A friend sent me an email with a link to a site that tells you the price of gas in your area when you enter your zip code. I'm sure it can be quite useful, but I was figuring this out the other day and came up with this.
Say you have a 12 gallon gas tank on your car.
12 x $4.00 = $48.00/tank
12 x $3.95 = $47.40/tank
You save $ 0.60/tank
Say you get 20mpg. It costs you $ 0.20 for every mile you drive.
If you drive 5 miles out of your way to save five cents a gallon, it costs you $ 1.00 to drive that 5 miles. You would lose $ 0.40 on that tank of gas, not to mention the extra time it takes to drive there and back. If you drive 10 miles to save that nickel/gallon, it would cost you $2.00 just to make the trip, and you would lose $1.40 on that tank of gas.
I know a man that routinely drives 10 miles out of his way to save 2-5 cents per gallon, and he loses money every time he fills up his tank. He just doesn’t believe the math.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I've had the same basic conversation with myself regarding a new car purchase.
I have a 20 gallon tank and get 15-18 miles to the gallon. My Wrangler is paid off and has relatively zero mechanical problems.
While a new car would get better gas mileage, that's $20,000-$30,000 extra I'd have to pay to save X on gas (where X < 30,000). Plus insurance. Plus the fact that, if new car breaks, it's no longer something I can fix in my own garage. Heck, I can't even change the oil in my wife's car.
If it weren't for the crotchfruit, I'd buy a $2000 used motorcycle in addition to the Jeep.
Was talking to a young lady a couple of weeks ago who was planning on buying a Prius. We spent about 20 minutes with pen and paper, and now she is buying a used Corolla. If she'd only be as reasonable about guns...
Post a Comment