Tuesday, April 1, 2008

The Cost of Driving

I drive a lot, and so the cost of gas is a subject that's very near and dear to my heart. So, when I just saw a report on CNN about the average American's annual cost of driving, my ears perked up. Here's how they broke it down on screen:


Average Annual Cost of Driving

12,000 miles

600 gallons of gas

$,1968

I put a lot more miles than that on my car every year, but let's conservatively say I do 25,000 miles annually. Gas currently costs $3.15 at the Breadbox up the street from my house and I get roughly 22 miles per gallon in the old Volvo. Keeping in mind that my only real math skill is calculating what 6% of anything is, that would mean my breakdown looks something like this:

Average Cost of Knoxville Realtor Driving Old Volvo

25,000 miles

1136 gallons of gas

$3,578

And unlike these guys out at Watt Rd, going on strike isn't going to do me any good.

If your car doesn't tell you how many mpg you get, you can use this nifty miles per gallon calculator to determine what your monthly or yearly gas costs are.

After you're done, come back and let me know what your gas cost breakdown looks like.

3 comments:

Ken Baker said...

Good post. We drive 35000 with one car only (travel soccer adds many miles). Our Odyssey gets 22 mpg. Our Pilot has around 15000 miles per year and also 22 mpg. This is a total of 1818 gallons per year, for a cost of $5600 per year. Pretty scary when you think about it.

Suzy Trotta said...

You guys drive more than me! Thanks for stopping by.

Ken Baker said...

About to add a 16 year old to this mix; Oh No!