New Ways to Measure Gas Mileage

Any article that starts with "Americans aren't stupid." that is written by an American, is sure to attract my attention. But this article is interesting to me because it is about fuel efficiency, one of my favourite topics.

The article really has nothing much to say directly about how intelligent Americans are. But apparently it would be better for Americans if they measured fuel consumption in gallons/100 miles instead of miles per gallon. And that if they did, they could make better decisions about purchasing vehicles to get good fuel consumption.

A reasonable start, but then somehow everything gets fouled up. In the end you are left with the impression that you save more gas in a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid than in a Toyota Prius. Is this another propaganda piece complicating things, with the aim of convincing you to buy a big useless vehicle instead of a Prius?

So here is an analysis of the points of article:

- A question is asked, which saves more gas, going from 10 mpg to 20 mpg, or going from 33 mpg to 50 mpg? The answer is going from 10 mpg to 20 mpg will save 5 times as much gas.

- Next, we learn that 20 mpg is the mileage of a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, and 50 mpg is the mileage of a Toyota Prius.

- This in *no way* is meant to imply that the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid saves 5 times as much gas as a Prius. Of course not! It only means that the Tahoe saves 5 times as much as a vehicle that consumes one fifth of the amount of a Tahoe. And that a Prius saves hardly any gas compared to a Toyota Echo. But I'm pretty sure that some people, OK maybe only stupid people, are going to come away with the impression that the Tahoe saves 5 times as much gas as a Prius, even though right in the article he states:

"Yes, the Prius uses less gasoline overall, and that's absolutely greener. But like it or not, lots and lots and lots of Americans need large vehicles for their jobs, their families, and their lives."

My comment is that I see lots and lots of Americans who get a big SUV for 1. safety against other SUV's 2. To not get stuck in snow. 3. (and least of all) to carry lots of stuff. My estimate is that 99% of the time, an SUV is not doing anything that say a Toyota Matrix could not do. And the other 1% of the time, you really don't need that stuff anyway. The other two reasons are also debatable. So if a person was not stupid, and actually wanted to save gas instead of rearranging numbers, they might start by re-examining the faulty assumptions about needing the big vehicles.

But this is not about being smart or stupid is it? Americans are not worried about being called stupid, but they are really worried about being called something else for driving in a tiny car. And never in a million years is that kind of thinking going to change just by measuring gal/100 miles instead of miles/gallon.


This opinion piece is also being discussed in a 4x4 forum. Granted, they are not talking about how it proves the Tahoe has better gas mileage than a Prius. Also they are not Americans. But I can safely assume that "Road Dawg" would never consider driving a Prius.