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Entry bubble Vehicle Fuel Economy

By: Sommer | December 07, 2007 | Category: Home and Family

In August, we traded in my husband’s beloved sports car for a new – well, new-to-us – car. We finally decided it was time to become adults and get a 4-door with some hauling capacity. Being new homeowners, we continuously found it difficult to haul more than groceries in our sports car and 2-door coupe. And forget about picking people up from the airport, that required us to bring both cars – one for people and one for luggage!

Initially my husband drove the car to work. Since I only drive about 4 miles per day – round trip to the Metro – the coupe was fine for me to cruise around town in. On the weekends, though, it was such a treat riding in the new car with its heated leather seats and sunroof.gas pump

We were very impressed with the car at first because, since it’s an all wheel drive wagon, we expected it to get SUV-like gas mileage. To our pleasant surprise, our average miles per gallon with my husband driving the car 30 highway miles round trip to work and on various weekend outings was about 23 - 24 miles per gallon. So, when I started driving the car a few weeks ago (since gas is getting more expensive) I thought it would be a great test to see if it was actually better, money and gas mileage wise, for me to drive the car my short 4 miles a day and continue to use it for weekend driving. Since the car has a neat dashboard gadget that automatically calculates average miles per gallon I was ready to see what happened! How disappointed was I to watch my mpg relatively plummet?!?! Now, as it stands today, I’m down to 17.7 miles per gallon!!! YIKES!

Based on the information on fueleconomy.gov I’m right at the average mpg for city driving which makes me feel a little better. The newly revised EPA MPG Estimates give the car a range of 17 mpg for city driving and 24 for highway which averages out at about 22 mpg. 

I guess I’ll start following some of their recommended tips for improving gas mileage and see whether my average mpg changes or not.

| View Comments [3] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: auto   car   economy   gas   mileage   sommer   vehicle  

Comments (3):

blue comment bubble Posted by Becky on December 07, 2007 at 11:23 AM EST

My fiance & I both drive Civics. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the pollution rating wasn't as good as I thought it would be, especially considering their above average fuel economy. I'd love to get a hybrid something some day . . .

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blue comment bubble Posted by Airborne Frank on December 09, 2007 at 08:40 AM EST

I bought a 2004 Chevy diesel to pull my RV. Naturally, diesel was cheaper than gas because it is less refined. Now, in 2007, diesel is priced higher than premium gas. Can somebody please tell me WHY? My personal opinion is the oil companies are gouging the public and getting away with price fixing. All of your consumer goods are transported by truck (diesel engines). Why is the Federal Government allowing this price fixing by the oil companies? I wonder if it is because most of our Law Makers are heavily invested in the oil companies? What's your opinion???

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blue comment bubble Posted by Ronnie on December 11, 2007 at 04:21 PM EST

hi stupid americans
Please help to save our world
stop driving big cars, with big engines.
You can drive a volvo, toyota or pick whatever you want
You relase 24% of the world coldioxide, happy?

bye stupids hope usa signs the kyotoagrement very soon
before it's to late

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