your MPG system sucks!!

[bandit86]

ever since I started to use it, it hasbeen a pain, now why cant you Americans simplify it a little, like gallons per sixty miles, or gallons per 100 miles?

life would be so much easier. look at the metric system. 60 mph is close to 100km/hour. our highway speed limits are 100kkm/h, our fuel efficiencies are given in Liter/100km. so much easier, the number will tell you exactly how much fuel you will use if you drive one hour. I bet most people cant figue out how much fuel they use if their car gets 27 miles and they drove 60miles.

the other beef i have is the mpg gains; a 5 mpg gain might be drastic at low numbers, but not so much at higher numbers. at 10mpg, if you do something to your car and get 5 mpg better it is not as drastic as if you say 50mpg to 55. in a metric or gallons per 60/100miles the gains would be more obvious, see this chart;


This next chart shows the mpg in 5 mpg increments, do you see how an extra 5mpg would change fuel costs for one hours drive? no, because it's impossible. a change in the metric or fuel/distance is a lot easier, if my car were to get 2L/100km better economy i know exactly how much fuel I will save for a trip, or even easier, fuel saved by an hours drive

MPG (U.S.)MPG (Imp.)km/l l/100 km
5 6.0 2.1 47.0
10 12.0 4.3 23.5
15 18.0 6.4 15.7
20 24.0 8.5 11.8
25 30.0 10.6 9.4
30 36.0 12.8 7.8
35 42.0 14.9 6.7
40 48.0 17.0 5.9
45 54.0 19.1 5.2
50 60.0 21.3 4.7
55 66.1 23.4 4.3
60 72.1 25.5 3.9
65 78.1 27.6 3.6
70 84.1 29.8 3.4
75 90.1 31.9 3.1
80 96.1 34.0 2.9
85 102.1 36.1 2.8
90 108.1 38.3 2.6
95 114.1 40.4 2.5


this last graph is something every manufacturer should advertise on their vehicle, fuel economy numbers would instantly become real numbers people could work with. Metric of course would be better, but it is a start;

[Sven7]

I'm not the biggest supporter of our system either, but until we start teaching kids how to use measurements, metric and arithmetic, there's no use in preaching to the choir.

Also, you can figure out almost anything with MPG. If i'm going on a 100 mile trip and I get 42 MPG, I do 100/42 and that's how many gallons I'll need. With a 5mpg improvement, (100/42)-(100/47). Easy.

(I'm an art student and that's the most math I've done in over a year. It was still easy)

[redpoint5]

Can we start by switching to metric? Kelvin for temperatures, please.

After that, Americans should figure out basic algebra, and be able to figure out math problems like what 10% of some number is.

My sister tells me of a story where a district manager for a retail chain went looking for a calculator to figure out what 10% of $10 was. How can we get masters degrees from university when you can't figure out a tip in your head?

[bandit86]

lol, drive through coffee shops have similar problems when you hand them change on top of bills.

[jtbo]

Originally Posted by Sven7

I'm not the biggest supporter of our system either, but until we start teaching kids how to use measurements, metric and arithmetic, there's no use in preaching to the choir.

Also, you can figure out almost anything with MPG. If i'm going on a 100 mile trip and I get 42 MPG, I do 100/42 and that's how many gallons I'll need. With a 5mpg improvement, (100/42)-(100/47). Easy.

(I'm an art student and that's the most math I've done in over a year. It was still easy)

This reminds me how different our world is in Europe compared to what you have in United States.

For me fractions like those are like foreign language that I don't know of, however percentages and decimals are easy, but I believe that Americans have again harder time with percentages and decimals?

Does not make either way crap or useless, just different and interesting.

I'm not much fan of everything being same, I rather have bit of difficulties to learn different ways of doing things, often that gives me different perspective which leads to new ideas, but if everything is same and only one way is preferred, that is something I kind of try to steer away from.

But even for me l/Km is not telling much of anything, I know both units, I can tell that it is how far I can get with one unit of fuel, but still I'm not used to that unit so I have to work out a bit to get if 10 is big or small number, but there is hardly any way of measuring fuel consumption that I could not get if I put bit effort to it. I use l/100km mostly, I just convert from there and to there.

[gone-ot]

poe-tay-toe vs. poe-tah-toe

flavor vs. flavour

color vs. colour

liter vs. litre

meter vs. metre

...ad nauseum

[Ladogaboy]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Can we start by switching to metric? Kelvin for temperatures, please.

After that, Americans should figure out basic algebra, and be able to figure out math problems like what 10% of some number is.

My sister tells me of a story where a district manager for a retail chain went looking for a calculator to figure out what 10% of $10 was. How can we get masters degrees from university when you can't figure out a tip in your head?

I still remember the time when the cash register at a store was broken. My father had to teach the clerk (she looked to be college age at the time) how to calculate sales tax using only a pen and pad of paper. He was stoned for being a sorcerer.

[redorchestra]

I think if you look hard you can find the benefit in any system. I was taught metric in school but used imperial when helping my dad with carpentry. don't knock it until you have looked through every possibility of benefits.

[Vekke]

MPG system works much better when you go under 3l/100km mark. Changes in the numbers start to be so minimal with l/100km scale that its not easy to calculate how much you have improved your fuel consumtion.

2,5 l/100km is 94,0 MPG
2.4 l/100km is 97,9 MPG

Difference in 55 liter tank range is 2200 km vs 2291 km That difference is still the same 4,17% but with MPG scale its easier to calculate. Usually fuel gauges show only one decimal. If you can see 2.46 its not so big problem, but still its more difficult to estimate your tanks improvements. With MPG scale you have 39 value possibilities vs 2 with liter scale so which is more accurate...

With scangauge after 100 MPG you lose also those decimals but still MPG scale is much more accurate.

[me and my metro]

Or on a trip that is 1700 miles and the Navigator gets 17 mpg and gas is $4/gal.=$400/trip.