Anybody else track how much fuel they've saved?

[honestabe]

I replaced a 1990 Subaru Legacy wagon 4wd (20 MPG) 2 months ago with my 95 Geo Metro (currently 47-50 MPG) and yesterday I decided to do some math. In the short time I've owned my Geo I've saved $422.98 as of my last fill-up. This is based on traveling the same distance and filling up at the same time at the same gas station as my Geo has. I've revised my fuel log that I keep in my car to now include the fill-up price along with the fuel saved that fill-up. At this rate my Geo will have literally paid for itself in another 4 months. Yes, I do drive a lot, but my Geo is comfortable and is damn cheap to drive (I still spend atleast $100 a month on fuel though). Just curious to see if anyone else on here has done similar math.

I bought my car April 17th and have put on about 5700 miles so far btw.

[azaviator]

My Insight replaced a '99 Chevy Malibu that got about 25mpg for my daily commute. I got the Insight in February of 2008. Using the same mileage and price at fillup, I came out with $2240.67 in savings over driving the Malibu. This is for 31058.4 miles driven in the Insight.

As an added bonus (though I won't do the math on this one), my wife drove the Malibu from February 2008 to April 2010. The Malibu replaced 'The Beast' for that time which gets 18-20mpg. Not a large difference in MPG, but savings nonetheless. We sold the Malibu in April, and she's back to driving the Blazer. Good news is, she doesn't do a lot of driving unless I go with her. If I go, I drive, and I tend to get it to ~20-24mpg (now that the Insight has taught me how to drive).

[SVOboy]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...the ecommoder "garage & fuel economy" page keeps track of that for me (wink,wink).

Thank goodness someone noticed

[jamesqf]

Saved against what, though? Since my previous car was a CRX that'd get 40+ mpg, and the Insight gets 70. OK, in the 7 years I've owned it, I've driven just over 90K miles at an average 71.2 mpg, for 561.8 gallons. With the CRX, it would have been a bit under 1000 gallons, so about 430 gallons less with the Insight.

But the problem with the simple calculation is that I replaced the CRX because of a blown engine, so I wouldn't have kept it anyway.

But what I've really saved was time: since I usually fill up only when it's close to empty, from those numbers, I visited a gas station only about 8 or 9 times a year. No wonder my windshield always seems dirty :-)

[honestabe]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...the ecommoder "garage & fuel economy" page keeps track of that for me (wink,wink).

yes, but it doesn't give the option of tracking fuel savings vs. another car (although that would be a badass feature).

[azaviator]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...the ecommoder "garage & fuel economy" page keeps track of that for me (wink,wink).

The problem with this is that the OP asked how much you saved with your "new" vehicle versus old, not how much better than EPA you are getting. I believe that is all that is tracked by ecomodder. In my example above, the ecomodder page shows me having saved $462.03, a big change from the $2240.67 I calculated.

[honestabe]

Originally Posted by azaviator

The problem with this is that the OP asked how much you saved with your "new" vehicle versus old, not how much better than EPA you are getting. I believe that is all that is tracked by ecomodder. In my example above, the ecomodder page shows me having saved $462.03, a big change from the $2240.67 I calculated.

You are correct sir. My Garage only shows a savings of $48, slightly different from the $422.98 I calculated.

[Frank Lee]

I yoosta preach to people (especially at work) about the advantages of commuting in an ecomobile vs. the typical V8 4x4. It was quite easy to math out a good estimate of the savings, which proved that getting the ecocar was well worth it in spite of it being an additional vehicle instead of a guzzler replacement, especially if it was an inexpensive beater. IIRC Oftentimes the payback period was well under one year and then after that the savings were all gravy. Sadly I can't think of one example of someone who saw the light after seeing the math. I guess protecting that ego projection device A.K.A. the big guzzlers was a worthwhile expenditure.

[Nevyn]

Oh, compared to my prior car? Hmm....would have been ~27 MPG compared to the ~38 MPG average I have now.

Over 10,000 miles:

@27 MPG = 370.37 gallons

@38 MPG = 263.15 gallons

The 27 I was getting in my old car is just above the "average" for my new car (27 compared to 24), so it's actually lower than my savings compared to EPA.

[cfg83]

honestabe -

Originally Posted by honestabe

You are correct sir. My Garage only shows a savings of $48, slightly different from the $422.98 I calculated.

You can still use the existing fuel log. Just plug the other car's numbers into the "Official Fuel Economy Ratings", copy the summary results that are generated in the fuel log, and restore it back to your current car's EPA after you're done.

CarloSW2