emmie wrote:so, starbug, because of the efficiency in european cars, how long would a full tank last in an average person's car?
Blimey, there's a question to test my maths on this fine morning!
I have conducted an extensive 1/2 hour study into this now, and the results are shocking (to me, anyway).
I worked this out for the car Mr. S and I drive, and may I preface this set of facts with the statement that I was lied to about the comparative fuel efficiency of our vehicle at the moment of purchase, by my husband, who to my eternal shame cares far more about performance than he does about fuel efficiency. He knows he married a hippie and thought he'd get around me by being economical with the truth rather than the car. We'll be discussing this when I return home this evening.
Right, now that's out of the way - we drive a rather sporty Alfa Romeo 2.0ltr Selespeed (that's a sort of switchable manual/automatic transmission depending on who's driving), which is now around 2 years old.
For conversion purposes:
1ltr = 0.2641721 US Gallons = 0.2199692 UK Gallons.
1 UK Gallon = 1.2009499 US Gallons
Alfa Romeo 2.0ltr
Fuel tank capacity: 60 ltrs = 15.85 US gallons = 13.2 UK gallons
Fuel Efficiency: Urban = 23.3mpg (UK). Extraurban = 40.4mpg(UK). Averaging = 31.85mpg(UK).
our car will therefore do (31.85 / 1.2009499) = 26.52 miles per US gallon.
So, on a full tank, our car will travel 26.52 x 15.85 =
420.34 miles.
Now, to me that looked pretty good. Until I thought, what if our car is worse than average? So I took what is a pretty normal run-around car for most people: the Vauxhall Corsa 1.3 ltr manual transmission (automatics are still relatively rare over here). It's a very popular car and you see them everywhere. It's not a hybrid car or anything.
Vauxhall Corsa 1.3 ltr 16v
Fuel Tank capacity: 44 ltrs = 11.62 US gallons = 9.68 UK gallons
Fuel Efficiency: Average figure = 64.2 mpg (UK) = 53.46 mpg (US).
Extra-urban figure is 76.3mpg (UK) or 63.53mpg (US), which is frankly astonishing.
So, on a full tank using the average fuel efficiency, the Vauxhall Corsa will travel 53.46 x 11.62 =
621.21 miles. Which is pretty amazing, considering the tank costs around £36 to fill at current prices, or US$69.
I wouldn't know what the 'average' american car is, so I'm going to quit there and let someone with better knowledge than me draw a comparison if they feel inclined. I had a brief look but the sites I found mentioned hybrid cars which I don't think it's fair to include since nobody really drives them yet.
It's the morning, I'm hazy, and if anyone spots any errors in the maths, I take full responsibility. But it's been a pretty interesting exercise, I must say.