your Gas Mileage via Twitter

khallgeisler — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Send FuelFrog the miles you traveled on your last tank of gas, the price you paid, and the number of gallons of your next fill-up, and it will track your mileage. Once you've signed up for the service, it can keep tabs on your miles per gallon and how much you spend on gas. (Though maybe you don't even want to know these days.)

FuelFrog works best with Twitter, especially if you can tweet, as they say, from your phone right at the gas station. You punch in the numbers in order -- miles, then price, then gallons -- and send Twitter the text message. It works from your computer, too, if you don't want to mess with the SMS.

If you're tooling around town in a biodiesel or E85 vehicle, or are thinking about doing so in the neare future, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has put together this comparison chart to clear some of the noise from the biofuel debate.

The chart starts with the source of the fuel, like corn and soybeans, and the kind of fuel these sources are made into. Then it digs into greenhouse gas emissions, resource usage during production, percentage of land needed to meet half of the demand for fuel in the U.S., and the pros and cons of each.

By breaking it down into a color-coded chart, the P.-I. has made it easier to know what all the fuss is about and have an intelligent discussion over organic coffees at the local bike-friendly cafe. (Every neighborhood should have at least one.)

Car Makers Face Stricter Fuel Efficiency Rules

khallgeisler — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

On Earth Day this week, Secretary Mary Peters of the Transportation Department announced a proposal that would require car makers to raise average fuel efficiency at a faster pace than Congress asked for last December. Congress set a baseline of a 3.3% increase each year from 2010-2015; the new proposal would raise that to 4.5% each year.

That means the current average of 25.7 miles per gallon for passenger cars would go up to 35.7 mpg by 2015, while light trucks would be raised to 28.6 mpg by 2015. According to a New York Times article, car makers are already headed in the right direction, thanks to consumer demand. Since buyers are increasingly interested in better fuel economy for ecological and economical reasons, the current average of cars purchased and driven off the lot is over 31 mpg.

It could be worse for car manufacturers -- if they didn't accept this proposal, they might have had to take on California's far stricter fuel-saving measures. The new standards fall between California's aggressive policy, which would raise fuel economy to an average 42.5 mpg by 2015, and the wimpy regulations passed by Congress, which required automakers to hit 35 mpg by 2020.

The general car-maker consensus seems to be relief at not having to deal with patchwork, state-by-state rules or, worse, a bunch of states aping California's tough stance. Given that our dollars have already upped U.S. fuel economy above the requirement, and the fact that Hummer sales are down (yay!), we little people can have more of an influence on clean air and gas-guzzling than than we think.

Photo by constantskepticupdates.

Honda Civic GX Tops List of Greenest Cars

jplatt — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:47:28 -0400

For the fifth year in a row, the natural-gas powered Honda Civic GX has received the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's ranking as the greenest car on the market.

According to Honda, "This is the eighth year in a row that a Honda vehicle received the number one ranking and the seventh consecutive year that Honda vehicles held at least four positions in the top 12."

Other top-ranking vehicles included the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid, Nissan Altima Hybrid, and the Mini Cooper.

Vehilces at the bottom of the list (what ACEE calls the "meanest vehicles for the environment") include the Volkswagen Touareg, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Hummer H2 and four models from Mercedes-Benz.

To create its lists, the ACEE ranked vehicles according to their fuel economy, health-related pollution impacts and global warming emissions.

If you're in the market for a new car, your own mileage using this list may vary according to what "green" ranking elements matter most to you. The Honda Civic GX may have had the highest "green" rankings due to its low emissions, but it only has a fuel ecomony of 24 MPG city / 36 MPG highway. The Toyota Prius, meanwhile, gets 48 MPG city / 46 MPG highway.

For more information, check out:

15 Tips For Better Mileage -- Want to Get 70 MPG in Your Toyota Prius?

The Hype About Hypermiling

Two Wheels Are Greener Than Four

Driving Green = Fewer Greenbacks

Five Tips to Find the Cheapest Gas Near You

Top 10 Most Fuel-Efficient Cars: Save Gas, Save Money

Record Month For Selling Gas -- Saving Cars Getting Better Than 30 MPG

Driving Green = Fewer Greenbacks

khallgeisler — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

As of this moment, gasoline prices in America have not yet hit $4 a gallon, but with oil hitting an all-time-high $100 a barrel in late February, European-style petrol prices may be around the corner. Eek.

To lower your chance of a gas-pump related coronary, here are a few tips and calculators gleaned from across the magical World Wide Web to maybe keep a few extra pennies in our pockets.

AutoblogGreen posted a reader’s homemade calculator, which computes and graphs your individual most economical commuting speed. It takes into account the distance from home to work and the fuel efficiency of your car, as well as your pay rate. This online app only figures highway speeds; if you’re driving below 60 mph all the way to work, you’ll have to work it out for yourself.

In a similar vein, MPG Genie figures the commuting costs of various new vehicles. This will come in most handy when you’re sick of $100 fill-ups on that Suburban and wondering exactly how much a Ford Escape hybrid will save you. (The answer to that one is $70 a month. Totally worth it.)

An often overlooked (and admittedly mundane) way to boost gas mileage is to make sure your tires are inflated properly. There isn’t a web site that can check and fill your tires for you, but Bridgestone/Firestone will send you a monthly email to remind you to get out the gauge. None other than race legend Mario Andretti endorses the practice in a video on the site’s home page.

If none of these fills your hunger for fuel economy, but you’re not yet ready to be seen in a Zap Xebra, check out this Mother Jones story on hypermilers. These guys wring 100-mpg-range fuel efficiency from everyday cars, as well as hybrids, by braking as little as possible, hugging the white line, and bravely shutting off the engine for downhill stretches. Since the power in “power steering” and “power breaking” comes from a switched-on engine, this last strategy is not for the faint of heart.

And don’t forget the boring but infallible boosters of fuel economy: take your foot off the accelerator as far ahead of a stop light as possible, no mashing the gas pedal with your foot after every stop sign, and use cruise control on the highway.

Photo courtesy mag3737.

For more information, check out:

15 Tips For Better Mileage -- Want to Get 70 MPG in Your Toyota Prius?

The Hype About Hypermiling

Two Wheels Are Greener Than Four

Honda Civic GX Tops List of Greenest Cars

Five Tips to Find the Cheapest Gas Near You

Top 10 Most Fuel-Efficient Cars: Save Gas, Save Money

Record Month For Selling Gas -- Saving Cars Getting Better Than 30 MPG

A Speedy, Compact, Fuel Efficient Car? Sounds Smart To Us

RiverWired.com — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

It's Good: Starting in 2008, The Smart Car (which has been around in Europe for donkeys years, and don't ask us how long that is) will finally be available in the US. This tiny automotive genius is only nine feet long and five feet wide -- but it still received a 4-star crash rating. It also goes up to 90 mph -- but that wouldn't be a fuel-smart way to drive, now would it?

It's Green: The Smart Car gets 42 miles per gallon, which is not only more efficient than the 2020 standards recently passed in the US Energy Bill, it'll also save you some significant green at the gas station. So the car makes you feel smarter, too.

It's Here: www.SmartUSA.com - reserve yours now for only $99.

It's: $11,000- $17,000, depending on model and package options.