Calculating Your Car's Fuel Economyby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 21 Feb 2007 07:31 AM
After the birth of kid number three, we were faced with the reality of having to buy a bigger car. In spite of its size, our trusty SUV would not fit three car seats across the back. Even if it did, it meant that every seat in the car was taken, so we could never bring along a friend or a grandparent. Since my father visits us regularly from New York City by way of bus, this would be a definite problem. So, we decided to go with the mini-van. We did all of the research to find the one with the best resale value. We looked at used ones, too, but one of the things that got us thinking new was the mini-van's fuel economy. Despite it's larger size, it was a lot more fuel efficient than either our SUV or older mini-van models. It also did much better on gas than the competing mini-van make. So over its useable life, our new purchase would actually save us more. You can find out information about your car's fuel economy thanks to our government. The official fuel economy web site is wonderfully easy to use. You simply pick from drop down boxes to select your car's make, model and year. Other drop down boxes ask about transmission: is your car a 6-cylinder automatic? A great feature of the government's fuel economy web site is the fact that you can compare several cars side by side. Adding and deleting cars in the comparison chart is really very easy. For those are good at budgeting down to the dollar will appreciate the calculation of how much money the car will cost in gas for a year of normal usage. Obviously, gas prices fluctuate all of the time, but I like having the estimate. To check out the government's fuel economy website and start comparing your cars, click here. Was this article useful to you? Related Articles: 3 Top Ways to Drive More Efficiently Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments No comments on this article yet. Be the first to comment! Community Tags car, fuel economy, gas, prices Discuss this article
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Whether you are thinking about buying a new car or want to know what your current car will cost you in gas this year, calculating your vehicle's fuel economy is very easy to do.
