You have a Ford F-250 pickup that gets about 10 mpg. You also have a Jetta that gets 20 mpg. You have an opportunity to do one of the following:

1. trade in the pickup at 10 mpg for a Jeep that gets about 15 mpg, OR
2. trade in the Jetta at 25 mpg for a Prius that gets 50 mpg.

If you drive both cars 12,000 miles a year, and all other costs and conditions are equal, which option would you take to save the most money on gas (and consequently, to help the environment by most reducing your overall gasoline usage)?

If you said option 2, you are *WRONG*. Option 1 saves nearly twice as much gas and money as option 2!

Option 1 will save you $1800.00 -- the pickup costs $5400 for a year of gas, the Jeep: $3600.

Option 2 will save you $1080.00 -- the wagon costs $2160 for a year for gas, the Prius: $1080.

The difference is even more dramatic if you can go from 10mpg to 20mpg. We have learned to praise 'miles per gallon' as the overriding statistic in determining the cost of operating a vehicle from a gasoline standpoint. However, a more realistic measurement is dollars per mile or dollars per year. To determine the dollars per year for a vehicle, use the following formula:

    Miles driven / MPG * price of gas

For example, to determine the cost of buying a year's worth of gas for a Toyota Yaris that gets 33 mpg, assuming an average gas price of $4.50 a gallon and 12,000 miles driven per year:

    12,000 / 33 * $4.50 = $1636.36

Note that the 33 mpg for the Yaris only saves you about $500.00 a year over what you'd get with a 50mpg car.

So, what can you learn from this? The most important lesson is that the worse your gas mileage, the more money you will save by making ANY improvement in this area. If you can get two more miles a gallon out of your 13 mpg Hummer by driving slower, filling your tires, and staying off surface streets, you would save $500 a year in gas (yes, the gas savings gained by this 2 mpg is almost the same as the difference between the 33 mpg Yaris and the 50 mpg Prius. Hard to believe that one person's 2mpg can save as much money as another person's 17mpg increase, but the math doesn't lie!!

If you already drive a car that gets 35+ mpg, think carefully before looking to buy a car with better mileage. Unless you drive a LOT, it's not likely that you'll save much gas!!