Tell us about how many miles you drive each year with this vehicle. Be sure to include
all recurring trips: work, school, church, meetings, groceries, family visits, kids'
music/sports (practice and games/events), etc. Also allow for some mileage for one-time
things like vacations, etc.
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| How many miles do you drive each year?
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Now, tell us how many miles per gallon (mpg) your current vehicle gets. In the next
iteration of our site, you'll be able to select a year/make/model of vehicle and see
the new, revised EPA estimates for mileage of your vehicle. Since "your mileage may
vary", you'll still be able to override what the EPA says.
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| What mileage does your current car get (mpg)?
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Here, enter the miles per gallon (mpg) of a new or target vehicle (such as a hybrid).
Again, in the next iteration, you'll be able to select vehicles by make/model, plus have
the ability to compare up to 3 different vehicles to your current one side-by-side. Just
as a point of information today, a 2008 Toyota Prius Hybrid averages 45 mpg. A 2008 Honda
Civic Hybrid averages 42 mpg. A 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid averages 32 mpg.
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| What mileage do you want to compare your current vehicle to (mpg)?
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Enter the price (x.xx format) you pay for gasoline today. This will be the starting price
for our price increase calculations. As a point of reference, a gallon of regular unleaded
gasoline costs about $0.00 per gallon today.
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| What does gas cost you per gallon today?
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Now, select (in whole percentage points) what you
think gas will increase by each year. For the past 6 years, a gallon of regular
unleaded gasoline has increase by an average of 15.62% each year. At this rate, gasoline
cost you well over $13/gallon by 2018. If you feel like that is too drastic or that
some other event(s) may occur between now and then to stem that rise, use a more
conservative number (say 7%).
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| Select the annual fuel cost increase:
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Tell us how many years you intend to keep the "new" vehicle should you purchase it. This is
a very important number if you plan on trying to justify the cost of a new vehicle
based on rising fuel costs alone. There's nothing to stop you from trading the vehicle down
the road (especially if something better comes along), but for purposes of our calculations,
assume you keep it for a while (say 5-10 years).
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| How many years do you want to calculate?
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OK - almost done. Now press the "Calculate" button below. The next page you see will
consist of a chart and table, by year, of your current and "future" vehicle fuel costs, followed at
the bottom by a total for both. There is also a "back" link that gets you back to this page
so you can alter your answers to the questions above and play some "what if" games.
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