Another MPG thread

You missed the part where my note said we ignored wind resistance. Even so at faster speeds there will be a point where you go farther in the same amount of time and achieve better MPGs than at much lower speeds. Since it is all about how many miles you travel per gallon.

 

Has anyone done the math on this. Here's an example and tell me if I'm doing something wrong.

Lets assume you always go 17mpg over the course of a year and increased that to 19mpg over the course of a year and fuel cost $2.50/gallon and you drove 15000 miles per year.

At 17mpg you would use 882 gallons that cost $2205.00 at $2.50/gallon.
At 19mpg you would use 789 gallons that cost $1972.00 at $2.50/gallon.

That equates to only $233.00/year savings which is something to consider but in the real world really isn't all that much.

 

If the Tornado is achieving MPG increases for you, knock yourself out.

 

You can't ignore wind resistance because its the biggest force on a vehicle. Its like making a budget without counting your mortgage in the "expenses" column. Drivetrain loss is ~15-20%, rolling resistance is ~10% and the rest is wind resistance. Of course these numbers change depending on the car.