Costs and pricing
Fuel cost comparison calculator
Two vehicles, your mileage, your fuel price — the annual difference in dollars.
Use what you actually get, not the sticker figure. Real-world economy is usually lower.
The difference is smaller than the sticker suggests
Fuel economy is the headline number when people compare cars, and it is usually the one that changes the least. Going from 22 to 34 miles per gallon sounds transformative, and over a year of average driving it saves real money — but rarely enough on its own to justify a car payment.
The figure worth looking at is the five-year one. That is the horizon over which a fuel difference actually compounds into something that can offset a higher purchase price.
Use your real economy, not the sticker
Published economy figures come from standardised tests, and almost nobody matches them. Short trips, cold starts, roof racks, city traffic and a heavy right foot all push the real number down, often by a fifth or more.
Work yours out instead: fill the tank, reset the trip meter, and at the next fill divide the miles by the gallons it took. Two or three tanks gives you a figure you can trust.
What this leaves out
Fuel only. Insurance, maintenance, tires, registration and depreciation are not here, and between them they usually dwarf the fuel difference — a more economical car with higher insurance and pricier parts can easily cost more overall.
If you are comparing two cars properly rather than just their fuel, work out the full cost per mile for each instead.
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