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All carmakers disclose the fuel economy of their vehicles. How much you'll actually pay for fuel depends greatly on not just the fuel economy of the vehicle, bu

by kylec 8y ago

All carmakers disclose the fuel economy of their vehicles. How much you'll actually pay for fuel depends greatly on not just the fuel economy of the vehicle, but how much you drive, how aggressively you drive, and the price of fuel in your area and at the particular time. I don't see how you could distill all that down to a single number that means anything.

gok 8y ago
A reasonable guess would be fine. It's what appliances are required to do, for example.
- unwind 8y ago
  It's reasonable to assume that a fridge or freezer is powered on 24/7/365. For a car there simply cannot be a correspondingly safe assumption, can there?
  - gok 8y ago
    A TV, dishwasher, or laundry machine is a better corollary. Everyone uses theirs at a different rate but they still put a reasonable guess at yearly cost on the Energy Star label.
    - spiralx 8y ago
      But the variation between lowest and highest usage and cost for a TV or dishwasher is going to be far less than it is for the cost of fueling a car, there's a huge difference between someone who uses the car for a few short journeys a few times a week and someone who drives hundreds of miles almost every day for work.
  - AnthonyMouse 8y ago
    They could do the calculation based on the amount and type of driving done by the median driver. Then this would be a good approximation for most people and the outlier who knows they drive twice that many miles could double the number etc.
    - simion314 8y ago
      But this should not be included in price, added as an extra value somewhere and it must be somewhere standardized so all companies would use same algorithm to calculate this value.
    - seszett 8y ago
      I think most people will get a better picture seeing the usual numbers like "4.8 l/100km urban, 4.5 mixed, 4.2 highway" than something like "median fuel cost per year 850€". Especially since you can't estimate the future price of fuel.
      - AnthonyMouse 8y ago
        The problem with l/100km is that you can't compare it to purchase prices without doing math, which makes it less intuitive. This is especially true once you're no longer comparing the same units even between vehicles. It's much easier to compare euros with euros than having to compare euros with l/100km and kWh/100km. Moreover, it's possible to make a plausible fuel price estimate based on current and historical prices, and if it turns out to be wrong then it wouldn't be any less wrong for having the buyer calculate it instead of the seller.

by kylec 8y ago

gok 8y ago

A reasonable guess would be fine. It's what appliances are required to do, for example.

unwind 8y ago
It's reasonable to assume that a fridge or freezer is powered on 24/7/365. For a car there simply cannot be a correspondingly safe assumption, can there?
- gok 8y ago
  A TV, dishwasher, or laundry machine is a better corollary. Everyone uses theirs at a different rate but they still put a reasonable guess at yearly cost on the Energy Star label.
  - spiralx 8y ago
    But the variation between lowest and highest usage and cost for a TV or dishwasher is going to be far less than it is for the cost of fueling a car, there's a huge difference between someone who uses the car for a few short journeys a few times a week and someone who drives hundreds of miles almost every day for work.
- AnthonyMouse 8y ago
  They could do the calculation based on the amount and type of driving done by the median driver. Then this would be a good approximation for most people and the outlier who knows they drive twice that many miles could double the number etc.
  - simion314 8y ago
    But this should not be included in price, added as an extra value somewhere and it must be somewhere standardized so all companies would use same algorithm to calculate this value.
  - seszett 8y ago
    I think most people will get a better picture seeing the usual numbers like "4.8 l/100km urban, 4.5 mixed, 4.2 highway" than something like "median fuel cost per year 850€". Especially since you can't estimate the future price of fuel.
    - AnthonyMouse 8y ago
      The problem with l/100km is that you can't compare it to purchase prices without doing math, which makes it less intuitive. This is especially true once you're no longer comparing the same units even between vehicles. It's much easier to compare euros with euros than having to compare euros with l/100km and kWh/100km. Moreover, it's possible to make a plausible fuel price estimate based on current and historical prices, and if it turns out to be wrong then it wouldn't be any less wrong for having the buyer calculate it instead of the seller.