Small / economy car deathwatch: we've passed "peak econobox" again

[freebeard]

Assume 30mpg and 1 hogshead (63 gallons) takes you 1890 miles x8 is 15,120 furlongs.

So it's a fur piece.

[Fat Charlie]

L/100 km and the like are great when you're comparison shopping, especially if fuel economy on idealized tests is your only criteria and you don't want to have to think. But once you've bought the car, comparison shopping is over and the important factor is the amount of gas you have, and we use gallons here.

But in a practical world, mpg is all that matters. The gallon is a constant. How many do you have? That's how far you can go. If you know your tank size then even the vaguest gas gauge gives you a really good idea of how many gallons you have, and with an mpg number in the back of your head, you know how far you're going. Hopefully you need to calculate your available range a lot more often than you buy new cars.

I count a 10 gallon tank (10.6), 40 mpg and a 20 mile commute. If I'm going to be pressed for time or short on money, it's easy to tell if I need to stop for gas now while I have a few minutes or if the tank I'm on will make it to pay day. Yes, if we thought in terms of gallons per 100 miles I'd just need to take the extra step of converting that 100 miles into 5 commute legs, but it's an extra step and most people would have a much different fraction, if they even had as predictable a drive as I do.

[Hersbird]

Just use gallons/100 miles. Like FatCharlie says liters/100km wont work. I'll add it's pretty useless when distances are measured in miles and gas is sold in gallons.
Most cars now do show distance to empty. My 2001 Yukon does not but my 2011 Chrysler and 2012 VW both do.

[iikhod]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

L/100 km and the like are great when you're comparison shopping, especially if fuel economy on idealized tests is your only criteria and you don't want to have to think. But once you've bought the car, comparison shopping is over and the important factor is the amount of gas you have, and we use gallons here.

But in a practical world, mpg is all that matters. The gallon is a constant. How many do you have? That's how far you can go. If you know your tank size then even the vaguest gas gauge gives you a really good idea of how many gallons you have, and with an mpg number in the back of your head, you know how far you're going. Hopefully you need to calculate your available range a lot more often than you buy new cars.

I count a 10 gallon tank (10.6), 40 mpg and a 20 mile commute. If I'm going to be pressed for time or short on money, it's easy to tell if I need to stop for gas now while I have a few minutes or if the tank I'm on will make it to pay day. Yes, if we thought in terms of gallons per 100 miles I'd just need to take the extra step of converting that 100 miles into 5 commute legs, but it's an extra step and most people would have a much different fraction, if they even had as predictable a drive as I do.

Yes, i know that mpg is useful where you guys live. Was just wondering where it originally started. User JSH answered that for me.

FYi: I can also calculate pretty easily how far i can drive with the gasoline in my cars tank, altough i use litres/100km method.
For example, i have 20 litres in the tank and my car chugs 5L/100km, i can go 400 kilometers.
Different methods, good enough results for the average joe.
We have a saying in finland: Maassa maan tavalla. Kinda like "When in Rome, do as the romans do"

[freebeard]

The gallon is a constant.

Just be aware that the Imperial gallon is 0.8326716 of a real gallon.

I'm skeptical of the origin story. If today's mileage were available then we might be talking about miles per quart. It might have been available in gallon tins, but generally it was hand pumped into an elevated (graduated) sight-glass and then drained into the car by gravity.

In the one-time Republic of South Vietnam, they sold gas from roadside stands in American whisky bottles.

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Just be aware that the Imperial gallon is 0.8326716 of a real gallon.

I'm skeptical of the origin story. If today's mileage were available then we might be talking about miles per quart. It might have been available in gallon tins, but generally it was hand pumped into an elevated (graduated) sight-glass and then drained into the car by gravity.

In the one-time Republic of South Vietnam, they sold gas from roadside stands in American whisky bottles.

Isn't it the other way around? The real gallon is smaller. Some would say the Brits changed their gallon to be some kind of scientific calculation while the US kept the good old gallon based on the size of the queens bowel movements or some such thing.
Miles is also a silly distance, I personally still use leagues, the distance an effective cannon can be shot at ships approaching your coastline. Now there is a useful measurement. Not those candy assed Spanish cannons that shoot 2.63 miles but the good English ones lobing a one stone weight cannonball to 3 miles.
So it's leagues per bowel movement for me.

[Bicycle Bob]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

Isn't it the other way around? The real gallon is smaller. Some would say the Brits changed their gallon to be some kind of scientific calculation while the US kept the good old gallon based on the size of the queens bowel movements or some such thing.
Miles is also a silly distance, I personally still use leagues, the distance an effective cannon can be shot at ships approaching your coastline. Now there is a useful measurement. Not those candy assed Spanish cannons that shoot 2.63 miles but the good English ones lobing a one stone weight cannonball to 3 miles.
So it's leagues per bowel movement for me.

For me, the best system is the one in which I can remember the most stats for comparison. Re: Gallons. Some sharpers in the Colonies declared that a Gallon was not 40 fluid ounces, but 32. The brits got shortchanged for a while before they caught on. However, the colonists measured their fluid in alcohol instead of water, which threw me off for most of my life, until I got a calculator for conversions. The lack of distinction between US and Imperial gallons is a huge problem in trying to understand written materials.

[freebeard]

I confuse easily.

That's some interesting history.

So it's leagues per bowel movement for me.

Range anxiety?

[Hersbird]

An imperial gallon is 10 pounds of water at standard temp and pressure, a scientific basis. The US gallon was the imperial gallon before they made it based on science. The UK changed it while the newly formed US just kept the old standard. I'm sure games were played everywhere as there had to be thousands of old barrels and containers all over the world marked with the smaller gallons still sold as a "gallon" as it was the new gallon that was bigger.

[Fat Charlie]

I measure mine my that old standby of minivans and Wranglers, the Chrysler 3.8 liter engine.