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Old 05-14-2010, 10:09 AM   #12 (permalink)
chuckm
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Monroe, LA
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Exploder - '02 Ford Explorer xlt

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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadeTreeMech View Post
A married couple have 2 vehicles, both powered by gas.

The husband has an antique truck that gets 10 mpg.

The wife has a hyper fuel efficient car of the future that gets 100 mpg.

Both drive the same 12,000 miles per year.

They both need to cut back on fuel costs, so they go to a mechanic to ask him to help them save some fuel.

The husband is told that if he cleans the crud from bird droppings off his roof and inflates his tires to recommended PSi instead of being nearly flat, he will get 11 mpg from his truck.

The wife takes her vehicle to the dealer and the dealer says they have a hyper efficient chrome plated caneuter valve that will double her mileage so she gets 200 MPG!!!

Who will save more money?
This is a perfect example of why the gallons per mile metric is better than the miles per gallon. Of course, the math is correct either way you do it, but our mind more easily grasps the actual improvement when we look at the gallons per mile figure...
10 -> 11 mpg = 0.1 -> 0.09 gpm
100 -> 200 mpg = 0.01 -> 0.005 gpm
Answering the question of which gain is bigger is much more intuitive when you use gpm.
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